THE HONEY-BEE. 117 



elaboration does take place in the food with which 

 he had supplied his bees ; and that the sugar with 

 which he fed them had precisely the taste and flavour 

 of honey. Our experience, if we may venture to 

 differ in the matter from men so deservedly celebrated 

 for attainments in natural science, leads us, with 

 Hunter and Bonner, to a different conclusion. We 

 have repeatedly tasted the syrup of sugar, which we 

 had seen the bees taking from the feeding-trough, 

 and depositing in the cells, and could never discover 

 the slightest difference in any respect, at least so far 

 as taste and flavour are concerned. Perhaps the 

 liquid was clearer we sometimes imagined it was 

 if so, this constituted the only difference. 



The secretion of honey depends greatly on the 

 state of the atmosphere. During the prevalence o t 

 dry easterly winds, the fields present to the bees no- 

 thing but barrenness ; their out-door labours are sus- 

 pended, and but for the already hoarded stores, the 

 brood would be in imminent danger of starvation. 

 But when the weather is moist and sultry, and the 

 air charged with electricity, the circulation of this 

 vegetable fluid is considerably accelerated, and the 

 bees know well how to avail themselves of so favour- 

 able a juncture for collecting their treasure. Huber 

 remarks, that the collection is never more abundant 

 nor their operations in wax more active, than when the 

 wind is from the south, the air moist and warm, and 

 a storm approaching. Heat too long protracted, how- 

 over, and its concomitant drought, chill rains and 

 a north wind, entirely suspend the elaboration of 



