CHAPTER XVIII. 



BEES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE.* 



The benefits derived by both agriculturists and horti- 

 culturists from the labours of the bee are now very 

 generally understood and acknowledged ; but still, cases 

 have sometimes occurred, though rarely, of farmers 

 objecting to the vicinity of an apiary, and complaining 

 of bees as " trespassers," instead of welcoming them 

 as benefactors. 



ARE BEES TRESPASSERS? 



It is not, perhaps, surprising that at first a man 

 should imagine he was being injured in consequence of 

 bees gathering honey on his land, to be stored up 

 elsewhere, and for the use of other parties; he nilght 

 argue that the honey belonged by right to him, and 

 even jump at the conclusion that there was so much of 



* This paper, which constituted the nineteenth chapter of 

 the third edition of this Manual, was an attempt, and I have 

 reasons for believing a successful attempt, to clear up 

 several misunderstandings that had arisen in the minds of 

 some farmers who had come to regard the working of our 

 neighbours' bees in their pasturage as detrimental to them- 

 selves, and to prove on the contrary that it is really to their 

 interests to encourage bee-keeping. Shortly after- the paper 

 was first published the subject was brought prominently 

 forward in consequence of the action taken by a farmer in 

 the United States to claim damages from a neighbouring 

 bee-keeper for alleged injury done to his grazing sheep by 

 trespassing ( ?) bees. Needless to say, he lost his case. 

 The paper has been extensively quoted in several American 

 bee journals, and described as a " unique and valuable 

 addition to bee literature." I trust it may still serve a good 

 purpose in this country, where it first appeared. — I.H. 



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