WHY KEEP BEES 7 



which have been executed inexorably through count- 

 less centuries in the bee commune. 



Last, but by no means least, one may keep bees 

 because they belong to home life and should have 

 place in every well-kept garden or orchard. There 

 is no more beautiful domestic picture to be found in 

 the world than a fine garden with a row of holly- 

 hocks hiding the boundary fence and affording a 

 fitting background for a neat row of white hives. It 

 is not alone the aesthetic beauty the bees bring to the 

 garden which touches the deeper currents of feeling 

 and is productive of profound satisfaction ; it is some- 

 thing more fundamental; for since the thyme of 

 Hymettus yielded nectar, the happy hum of the bee 

 has yielded comfort to the human senses. The 

 garden without bees seems ever to lack something; 

 mayhap, the silent longing of the flowers for their 

 friendly visitors, intangible but real, so permeates 

 the place that we are dimly conscious of it. Be 

 that as it may, the perfect garden can only be attained 

 through the presence of happy and populous bee- 

 hives. 



