VARIOUS METHODS. ° 251 
years to over a million!* At this rate, our whole country 
might, in a few years, be over-stocked with bees; and even 
an increase of one-third, annually, would soon give us 
enough. 
488. All the methods of increase above given, and sev- 
eral others of less importance, were described by Mr. 
Langstroth years ago. He never hesitated to sacrifice sev- 
eral colonies, in order to ascertain a single fact; and it 
would require a large volume, to detail his various experi- 
ments on the single subject of artificial swarming. The 
practical bee-keeper, however, should never lose sight of 
the important distinction between an Apiary managed prin- 
cipally for purposes of observation and discovery, and one 
conducted exclusively with reference to pecuniary profit. + 
Any bee-keeper can easily experiment with movable-frame 
* The following calculation of possible profits from bee-culture, taken from 
*«Sydserff’s Treatise on Bees,’’ published in England, in 1792, is a perfect 
gem of its Kind: 
‘* Suppose a swarm of bees at the first to cost 10s. 6d., and neither them nor 
the swarms to be taken, but todo well, and swarm once every year’’—bees 
must be naughty, indeed, if they dare to do otherwise!—‘‘ what will be the 
product for fourteen years, and what the profit, if each hive is sold at 10a. 6d.? 
Years, Hives. Profits. 
BL QD, aseeetic lac thay ace gts daarmagdacnes 4300 16 0 
‘*N.B.—Deduct 10s. 6d., what the first hive cost, and the remainder will 
be clear profit; supposing the second swarms to pay for hives, labor, etc.’* 
The modesty with which this writer, who seems to have had as much faith in 
his bees as in the doctrine that ‘‘ figures cannot lie,’’ closes his calculation at 
the end of fourteen years, is truly refreshing. No bee-keeper, on such a royal 
road to wealth, could ever find it in his heart to stop under twenty-one years, 
by which time, probably, he would be willing to close his bee-business, by 
selling it for over two and three-quarter millions of dollars! The attention 
of all venders of humbug bee-hives, is respectfully invited to this antique 
specimen of the art of puffing. 
+ Professor Siebold says, that Berlepsch told him, that some of his hives 
**had been very much prejudiced by the various scientific experiments. ’’ 
