PRACTICAL TREATISE ON BEES. 



CHAPTER I. 



On Bees in general. 



I SHALL wave a description of the different species of 

 Bees disseminated throughout the natural world by 

 the great Author of Nature, and confine my remarks 

 solely to the common Bee, or honey fly ; particu- 

 larly, as the most social, sagacious, interesting and 

 useful, of all the instinctive tribes of animals. 



The Abbe Rosier, one of the best informed of the 

 French agriculturists, particularizes four species of 

 the domestic Bees. The first species are very long- 

 arid brown; the second are less, and almost black; 

 the third are still less, and of a grey colour ; the 

 fourth are still less, and of a bright yellow, shining 

 and polished, and known only in Flanders. 



The Bee rises with the dawn, and rests only at the 

 dusk of evening, and continues her industry through- 

 out the year, in all countries where the frosts of win- 

 ter do not impede her labours. The Bee is the only 

 insect whose sagacity has taught us, that honey con- 

 stitutes the essence of the blossoms of plants, and by 

 her industry has imparted to man the luscious boon. 

 The whole vegetable world is the garden of the Bee, 

 and her cell her store-house. 



The community of the Bees is the first, the great- 

 est, and best example in nature, of a perfect commu- 

 nity In their harmony and good order, mutual en- 

 terprisc, and efforts to promote the general good, in 

 their ardour of .pursuit in quest of stores, ?o lono 



