CHAPTER XVI 
THE MODERN BEE-FARM 
T is well enough to consider the scientific side 
of hive-life for its intrinsic interest, to treat it 
for what it really is—one of the most absorbing 
studies available for leisure hours. But the honey- 
bee is something more than a wonder-maker, or 
a peg on which to hang dilettante moralisms. 
Rightly treated and exactly understood, she can 
be made of great use in the world. 
There are two things in this England of ours 
which profoundly astonish all who love bees, and 
have a true conception of their possibilities. 
Travel where you may in the land, the last thing 
you are likely to meet with is a bee-farm, or even 
a few hives in a cottage-garden; while every yard 
of your way has its nook of blossom, and every 
mile its stretch of flowery pasture, where, in sober 
truth, tons of honey are annually running to waste. 
All this could be garnered and sold to the people 
at little trouble and great profit, if only enterprise 
would wake up from its island-lethargy and stretch 
forth the hand. But the years dribble uselessly 
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