FIFTY YEARS A^IOXG THE BEES 



11 



essary was to take a plate and knife and cut it out, a 

 <loor for that purpose being in one side of the palace. The 

 plate and knife were never called into requisition, the 

 magnitude of the task of filling that palace being so great 

 that the bees concluded to die rather tli.in to undertake it. 

 ?\Iany years after, I saw at the hnne of an intelligent 

 farmer near Marengo the exact Cwimterpart of that bee- 

 palace, which an oily-tongued vender had just induced 

 him to purchase. 



Fig. 3 — Jl'idc Frame. 



Notwithstanding my utter ignorance of bees, I began 

 to feel some immediate interest in the bees in that barrel. 

 I put them in the cellar, and at some time in the v.inter 

 I went to a bee-keeping neighbor, James F. Lester, and 

 with no little anxiety told him that some disease had 

 appeared among my bees, for I found under them a con- 

 siderable quantity of matter much resembling coarsely 

 ground cofifee. He quited my fears by telling me it was 

 all right, and nothing more than the cappings that the 



