366 COMPARATIVE BENEFIT OF DEPRIVATION. 



an actual benefit, would perhaps be at the end of the season 

 a better hive than that which has been removed. 



" We will however make a calculation of the produce of 

 this method, compared with that produced by suffocation. 

 We will suppose a person having ten hives, and according to 

 the removing system, each will produce twelve pounds of 

 honey, amounting in the whole to 120 pounds, and the pro- 

 prietor will have in his possession twenty hives, ten old and 

 ten of the current year: the 120 pounds of honey may be 

 valued at 97., and the twenty hives at 20Z. 



"According to the suffocating system, each of the ten 

 hives will produce thirty pounds of honey, amounting to 300 

 pounds, and the proprietor will have ten first swarms, and 

 ten of the second and third, supposing the two latter to be 

 joined. The 300 pounds of honey will amount to 22Z. 10s., 

 and the hives to 20/. Thus a considerable difference is 

 manifest : the public are put into possession of 300 pounds 

 of honey, the proprietor has realized 22/. 10s. in money, and 

 twenty hives as his stock for the ensuing year." 



The statement of M. La Grenee appears at the first view 

 to be very plausible, but we will contrast it with the follow- 

 ing calculation. Let it be granted that M. La Grene'e has 

 obtained by suffocation forty pounds from his hive, whilst 

 we by deprivation have obtained only ten. The advantage 

 is apparently much in favor of M. La Grenee ; but let 

 it be taken into consideration, that he has killed his bees, 

 whilst ours are in a state of preservation *. In regard to 

 swarms we stand upon the same footing ; we have both ob- 



* In the transactions of the Western Apiarian Society, one of the aims of 

 which was to encourage deprivation, there is an account of a Mr. W. A. Bar- 

 net, who from twelve hives obtained 3181bs. of honey-comb, and in the 

 same year from the hives of his friends he took 16S71bs. 4oz. of comb, mak- 

 ing altogether 20051bs. of comb, and every one of the hives survived. It 

 is wrth great regret that we learn that this society, whose exertions were so 

 great and meritorious in the encouragement of the culture of the bee, is no 

 longer in existence. 



