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?’ ‘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 
ive 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. 
