350 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



hour with profitable study. Try it. 

 If you are country born and bred 

 thoughts will arise that words cannot 

 express, and you will see effects in the 

 photograph that light has not produce 

 and cannot produce. 



Photograph of a March Thaw. 



BY ZELLA SCOTT, BROCKPORT, NEW YORK. 



This picture of trees was taken about 

 one mile west of Churchville, Monroe 



to a nucleus you watch for the virgin to 

 hatch. When it is time for this you 

 look at the cell, it is open at the end and 

 the lid hangs down attached by a hinge. 

 You know the queen is there all right 

 but still you want to have a look at her ; 

 you find her large and long and you 

 think; isn't she a beauty? After a few 

 days you look again to see if she is 

 laying ; there are no eggs so you look 

 for the queen ; there she is with a more 



A PHOTOGRAPH WORTH CAREFUL STUDY. 



County, New York, along Black Creek, 

 during a March thaw. 



At that time I was studying "Design 

 and Composition" at Mechanics Insti- 

 tute, Rochester, New York, and I 

 thought the scene would make a fitting 

 illustration for my notebook on "Shape 

 Harmony." An enlargement was ex- 

 hibited at the Rochester Camera Club 

 Exhibition ,and I received honorable 

 mention in Boston for composition, my 

 picture being too small to enter the reg- 

 ular contest. 



Queen Rearing Is Fascinating. 



BY E. L. BARBER, LOWVILLH, NEW YORK. 



All phases of bee-keeping are fasci- 

 nating, but to me queen rearing is par- 

 ticularly so. How interesting to watch 

 the cells accepted, then grow large, 

 long, white and beautiful ; to see, just 

 before they are sealed, the big fat larva 

 curled up on a lump of royal jelly, 

 three times as much as it can possibly 

 use. Then after being sealed and given 



matronly and dignified appearance ; you 

 know she has mated and will be laying 

 in a few hours. Next day when you 

 look again there are eggs all pointing 

 in one direction ; you put her in the 

 mailing cage and envy the fellow who 

 buys her. 



It has been said that there are two 

 kinds of work in the world, that which 

 men do strenuously for their daily bread, 

 and that which they do joyously for 

 their recreation. In bee-keeping the 

 two are combined ; people are some- 

 times forced by circumstances into 

 uncongenial employments, but I cannot 

 imagine any one taking up bee-keeping 

 under compulsion. With me it is first 

 a labor of love before it is a business. 

 After I had been the happy possessor of 

 bees for . several years I felt myself 

 quite learned in the subject, being in 

 some degree like one of Tennyson's 

 characters, crammed with theories out 

 of l)Ooks. That pleasant feeling depart- 

 ed long ago, crowded out by a growth 



