We live in a practical age. Proposals of all sorts are too often, right
or wrong, weighed against gold:--"How much will it bring? Can I turn a
penny by this business?" I do not pretend to say bee-masters are rich
men, or that the way to a fortune is through a bee-hive; but I do assert
that a poor parish minister, vicar, or curate with a little glebe--a
cottager who works all day for the squire--or maiden ladies who desire
to engage in very delightful and loving labour--may add to their little
income or stipend or dividend from ten to twenty pounds a year. To
half-pay officers I would earnestly recommend bee-keeping. It would keep
them out of those wild speculations into which, from their inexperience
in business matters, they are so frequently and ruinously drawn, by
giving them an interest, which would soon become a passion, in studying
and conferring with a new family, besides yielding them a few spare
sovereigns for personal use or charity. For white cells filled with honey
in glasses--than which nothing more elegant or picturesque can be placed
on a breakfast-table--one can obtain in June two shillings, and even two
shillings and sixpence, a pound. For honey later in the season one and
sixpence a pound may be easily had; and where the proprietor prefers to be
his own consumer, he may dispense with bacon and butter, and take what is
far more wholesome--honey--at breakfast. It is a fair average to calculate
on fifteen pounds of surplus produce from each hive, if properly attended
to. I do not see why our country should not be a "land flowing with milk
and honey," or why we should import so much honey and wax from abroad,
exporting good money in return, when so many flowers lift their beautiful
blossoms, waiting and longing to be kissed and rifled by visitors they
love so well. It should not be forgotten, too, that bees do immense good
to flowers; some think they introduce one to another, and celebrate the
marriage of the flowers. This, however, is certain: flower-gardens are
immensely benefited by bees, and therefore every lover of flowers and
proprietor of gardens should never drive away or destroy a bee; for the
visitor is not only collecting honey for his bee-master, but adding to the
variety, fragrance, and beauty of the flowers of their owner.
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