230 MANAGEMENT IN WINTER. 



clergyman, author of " Le Conservateur des Abeilks* 

 and the discoverer of this supposed fact, shall speak 

 for himself. We have never put his discovery to the 

 test of experiment at least with such minute accu- 

 racy as to warrant us in drawing conclusions, either 

 affirmative or otherwise. But from the detail which 

 M. Gelieu gives, there appears no great difficulty in 

 settling the point heyond all douht, whatever there 

 may be in ascertaining the reasons for it, if well- 

 founded. " I expected," says M. Gelieu, fe that in 

 doubling the population, it would be necessary to 

 double the supply too. The more mouths, said I to 

 myself, the more need of provisions. I consequent- 

 ly made a considerable addition to the stores of the 

 hives whose population I had augmented; but, to 

 my astonishment, when I weighed them at the re 

 turn of spring, I found that their consumption had 

 been no greater than that of the single hives. I 

 thought I must surely have made some mistake, and 

 was not convinced of the fact till I had repeated the 

 same experiment a hundred times, and always with 

 the same result. I cannot conceive how an army of 

 30,000 men can subsist on the supplies necessary for 

 an army of only 10,000, supposing the soldiers of 

 both to have an equal appetite, and equal means of 

 satisfying it. It holds true, however, with the bees ; 

 the fact is undeniable ; the reason is to me unknown. 

 I leave to minds more penetrating than mine the 

 task of discovering and explaining how two large 

 families, when united, can live at as little expense as 

 either of the two would have done when separated. 



