REFUTATION OF DUCARNe's OBJECTIONS. 417 



generally happens that the old hives, which have not been 

 turned topsy-turvy, are pillaged by the others, and even 

 sometimes by the bees, which are transported on other car- 

 riages." M. Ducarne also says, "that the honey obtained 

 from buck-wheat is of little value, and sells for half the price 

 of the other honey." 



The objections of M. Ducarne are, however, easily 

 answered ; for, in the first place, he never tried the system 

 of removing the hives to a fresh pasturage, and his conclu- 

 sions are therefore drawn from the vague opinions of others, 

 In regard to the circumstance, that the plan of removal only 

 succeeded in one instance, it is very probable that in the 

 other cases, a combination of circumstances might have 

 taken place unfavourably to the collection of honey. Some 

 years are certainly not favourable to the removal of hives, 

 and if it should happen to be undertaken in any of those 

 years, the system itself must not be blamed for the failure. 

 The proprietor has it always in his power to make himself 

 acquainted with the richness or poverty of the pasturage to 

 which he is going to remove his hives ; for as the secretion 

 of the mellifluous juice depends in a great measure on the 

 temperature of the season, it may happen, that although the 

 extent of the pasturage be probably such as to warrant the 

 proprietor in the expectation of a great harvest of honey, yet 

 particular circumstances may coalesce to defeat that expect- 

 ation, and with which the proprietor ought in some mea- 

 sure to have been acquainted, previously to the removal of 

 the bees. We are also particularly surprised at the assertion 

 of M. Ducarne, that the old hives are often pillaged during 

 their removal, and on their arrival at the place of their pas- 

 turage. It is universally known, and M. Ducarne cannot 

 have been ignorant of the fact, that the bees never take to 

 the nefarious system of pillage as long as there is any honey 

 to be found in the fields. 



Respecting the great loss which the proprietors are said 



