I am glad to find the subject of bees has been introduced; this has been a favourite study with me. I have a word or two to say under this head. I have kept bees for upwards of twenty years, and have tried every variety of hive that has been offered to notice during that time, with various success, never losing sight of the principle of never destroying a bee to obtain the honey. Of all the various descriptions of hives that have been submitted to public notice to obtain this important end, the "Improved Cottage Hive," as brought into notice in this country by my friend J.H. Payne, Esq., of Bury, Suffolk, in his little work entitled 'The Apiarian's Guide,' is, in my opinion, decidedly the most practicable for the cottager. During the past season I took from three common cottage hives, by means of caps, 38¾ lbs., 33½ lbs. and 32 lbs. of honey, of a very superior quality, without destroying a bee, for which I obtained 2s. per lb., and at the same time leaving an ample store of honey, for on the 1st of October these hives severally weighed, exclusively of the hive, board, &c, 24½, 24, and 28 lbs., being an abundant supply for their maintenance during the present winter. My brother in Rutland, upon the same plan, took from four cottage hives, leaving an average of 24 lbs. of honey for each stock,— 48¾ lbs., 48¾ lbs., 35 lbs. and 42¾ lbs., total 175 lbs. of honey of a very superior quality to that which is obtained by the barbarous mode of suffocation. My hives have consumed, from the 1st of October to the 31st of December, a trifle below 6 lbs. each stock, being about 2 lbs. per month; and I expect a similar diminution per month during this and the next month, after which the consumption will materially increase. The leading article in the last number of 'The Quarterly' is upon bees, and is highly interesting; I am quite rejoiced to find that this subject has at length attracted the attention of so powerful a journal. I hope and trust it may be the means, through the instrumentality of the rich, of placing in every cottage garden, a row of bee-hives upon the humane system. A few prizes annually given by the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of the kingdom would do wonders towards accomplishing so desirable an end. I have invariably found the cottager who keeps bees a steady and industrious man, indeed I think it impossible he should be otherwise, the lesson they inculcate must have a beneficial effect upon him, more particularly when the humane system is adopted.—J.D. Salmon; Godalming, January 9, 1843.
