Book VII. THE HONEY BEE. IO59 



writers to assert that grafting is necessary ; on the contrary, grafted mulberry trees are ' 

 held in France to be later in exfoliating and shorter lived than seedlings. (^Cmirs (CA^r. 

 ^-c, art. Murier.) 



6825. The produce of the worms or cocoons y as soon as completed, are either reeled off, 

 or, in the silk countries, sold to others, who make this a distinct trade. The silk, as 

 formed by the worm, is so very fine, that if each ball, or cocoon, was reeled separately, 

 it would be totally unfit for the purposes of the manufacturer ; in the reeling, therefore, 

 the ends of several cocoons are joined and reeled together out of warm water, which, 

 softening their natural gum, makes them stick together, so as to form one strong smooth 

 thread. As often as the thread of any single cocoon breaks, or comes to an end, its 

 place is supplied by a new one, so that by continually keeping up the same number, the 

 united thread may be wound to any length : the single threads of the newly added co- 

 coons are not joined by any tie, but simply laid on the main thread, to which they adhere 

 by their gum ; and their ends are so fine as not to occasion the least perceptible uneven- 

 ness in the place where they are laid on. The apparatus for reeling consists merely of a 

 small open kettle of water, under which is a fire to keep it hot, and a reel of a very 

 simple construction. Care should be taken in the operation, that the silk when reeled 

 off may consist of a smooth thread of equal thickness and strength, not flat, but of a 

 round form, having the small threads of which it is composed as equally stretched and 

 firmly united as possible ; and that the several'tounds as they lie on the reel, should not 

 be glued together. Wlien the skain is quite dry it is taken off the reel, and a tie is 

 made with some of the refuse silk on that part of the skain wherp it bore upon the bars 

 of the reel, and another tie on the opposite part of the skain, after which it is doubled 

 into a hank, and usually tied round near each extremity, when it is laid by for use or 

 sale. In this state, in which all the silk that is brought from India, and considerai)le 

 part of what comes from Italy and other parts, arrives, it is called raw silk ; the prin- 

 cipal part of it is afterwards sent to a mill to be thrown ; that is, to have two ends of it 

 doubled and twisted together, by which it is converted into tram, or organzine, accord- 

 ing to the fineness of the silk, and the purposes to which it is intended to be applied in 

 the manufacture. 



6826. The culture of silk in England has been attempted at various periods from the 

 time of James I., in 1608, to the present. A silk garden was established near St. 

 James's Palace in 1629, and another at Chelsea in 1718. As the mulberry tree is 

 scarce in some parts of this country, attempts have been made to feed the worms ou 

 other plants. Miss Croft, of York, in 1792, sent to the Society for the Encouragement 

 of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, a specimen of silk produced by worms fed 

 entirely upon lettuce leaves. This society continue to offer premiums for the produc- 

 tion of siik in this country ; and a company is now establishing, forgiving it a complete 

 trial, in several districts both of Britain and Ireland. 



6827. The common honey bee {Apis mellifica, L.) inhabits Europe in hollow trees, 

 but is chiefly kept in hives, being domesticated every where. Perhaps more has been 

 written on the economy of this insect, than on any other animal employed in agriculture ; 

 and certainly to very little purpose. After all that has been done in England, France, 

 and Italy, the bee is still more successfully cultivated, and finer honey produced, in 

 Poland, by persons who never saw a book on tlie subject, or heard of the mode of de- 

 priving bees of their honey without taking their lives. Much as has been written in 

 France and England on this last part of the subject, it is still foimd the best mode to de- 

 stroy the hive in taking the honey. Unanswerable reasons for this practice, are given by 

 La Gren6e, a French apiarian, which are elsewhere quoted by us at length, {Enct/c. of 

 Gard. art. Bees), and allowed to be conclusive as to profit, even by Huish. The iioney 

 produced by any hive or apiary, depends much more on the season, and the quantity 

 and kind of flowers with which the neighborhood abounds, than on the form of hive, 

 or artificial management. Viewing the subject in this light we shall avoid noticing 

 the mode of operating with glass, storying, cellular, or other curious hives of recent 

 invention ; and treat only of the simplest methods. The author we shall follow is 

 Howison. 



6828. The apian/ or place where the bee-hives are placed should in very warm situa- 

 tions be made to face the east ; and in colder districts the south-east. It should be well 

 protected from high winds, which not only prevent the bees from leaving the hive in 

 quest of honey, but they also surprise them in the fields, and often kill them by dashing 

 them against the trees and rocks, or into rivers. The hives in an apiary should always 

 be placed in a right line ; but should the number of the hives be great, and the situation 

 not capacious enough to admit of their being placed longitudinally, it is more advisable to 

 place theiTi over one another, on shelves, (Jig. 357.) than in double rows on the ground. 

 A bee, on leaving the hive, generally forms an angle of about forty five with the liorizon ; 

 the elevation of the hive should, therefore, be aboi^t two feet from the ground, in order to 



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