The Bee-Master of Warrilow

The Bee-Master of Warrilow

Among the beautiful things of the countryside, which are slowly but surely passing away, must be reckoned the old Bee Gardensfragrant, sunny nooks of blossom, where the bees are housed only in the ancient straw skeps, and have their own way in everything, the work of the bee-keeper being little more than a placid looking-on at events of which it would have been heresy to doubt the finite perfection. To say, however, that modern ideas of progress in bee-farming must inevitably rob the pursuit of all its old-world poetry and picturesqueness, would be to represent the case in an unnecessarily bad light. The latter-day beehive, it is true, has little more sthetic value than a Brighton bathing-machine; and the new class of bee-keepers, which is springing up all over the country, is composed mainly of people who have taken to the calling as they would to any other lucrative business, having, for the most part, nothing but a good-humoured contempt alike for the old-fashioned bee-keeper and the ancient traditions and superstitions of his craft. Nor can the inveterate, old-time skeppist himselfthe man who obstinately shuts his eyes to all that is good and true in modern bee-sciencebe counted p. 14on to help in the preservation of the beautiful old gardens, or in keeping alive customs which have been handed down from generation to generation, almost unaltered, for literally thousands of years. Here and there, in the remoter parts of the country, men can still be found who keep their bees much in the same way as bees were kept in the time of Columella or Virgil; and are content with as little profit. But these form a rapidly diminishing class. The advantages of modern methods are too overwhelmingly apparent. The old school must choose between the adoption of latter-day systems, or suffer the only alternativethat of total extinction at no very distant date. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 63208
Author: Edwardes, Tickner
Release Date: Sep 15, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English