xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



as a manufactured article or as an agricultural product, 

 is obtained under economical conditions of exceptional 

 advantage. If regarded as a manufactured article, we 

 notice that there is no outlay required for "labour," 

 nor any expense for "raw material." The industrious 

 labourers are eager to utilise all their strength ; they 

 never " combine " except for the benefit of their master, 

 they never " strike " for wages, and they provide their 

 own subsistence. All that the master-manufacturer of 

 honey has to do financially is, to make a little outlay 

 for "fixed capital" in the needful "plant" of hives 

 and utensils; no "floating capital" is needed. Then, 

 on the other hand, if we regard honey as an agricul- 

 tural product, it presents as such a still more striking 

 contrast to the economists' theory of what are the 

 "requisites of production." Not only is there no outlay 

 needed for wages, and none for raw material, but 

 there is nothing to be paid for "use of a natural agent.'' 

 Every square yard of land in the United Kingdom may 

 come to be cultivated, as in China, but no proprietor 

 will ever be able to claim " rent " for those " waste 

 products " of the flowers and leaves which none but the 

 winged workers of the hive can ever utilise. 



The recent domestication in England of the Ligurian 

 or Italian Alp bee adds a new and additional source 

 of interest to bee-culture. We have therefore gone 

 pretty fully into this part of the subject; and believe 

 that what is here published with regard to their intro- 



