AUTUMN MANAGEMENT. 199 
in our uncertain climate, be no general rule, though 
now and then I have known a very large amount 
obtained by deprivation. Payne says, as the result 
of his own experience with depriving hives, ‘It is 
usual to obtain from every good stock twenty or 
perhaps thirty pounds of honey annually.” This 
would be thought too high an estimate in many 
districts; as in my own, near London. It must be 
remembered that honey thus harvested sells at a 
higher rate than that procured by suffocating the 
bees, as in the common single hives; for then the 
brimstone not only imparts a disagreeable flavour, 
but there is no means of preventing the inter- 
mixture with the honey more or less of pollen and 
brood. 
After deprivation, the sooner the honey is ex- 
tracted from the comb the better, as it soon 
thickens, particularly if not kept warm. The 
favourite process now adopted for the accomplish- 
ment of this consists in the use of the honey-extractor, 
to a description of which the next section is devoted; 
but those who object to the cost of one of these 
instruments, can proceed by slicing the combs with 
a sharp knife, and then inverting them in a 
hair-sieve. The honey will of course run off the 
sooner if placed before a fire, but exposure to heat 
is injurious to fine flavour. We may here resort to 
the advice of Payne, who says, ‘‘ The honey should 
be put into jars, quite filled, and tied down with a 
bladder; for exposure to the air, even for a few 
hours, very much deteriorates its flavour. I may 
observe that honey in the combs keeps remarkably 
