ENEMIES OF BEES. 
237 
Others .affirm that our colonies are too numerous to find 
sufficient food. That neither of these reasons account for 
the change, will be subsequently shown. Others lay all 
the blame on the moth, and others still, on our departure 
from the old-fashioned mode of keeping bees. 
It is undoubtedly true that the moth so super-abounds 
in many districts, that no profit can be derived from 
managing bees in the simple way which was once so suc¬ 
cessful. Often the old bee-keeper, after hiving his swarms, 
never looked at them ag.ain until the Fall, when all 
the colonies which had too few bees, or were too light to 
survive the Winter, were condemned to the brimstone 
pit. Some of the he<aviest were also killed for the sake 
of their honey, and the very best were reserved for stock 
hives. 
In a newly-settled country, where weeds are almost 
unknown, the farmer who plants his corn and “ lets it 
alone,” may often harvest a renumer!itive crop. If, in 
process of time, as the weeds increase, he continues to 
plough and plant in the “good old way,” he will only bo 
laughed .at for complaining that the pestiferous weeds have 
caused his corn to “run out.” And yet, with equal 
folly, many bee-keepers do not understand why plans 
which answered when moths were unknown or were very 
scarce, c.annot be made to succeed at the present time. 
If the old plans had been rigidly adhered to, the 
ravages of the moth, destructive as they must h.ave been, 
would never liave been as gre.at as they now are. The 
ttse of patent hives has contributed to Jill the land with 
myrlntls in the noble proves And forests that skirt and intersect the prnirles, a^d 
extend alon^ the alluviul bottoms of the rivers. It sooins to mo ns if these buanti- 
fill rogitnis iinswor litorally to tlio description of the iatid of promise—‘n hind flow- 
liijr with milk uud honey;' for tho rich pusturaj^e of the prairies is culculalod to 
tustal'j lierds of cattle as ct>untless as the san Is upon tho sen-shore, while the 
flowers with which they are enainolied render tliem a very paradise for tho ncoUir* 
Becking 1 >‘;c."—Wa»uinuton Iuviko, I'oUd on, Hid Chap. IX, 
