BEES, BEE-HIVESj AND BEE CULTURE. 23 



who was an inhabitant of Spalding, in Lincolnshire. Having 

 been disabled during a considerable period by rheumatic fever, 

 he devoted all his attention to bees, at a time when bee- 

 culture was but little valued; and, although it must be admitted 

 that two boxes were used side by side long before Mr. Nutt's day, 

 still it is due to him to state that the adoption of three boxes was 

 entirely his own idea, and that as far as he then knew, the collateral 

 system was his original invention. His statements have been severely 

 criticised, and it does appear that the weight of honey which he 

 names as having been produced in one season is perfectly incredible. 

 But as in the district where he lived there is grown an immense 

 quantity of mustard seed — the flowers of which afford excellent forage 

 for bees — the honey harvests there, would doubtless, be very large. 

 If Mr. Nutt has given his little favourites too much praise, it wiU be 

 only charitable, now, to account for his statements by an excess of 

 zeal and enthusiasm in this his study of bee-culture. It may be that 

 the golden harvests he spoke and wrote of have been so far useful 

 that they have induced many to commence bee-keeping, some of 

 whom, whilst they condemned his statements, have themselves written 

 really useful and practical works on the subject, which otherwise 

 might possibly never have appeared. As the monks of old kept 

 the lamp of religion burning, however dimly, until a more enlight- 

 ened age, so Thomas Nutt may have assisted in a somewhat similar 

 manner by energetically propounding his views, and thereby causing 

 other apiarians to rise up whose names are now as familiar to us as 

 household words, and whose works posterity will value. The writer 

 of these pages has often accompanied Mr. Nntt on his visits to his 

 patrons in the neighbourhood of liondon, and seen him perform 

 his operations regardless of the anger of bees, and free from all 

 fear of their stings. He often expatiated on the cruelty of the 

 brimstone match and suffocation, denouncing the barbarous custom 

 in the following terms : — " You may as well kill the cow for her 

 milk, or the hen for her eggs, as the bee for its honey ; why con- 

 tinue to light the fatal match, when every cottage in England has the 

 means of saving this most useful and valuable insect ?" 



