tions, imagined tliat bees were bred from 

 purest juices of the summer flowers. Virgil 

 expresses sometliing of this opinion in tlie 

 following from the fourtli boolc of liis 

 Georgics: ''Ciiiefly you will marvel at this 

 custom, peculiar to the bees, that they 

 neither indulge in conjugal embrace nor 

 softly dissolve their bodies in the joys of 

 love, nor bring fortli young with a mother's 

 throes; but they themselves, cull their pro- 

 geny with their mouths, from leaves and 

 fragrant herbs. They themselves raise up 

 a new king, and little sul)jeets, and build 

 new palaces of waxen realms." With all 

 these false notions of bees, the ancients 

 still possessed much valuable knowledge. 

 To Aristotle and Virgil we are indebted for 

 the first description of tlie Italian bees, 

 ■which, until recently had been regarded as 

 a myth. Virgil remarks as follows regard- 

 ing "tlie two varieties: "For the one looks 

 hideously ugly, as when a parched traveler 

 comes from a very dusty road and spits the 

 dirtoutof hisdry mouth. Theotherssbine 

 and sparkle with briglitness, glittering with 

 gold. This is the better breed. From these 

 at stated seasons of the sky, you may press 

 the luscious honey, yet not so luscious, as 

 pure and tit to correct tlie hard i-elish of the 

 grape." Again he says: '* There are two 

 sorts, the glorious with refulgent spots of 

 gold, and is distinguished both by his make 

 and conspicuous with glittering scales. The 

 other is horribly deformed with sloth, and 

 ingloriously drags a large belly." 



Aristotle lived three hundred years prior 

 to the Christian era. He wrote largely on 

 every department of natural history. His 

 pupil, Alexander the Great, placed at his 

 disposal large sums of money, and employed, 

 during bis campaign in Asia, more than a 

 thousand persons in collecting specimens 

 for his use from all parts of the animal 

 tingdom. From his pen and those of his 

 pupils we are indebted for much informa- 

 tion of value in bee-culture. Columella 

 about the commencement of the Christian 

 era, wrote a large work on "Husbandry," 

 in which he gives directions for the artificial 

 swarming of bees. Supplying queens to 

 destitute colonies. Transferring hatching 

 brood to weak colonies, and many other 

 useful operaticms of which the great multi- 

 tude of bee-keepers are ignorant to this day. 

 Varo and Pliny also wrote in a manner 

 •which pre-supposes quite a knowledge of 

 the brood-nest, all or which leads to the 

 belief that in those early classic days a very 

 advanced knowledge of bee-culture pre- 

 vailed. What is known in history as the 

 "dark ages" now came on, and for the 

 space of nearly fourteen hundred years no 

 progress was made in any department of 

 natural history, but on the contrary much 

 was lost. 



At the close of this dark era of mental 

 darkness t he celelirated John Ray appeared. 

 He collected and arranged all which sur- 

 vived of the previous productions on ento- 

 mology. Ray was succeeded by Linneus, the 

 inventor of "the binomial system of classifi- 

 cation which is still used by all investigators 

 of natural science. At the close of the 17th 

 century Swammerdain, Maraldi and Reau- 

 mur wrote extensively on bees and hives, 

 and Shirach, Reims and others still later. 



These writers discovered many of the 

 facts connected with the secret workings of 

 the hive, which contributed largely in rais- 

 ing the vail of ignorance which still en- 

 shrouded this industry and paved the way 

 for the prince of apiarians— the great Uuber, 

 who appeared about the close of the 18th 

 century, and with whose history every 

 apiarist, worthy the name, is more or less 

 acquainted. He it was who combining in 

 one the unicomb observation frames of his 

 day, removed their glass sides and gave to 

 the world the first movable frame bee-hive 

 in existence, and by the aid of which he 

 made those beautiful experiments which 

 placed the science of bee-keeijing on the 

 enduring basis of truth. Experiments 

 which established one by one nearly all the 

 wondrous facts connected with the natural 

 history of the honey bee, by the adoption of 

 which bee-keeping has gradually assumed 

 national importancein all civilized countries. 

 It is a fact thatthe blind Huber. through the 

 eyes of his faithful servant, Francis Bur- 

 nens, saw more and did more for rational 

 bee-culture than anyone man before or since 

 his time. The correct theory once estab- 

 lished, prominent naturalists adopted it. 

 Authors and inventors sprang up on every 

 hand, and movable frame hives of different 

 patterns were soon in use in various parts of 

 Europe. Munn, of England; Berlepsch, of 

 Germany, and De Bovois, of France, being 

 the most prominent, and all of whom have 

 written extensively on the subject of bees 

 and hives. It is estimated that from 

 Shirach up to about 1847, one-hundred and 

 tvifenty-four books were written on bee- 

 keeping. Apiaries sprang up of larger 

 dimensions than ever before; some noble- 

 man owning as high as eight thousand colo- 

 nies. The discovery of the refining of 

 sugar, made by the Venetians about the 

 middle of the l"6th century, was at this time 

 in full blast in Germany and served to dis- 

 tract attention from the production of lioney» 

 and sufficiently accounts for its decline 

 about this time. 



The engraving and description of the 

 Munn movable frame hive may be found in 

 "Cottage Gardener's Chronicle," London, 

 1843, page 317, also in the author's pamphlet 

 in 1844. The De Bovois' movable frame 

 hive, which was almost identical with 

 King's American bee-hive, is fully described 

 in the author's large book on apiculture^ 

 published in France, in 1847. The Ber- 

 lepsch hive invented in 1840, was greatly 

 improved in 1845, making it almost identical 

 with the Langstroth. lie further improved 

 it and puhli-ihed an illustrated description in 

 the Bienen Zeitimg, for May, 18.53. But 

 bee-cultuie in Europe was by no means 

 carried on principally by those using mova- 

 ble frames. On the contrary the great 

 majority used either the straw hive, wooden 

 gum or s<inare box, with bars crossing the 

 top, to which the combs were attached, and 

 then either the storifying. nadir and colla- 

 terial system were resorted to for surplus 

 honey. 



At one time in France bee-keeping was 

 deemed of so much iniporfance that in some 

 places laws were enacted rendering it 

 imperHtive on every cottager to keep at 

 least three hives of bees, or iu lieu thereof 



