250 ENEMIES OF EEES. 



to the labors of the bee : others, that we have overstocked 

 our farms with bees, so that they cannot find sufficient food. 

 That neither of these reasons will account for the change, I 

 shall prove more at length, in my remarks on Honey, and 

 when I discuss the question of overstocking a district with 

 bees. Others lay all the blame upon the bee moih, and others 

 still, upon our departure from the good old-fashioned way of i 

 managing bees. That the bee-moth has multiplied astonish- 

 ingly, is undoubtedly true. In many districts, it so supera- 

 bounds, that the man who should expect to m'anage bees with 

 as little care as his father and grandfather bestowed upon 

 them, and yet realize as large profits, would find himself 

 wofully mistaken. The old bee-keeper often never loooked 

 at his bees, after swarming season, until the lime came for 

 appropriating their spoils. He then carefully " hefted" his 

 hives, so as to be able to judge as well as he could, how 

 much honey they contained. All which were judged too 

 light to survive the Winter, he at once condemned ; and if 

 any were deficient in bees, or, for any other reason, appear- 

 ed to be of doubtful promise, they were, in like manner, 

 sentenced to the sulphur pit. A certain number of those con- 

 taining the largest supplies of honey, were also treated in the 

 same summary way ; while the requisite number of the very 

 besi, were reserved to replenish his stock another season. 

 If the same system precisely, were now followed, a number 

 of colonies would still perish annually, through the increased 

 devastations of the moth. 



The change which has taken place in the circumstances 

 of the bee-keeper, may be well illustrated, by supposing that 

 when a country was first settled, weeds were almost un- 

 known. The farmer plants his corn, and then lets it alone, 

 and as there are no weeds to molest it, at the end of the 

 season he harvests a fair crop. Suppose, however, that in 



