54 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



his shoulder. If she has to carry it from the bottom of the 

 honey-box she takes it in a way I cannot explain better 

 than to say she slips it under her chin; when thus equipped 

 you would never know she was encumbered with anything, 

 unless it chanced to slip out, when she will dexterously tuck 

 it back with one of her forefeet. 



Honey-comb has been the delight of mathema- 

 ticians from the earliest ages. The plan on which it 

 is built, if perfectly carried out, would be the incar- 

 nate perfection of strength and space for holding 

 fluid contents. This fact so delighted the earlier 

 mathematicians that they set to measuring the 

 angles of the cells and their pyramidal bases, with 

 truly wonderful results. But with the later methods 

 of exact measurement it has been demonstrated 

 that the cells are rarely perfect in construction; and 

 that the angles, as well as the faces of the rhombs on 

 which they are built, vary. Because of this there 

 have been developed doubters and pessimists who 

 declare that honey-comb is the result of chance; 

 and that cells, crowded together, must, from the 

 nature of things, become six-sided; and that bees 

 are not mathematically wise. With this conclusion 

 we do not agree in the least, although we admit that 

 the fortuitously six-sided cell may have been a step 

 in the education of the bee-artisans. But we would 

 ask the pessimists to explain why, if all is chance, the 

 bees build so perfectly the central part of the comb 

 which forms the bases of the cells. This central 

 part is built first and is fashioned of rhombs, which 

 are made into alternating three-sided pyramids. 

 Who dare assert that reasonably perfect, alternating 



