180 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING 



feed bees in California, where they are worth a hun- 

 dred dollars a hive, but it won't pay here, where the 

 price of bees and honey is so much less. To this 

 objection I would say, try it in any place where bees 

 are kept. During a scarcity of honey, don't feed for 

 two or three days and then quit, but feed a portion 

 every day when no honey is obtained abroad, for one 

 season, and if the results are not highly favorable 

 (the cost being but trifling), cease to feed forever 

 after. 



Langstroth says, give him but plenty of good dry bee 

 combs, and he has found the very philosopher's stone 

 in bee keeping. I confess they are very valuable. I 

 would change this a little, however, and s&j, give 

 me plenty of honey, or saccharine matter of suitable 

 quality to feed with, and I will have a charm worth 

 two of his. With it I can make both bees and combs 

 in abundance ; without it, he may have the combs 

 but no bees, which would not be so very valuable. 



I trust my readers will bear with me for devoting 

 so much space to this one point in bee-keeping, and 

 in concluding this part of my subject, I venture 

 the prediction that time will fully demonstrate the 

 fact, that to make bee-keeping profitable in well 

 settled countries, it will be quite as necessary to pro- 

 vide them with food, in the manner described, or by 

 raising flowers to fill those intervals in the honey 

 harvest to which I have referred, as it is to provide 

 feed during a certain portion of the year for our 

 cattle. 



The prominent points in this chapter are original, 



