226 
GENERAL HONEY HARVEST. 
than the generous feelings of the delighted Naturalist. 
No doubt, reasoning analogically, we have the same 
right to destroy our bees, without being liable to the 
charge of inhumanity, as we have to take the life of 
our sheep or oxen. Both were designed for our use, 
and if the death of the animals is necessary to give 
us the full benefit of what was originally intended 
for our service, there is no inhumanity in fulfilling 
the designs of nature. At the same time, our 
humane feelings must be at a very low ebb indeed, 
if we can make use of this right without some 
degree of pain and regret, when the object to bo 
sacrificed to our benefit has been to us a source of 
innocent enjoyment; nay, it may be reasonably ex- 
pected, that the interest we feel in that object, will 
not only prevent us from destroying it wantonly and 
unnecessary, but will induce us anxiously to inquire 
whether the barbarous alternative may not be avoided 
in perfect consistency with our real advantage. 
Now, it is as clear as day, that the advantage of 
the owner is best consulted by saving the lives of his 
bees ; because, independent of the satisfaction of 
eschewing the odious task of sacrificing what we 
have long watched with so much anxiety, and con- 
templated with so much admiration, the conservative 
system yields as large, if not a larger produce than 
the destructive, with this additional advantage, that 
the honey is not deteriorated by the unwholesome 
fumes of the sulphur* made use of in suffocation ; 
* Objections are sometimes made to the free use of honey, 
that it is very apt to produce disorders in the stomach and 
