THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 53 



are hived. Many amateurs would take to bee-keeping if they could 

 see their way clearly to the first start, but that appears to them 

 wrapped in mystery. If they think of building a bee-shed and 

 buying the bees, the question arises, What am I to do with them 

 then ? I should like to answer that question at once, before we go 

 into practical matters. The best you can do with them is to leave 

 them alone. But you must admire them, or they will not thrive ; 

 you must visit them, watch them, take an interest in them ; m a 

 word, you must become used to them, and they will become used 

 to you," and you and they will get along very well together. It is 

 the master's eye that makes the horse fat ; it is the bee-keeper's 

 love that makes docile bees and heavy honeycombs, and gives a 

 suitable tune to the music of the morning. This is no dream. I 

 paid dearly for the knowledge of it. ^N hile I could pet my bees 

 they throve, and were a comfort to the houseliold ; when travel and 

 care kept me much away from them they went to ruin, and were 

 not only a discomfort, but discreditable. As a preliminary advice, 

 then, I say, if you are not likely to give the bees a little of jour 

 time, and especially if you are not likely to be at hand for hiving a 

 swarm and for takinir honey at the proper time, don't begin bee- 

 keeping, for assuredly you will soon be sick and tired of the 

 business. " They want a deal of shepherding," said an old country- 

 man who knew all about it ; and, in truth, the shepherding is the 

 chief joy of the apiary, and renders bee-keeping the most delightful 

 of all rural pursuits. 



Tou have determined to begin, and you must settle where the 

 hives are to be placed. Now, let me warn the novice, that, if bees 

 are put " out of the way" because they shall not hurt anybody, 

 they will never prosper, and they will become so wild that you will 

 find them very troublesome to deal with. They ought to be in the 

 'wai/. Or, to put the case diiferently, they ought to be in a. position 

 to see human beings constantly ; and it is all the better if there is 

 a constant traffic in front of the hives, at a distance of a dozen 

 yards or so from them. Bees that see much of human society— if 

 only the garden boy trudging to and fro with the wheelbarrow — 

 become quite tame and gentle, so that you may take one off the 

 alighting-board, and imprison it in your hand for five minutes, and 

 it will not sting you ; while bees that lead a lonely life, and never 

 see the human form divine, grow so savage that they can only be 

 approached by a courageous bee-keeper, clothed with protective 

 harness. There was never in the world a more successful apiary — 

 all things considered— than mine at Lordship Terrace, and that stood 

 within ten or twelve feet of a walk that was constantly traversed. 

 The bees had to fly over this walk on their way to the open country ; 

 and there never were bees more gentle and manageable, as hundreds 

 of friends can testify. That the proximity to traffic did not interfere 

 with their work, was made evident by the splendid boxes of white 

 honey I was enabled to exhibit, and of these reports have appeared 

 in the Eloral Woeld. The second item of advice can hardly bo 

 mistaken. Find a place facing any point of the compass, except 

 due north, in a spot where there ia a frequented walk or play- 



Febroary. 



