62 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



This shows you a Httle bee which searches out a snail shell 

 and uses that as a nest. It does not go to the trouble of digging 

 a hole in the ground. It lays its eggs in the different turns of 

 the snail shell, and then covers the shell with pine needles and 

 bits of straw to protect it from other insects. 



Here we have a very interesting condition of things because 

 we have several cells instead of one. This mother bee lives 

 until she sees the young hatch and grow, and this is said to be 

 the first example in bee development of real contact of mother 

 and child, and it forms an important step in the development 

 of the honey bee. 



Here is a very interesting thing. The nest which I have just 

 shown you, with several cells, belongs here. That is placed in 

 the ground, being reached by a tunnel down below. That tun- 

 nel does not end with this nest. It goes on below. We have 

 been set to thinking, trying to reason out why that hole went 

 on below. Some say it is for the purpose of allowing the bee, 

 when danger threatens, to run below. Not so, I believe. That hole 

 below the nest proper is for the purpose of draining the nest 

 of water and keeping it dry, and so we must with our honey bees 

 at all times keep them free from moisture. In fact, the reason 

 so many of them die during the winter is that they become 

 covered with moisture. 



Here we have a bumblebee's nest. You know that at one 

 time the growing of red clover was introduced in Australia but 

 it was found that from the clover grown in Australia seed could 

 not be produced. What was the reason ? The reason was this, 

 — that they had no insect to fertilize the clover. Along with 

 the clover they had to import the bumblebee, and after that 

 was done they had no further trouble in growing seed from 

 their clover. That shows you that the bumblebee is a most 

 valuable insect. It ought to be cared for much more than it is. 

 And indeed, we ought in this country to begin to develop a 

 honey bee with a long tongue which could do the same work 

 as the bumblebee now does. I want to tell you a very inter- 

 esting story about the bumblebee. If you visit the nest of the 

 bumblebee early in the morning you will find that above that 

 nest, which is mound-like above the ground, along about day- 

 light there appears a large bee, as it were on the roof of the 

 house, and he begins to fan his wings rapidly and make a buz- 



