OF NORTH AMERICA. 69 



The raifing of bees, for the purpofes of procuring 

 then- honey and their wax, may, at fotne future period, 

 become an objev^ of great importance to the United-States. 

 Surely then, it would be a matter of confequence to at- 

 tend to the cultivation or prefervation of thofe vegetables 

 which furnifh an innocent and a v/ell-flavoured honey, 

 and a good wax. But even in a more limited view of 

 the fubjeft, fome knowledge of thefe vegetables feems to 

 be indifpenfibly neceflary. And in the new fettlement, 

 whither the fettler has carried his bees, where improve- 

 ments are iHll very imperfect, it cannot be deemed a 

 trivial talk to have pointed out fome of thofe vegetables 

 from which an injurious honey is obtained. 



The ancients, who, in fome refpetls at leaft, were 

 equal to the moderns, appear to have paid much attention 

 to this fubjed:. Virgil* and Columella have both told 

 us what plants ought to grow about apiaries. It is un- 

 necelTary to repeat, in this place, what the two Roman 

 writers have faid on the fubje£t. The Georgics of the 

 Mantuan poet are in the hands of every man of tafte ; 

 and the work of Coiumella:|; fljculd be read, wherever 

 agriculture engages the attention of gentlemen. 



The proper management of bees may be confidered as 

 a fcience. It is not fufficient that bees merely make 

 honey and wax. Their honey may be injurions or poi- 

 fonous, and their wax may be nearly ufelefs. To affift, 

 and to diredl the labours of thefe little infedts, the know- 

 ledge and the hand of man are required. Let, then, this 



interefted 



tOKo. The gentleman from whom I received this information aflared me, 

 that the bees of Corficaare very fond of the flowers of the box, and that the 

 honey from this fource is reputed poifonous. The box is, unquefliouably, 

 a poifonous vegetable. But there is ftill a difficulty in the cafe, Virgil 

 mentions both taxus andbuxus. I think there can be no doubt that his 

 buxus (fe: Georgic. lib. 11. 1. 449.) is the buxus of the modern botimifts. 



* See Georgicorum, lib. IV. 1. 30.— 33. 



t De Re RuRica, libri XII. 



