VARIOUS METHODS. 261 



years to over a million!* At this rate, our whole country 

 might, in a few years, lie over-stocked with bees ; and even 

 an increase of one-third, annually, would soon give us 

 enough. 



488. All the metliods 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. t 

 Any bee-keeper can easily experiment with movable-frame 



* The following calculation of possib/e profits from laec-ciilture, taken from 

 *'Syd8erff's Treatise on Bees," published in England, iu 1792, is aperfect 

 gem of its kind : 



' ' Suppose a swarm of hees at the first to cost lOs. 6d. , and neither them nor 



the swarms to be taken, but to do "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 10s. 6d.? 



Years, Hloei, Piojitn. 



£ B. i 



I 1 



2 2 110 



3 i 2 2 



4 8 4 4 



«* *« « * * 



14 8192 4300 16 



" 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 refreshiog. 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. 



t Professor Siebold says, that Berlepsch told him, that some of his hives 

 "had been very much prejudiced by the various scientific experiments." 



