t 9' ] 



[If cheefe were the objcdl of the dairy, another 

 additional building, very differently conflru6lcd, 

 would be wantecl> which I do not here fpecify.] 



- The fmaller apartments, R and S, are merely 

 cavities formed in the thicknefs of the partition 

 wall, that may be employed for any ufe that fhall 

 be found convenient, the double doors on thefc 

 paflages being intended merely to cut off more 

 cffedlually all communication between the external 

 air and the milk-houfe, when either the great heat 



to that we experience in fummer; and m the fpring efpecially, it Fre* 

 quently happens that a warm morning is fuddenly changed to a nipping 

 froft, or (leety rain. During thefe mild intervals in winter, the bees 

 are roufed from their fleepy Hate, and being unable to get any food 

 abroad, they are under the neceflity of confuming the ftores they had 

 provided for themfelves, which being foon exhaufted they then perilh 

 for want. In the fpring alfo, when they are invited abroad by the 

 warmth of the weather, they in vain fearch for flowers from which 

 they might derive nourifhment, and are frequently chilled by the cold, 

 before they can return to the hive. No mode that can be conceived 

 is fo efTedual to prevent thefe accidents, as that of putting them into 

 an ice-boufe in the beginning of winter, where they might be kept till 

 the fpring was fo far advanced as that little danger was to be appre- 

 hended from bad weather. During all this time they would remain in 

 a ftate of torpor, fo as to have no need of food, and would be ready to 

 begin their labours with vigour in the fpring, when the mild weather 

 invited them abroad. Some will think that the cold of an ice-houfe 

 would make them perifli entirely ; but bees often experience in Ruflia 

 ai^d Poland a degree of cold that is fufficient to freeze cvin qiiick- 

 filver, without being killed, which is fo much beyond any cold that 

 ever takes place in a Britllh ice-houfe, as leaves no room for aojdcty 

 op that hcad^ 



or 



