444 HONEY PEODCCTIOK. 



on the hives ; though we may have extracted as much as 

 two thousand pounds in a day. 



There are seasons, in which a very slight continuation of 

 the honey crop, permits returning the combs, as fast as 

 they are extracted. In such seasons it causes no excite- 

 ment, and is much more convenient. 



782. Within two or three days after extracting, tlie bees 

 have cleaned the combs, and repaired them. But, to pre- 

 vent the moths from injuring them, we keep them on 

 the hives during the whole summer ; the bees take care of 

 them, and in the Winter, we pile up the cases, carefully 

 closed, in cold rooms, where the cold of Winter destroys 

 the eggs of the moth (802). 



In localities, where there are two distinct crops of honey, 

 each crop should be harvested separately. Thus, we al- 

 ways extract the the June crop in July, and the Fall crop 

 in September. 



Honey production, with the above methods, is so 

 successful that the problem for practical Apiarists is no 

 longer, how to produce large crops of honey, but how to 

 sell it (839). Extracted honey can certainly be pro- 

 duced, at less cost, than the cheapest of cane sugar, and it 

 can be truly said, that in the last thirty years, there has 

 been more progress in bee-culture, than in any other branch 

 of rural economy. 



783. As the wax of the cappings amounts to a little 

 more than one per cent, of the weight of the honey ex- 

 tracted, and as these cappings after they are well drained, 

 contain even a larger weight of honey fit to be converted 

 into vinegar when separated from the cappings by washing, 

 the expense of extracting is more than compensated. 



