72 T^r.F.s. 



the experiment I would, from experience, recommend tlio 

 exj)erimentniist to Lave liis bottle of Imrtsliorn quite ready, 

 as it will in all })robal)ility be placed in immediate i-e- 

 qiiisition. 



Perhaps the best course is to let a veteran apiarian 

 perform a few necessary operations on the hive while the 

 novice looks on and discerns how the skilful operator, caring* 

 no more for the bees than for so many bluebottles, and treat- 

 ing the hives as unceremoniously as if they were milk-pails, 

 by a few quick and decided operations effects more in half an 

 hour than he himself would in a day. Only whatever in- 

 struction he receives from the veteran in question, let him 

 never learn one thing- of him — to destroy his bees with sulphur, 

 or, as they laconically but too accurately term the butchery, 

 to burn them. If he did, he would deserve to spend a few 

 minutes in the agreeable subterranean passages in Dover 

 Castle, with the brimstone shoots properly dressed with sul- 

 phur and lighted charcoal. 



There is another caution which is necessary, and that is 

 if you take up some particular hobby, as you certainly will 

 if you are really enthusiastic on the subject, do not ride 

 it too fast. It is astonishing how people deceive themselves 

 when their hobby is called in question. For instance, one 

 celebrated bee-fancier made wooden hives his particular 

 hobby, and utterly decried all varieties of straw, finishing 

 his argument with a triumj)hant query as to whether bees 

 when in a state of nature preferred a hollow tree, or a truss 

 of hay for a residence — forgetting in the exuberance of his 

 enthusiasm that trusses of hay are not generally found in 

 those countries where bees hive in a state of nature, and that 

 if they were, it is very seldom the case that a truss of hay 

 contains a hollow large enough for a hive of bees to repose 

 themselves in. It would, however, be an interesting experi- 

 ment to place in those forests of America where the wild bee 

 is found several straw hives, in order to see whether the bees 

 would take to them, as wrens will take to an empty pumpkin 

 or a little box with a hole in the side. 



Having now detailed a few of the measures to be pursued 

 in bee-management, we will proceed to a still more pleasing 

 occupation, that of ascertaining what may be the 



