§ xii.] GENERAL REMARKS. 333 



The "humane" apiarian will reason with them in vain 

 until he shows them a monster skep of honey and men- 

 tions the price that it will fetch in the market. When 

 convinced that the depriving system will pay, the cottager 

 will gladly adopt it. 



Advice for Cottagers, etc. 

 A writer in the Quarterly Beview (whose article has 

 since been published by Mr. Murray as a shilling hand- 

 book, "The Honey Bee") gives the following good 

 advice : " Don't bore the cottager with long lectures ; 

 don't heap upon him many little books ; but give him a 

 hive of the best construction, show him the management, 

 and then buy his honey ; buy all he brings, even though 

 you should have to give the surplus to some gardenless 

 widow. But only buy such as comes from an improved 

 hive — and you cannot easily be deceived in this — one 

 which preserves the bees and betters the honey. Then, 

 when you pay Mm, you may read to him, if you will, the 

 wise rules of old Butler, exempli gratia : — 



" ' If thou wilt have the favour of thy bees that they sting thee 

 not, thou must not be unchaste or uncleanly ; thou must not come 

 among them with a stinking breath, caused either through eating of 

 leeks, onions, or garlic, or by apy other means, the noisomeness 

 whereof is corrected by a cup of beer ; thou must not be given to 

 surfeiting or drunkenness ; thou must not come puffing or blowing 

 unto them, neither hastily stir among them, nor violently defend 

 thyself when they seem to threaten thee ; but, softly moving by, thy 

 hand before thy face, gently put them by ; and, lastly, thou must be 

 no stranger to them. In a word (or rather in five words), be chaste. 



