The Worker 155 



the bees to death with brimstone, — a custom which has 

 justly merited the censure of all fair-minded people. 



Langstroth warmly exclaims ; " Killing bees for their 

 honey was, unquestionably, the invention of the dark ages, 

 when the human family had lost — in apiarian pursuits, as 

 well as in other things — the skill of former ages. In the 

 times of Aristotle, Varro, Columella, and Pliny, such a 

 barbarous practice did not exist. The old cultivators took 

 only what their bees could spare, killing no colonies, 

 except such as' were feeble or diseased. 



" The modern methods have again done away with these 

 customs among enlightened men, and the time has come 

 when the following epitaph, taken from a German work, 

 might properly be placed over every pit of brimstoned 



bees : — 



' Here rests, 



cut off from useful labor, 



A colony of 



Industrious Bees 



basely murdered 



by its 



ungrateful and ignorant 



Owner.' " 



Thorley inveighs against the brimstoning of bees : " With 

 the utmost Cruelty, Injustice, and inexcusable Ingratitude, 

 destroying them, if not with Fire and Sword, yet with Fire 

 and Sulphur, by Thousands and Ten Thousands, without 

 the least Remorse. 



" Thus at once to despoil them of their Riches, and sacri- 

 fice their dear Lives, must be barbarous indeed ; and to 

 famish them to Death, is far worse than simple Suffocation." 



And again he says : — 



" The common, but cruel method of taking Hives, at this 

 Season of the year, is by burning with Fire and Brimstone, 

 to which I can by no means be reconciled ; and here in 



