BEE MANUAL. 307 



part could, under any circumstances, have been consumed by 

 the grazing animals — so that it becomes a question of a few 

 ounces of fattening matter, more or less, for all the stock fed 

 upon an acre during the whole season ; a matter so ridiculously 

 trivial in itself, and so out of all proportion to the services 

 rendered to the pasture by the bees, that it may safely be left 

 out of consideration altogether. 



BEE-KEEPING AS A BRANCH OF FARMING. 



There is still one point which may possibly be raised by the 

 agriculturist or land-owner : " If the working of bees is so 

 beneficial to my crops, and if such a large quantity of valuable 

 matter may be taken, in addition to the ordinary crops, without 

 impoverishing my land, why should I not take it instead of 

 another person who has by right no interest in my crop or 

 my land J" The answer to this is obvious. It is, of course, 

 quite open to the agriculturist to keep any number of bees he 

 may think fit ; only he must consider well in how far it will 

 pay him to add the care of an apiary to his other duties. No 

 doubt every one farming land may, with advantage, keep a 

 few stands of hives to supply his own wants in honey ; the 

 care of them will not take up too much of his time, or interfere 

 much with his other labours ; but if he starts a large apiary 

 with the expectation that it shall pay for itself, he must either 

 give up the greater portion of his own time to it, or employ 

 skilled labour for that special purpose ; and he must recollect 

 that the profits of bee-keeping are not generally so large as to 

 afford more than a fair remuneration for the capital, skill, and 

 time required to be devoted to the pursuit. In any case, he 

 cannot confine the bees to work exclusively on his own pro- 

 perty, unless the latter is very extensive. When such is the 

 case, he may find it greatly to his advantage to establish one 

 or more apiaries to be worked under proper management, as a 

 separate branch of his undertaking ; but in every case, whether 

 he may incur or share the risks of profit and loss in working 

 an apiary or not, the thing itself can only be a source of 

 unmixed advantage to his agricultural operations, and con- 

 sequently, if he does not ocucpy the ground in that way 

 himself, he should only be glad to see it done by any other 

 person. 



