JANUARY. 45 



come down, and take it up ; and from time to time 

 the trough must be filled afresh. Many persons are 

 in the habit of laying honey in a plate near the 

 mouth of the hive, that the bees, in some occasional 

 hour of sunshine, coming out, may take it ; but this 

 is not only a very inferior, but a very dangerous 

 practice. The bees, feeble with winter cold, and 

 voracious with abstinence, greedily rush into the 

 plate, are easily entangled in the liquid, or upset by 

 the slightest puff of air, and suffocated. If a plate 

 of honey, or liquefied sugar, be ever placed by the 

 hive, it should be covered with a piece of writing- 

 paper snipped full of small holes, through which the 

 bees may suck the honey without danger ; but the 

 elder troughs are the safest and most effectual 

 things. 



In frosts, fish-ponds must have holes broken in the 

 ice, to allow the fish the necessary air. It will re- 

 quire, too, some watchfulness in those whose ponds 

 are well stocked, to prevent their being robbed ; for 

 the fish will come up to the holes for air, and are 

 easily taken in their benumbed state with the hand. 

 This the race of poachers know to good purpose. 

 I have seen a few grains thrown into these holes, 

 and the fish come in such quantities crowding to 

 them, that any number of the finest might be selected 

 and taken in a very short time. Deer in parks also 

 require the fostering care of man to supply them 

 with hay, branches of trees, etc. ; and game in the 

 woods demand frequently the same attention. Buck- 

 wheat is sown in the corners and open spaces in 



