HONEY BEES THE PRINCIPLE OF OEDER. 215 



carry it home in the wonderful elastic baskets with which 

 their hind legs are furnished, and knead it into "bee,- 

 bread " as food for the young grubs. 



Some bee-masters think that each of these varied tasks 

 is performed by bees which are destined for it from the 

 time when they are hatched, just like the system of castes 

 among the Hindoos. 



Others, of equal experience, think that each bee takes 

 the whole of these labours in rotation, the nature of the 

 task depending on the age of the bee. Thus, the first 

 work of a bee is secretion of wax. Next comes the cell- 

 building, then the nursing of the young, then the attend- 

 ance on the queen, and lastly the foraging for food. 



Be this as it may, the result is the same, and the 

 principle of Order is equally maintained. 



There is but one head of the bee-household. In order 

 to provide for the continuance of the race, a number of 

 queens are successively developed; but only one can 

 reign, and as soon as the original queen finds that a 

 successor is at hand, she gathers round her a multitude 

 of her subjects some thirty or forty thousand in num- 

 ber and, accompanied by them, sallies forth to found a 

 new colony. 



Here again is the principle of Order carried out in the 

 most perfect manner. 



Were it not for this all-pervading principle of Order, 

 the singularly complicated economy of the hive could not 

 be maintained. 



On an average, in a moderately-sized community, 



