258 INQUIRY CONCERNING 
that thefe infe&ts were not known in thefe countries before 
the whites began to fettle them, This..alone is a. very 
heavy load of evidence in fupport of my opinion. on. 
the fubje@&. The Indians,.as.Dhave.alseady: remarked.are 
by no means incurious obfervers. «Is it probable, therefore, 
that they fhould be miftaken on the fubje, efpecially when 
it is remarked that they are, in.. general, extremely fond . 
and voracious of honey?.. The bears are not more fo. . 
The honey-bee was not found in Kentuckey, when we.. 
firft became acquainted with that fine country.. But about 
the year 1780, a hive was brought, by a Colonel Herrod, 
to the Rapids. of the Ohio, fince which-time thefe little 
infeis have encreafed prodigioufly. Not.long fince, a hunt-. 
er found thirty w2/d {warms in the.courfe.of one day*. 
Honey-bees were not known in that part of the fate of 
New-York which is called the, Jeneffie-Country, when it - 
~was firft vifited, nor even for. a confiderable time. after. 
Of late, afew hives: have been introduced, and thefe will, . 
doubtlefs, foon extend themfelves through the country ; for - 
‘there are always fome difcontented.bees, which may be called. 
deferters from the hive. or-colony; whichroam in earch of 
flowers in the woods, and feem to preferas.an habitation, . 
the cavity of a tree to the artificial hive, in common ule. 
Thefe deferters are, I think, peculiarly difpofed.to fpread 
themfelves along the courfes.of the creeks and rivers. of 
our country, becaufe the fides of thefe waters are frequent- 
ly 
* It is worthy of obfervation, however, that as yet the hees-of Kentuckey do not make 
smuch honey. ‘Yo thofe which have relinquifhed the habitations of the fttlers, ‘and have en- 
creafed in the woods, taking poffeflion of the -cavitics of the foreft-trees, the. fpontaneous 
flowers of the woods afford but a fcanty portion of thefe fubftances from which the honey is 
formed. Nor do the cultivated bees manufacture a much larger. quantity -of this moft agree- 
able and ufeful article. The country of Kentuckey is but a recent fettlement; and although, 
in the fhort term of twenty-three or twenty-four years, the encreafe of its inhabitantshas been 
attonifhing}y rapid, great tracts of it {till continue nearly in the wild and unvaried itate in which 
jt came from the hands of him-who made it. ‘The cultivation of the Buckcheat is, but little 
attended to in Kentuckey. This, I have no doubt, is one of the principal reafons why the 
bees of this country do not manufi@ure much honey; for there is, perhaps, no plant to which 
the honey-bees in North-America are more attached than to the Buckwheat. 
