224 THE MARVEL OF INSECT LIFE. 



small a weight of wax and yet capable of containing a 

 very great weight of honey, is a problem which will be 

 presently mentioned. 



Were it not for the bee, we should be ignorant of one 

 of the uses of flowers, and although we might be delighted 

 with their beauty of form and colour, and charmed with 

 their perfume, could form no idea of their value as pro- 

 ducing food for man, as well as the wax without which 

 so many arts and industries could have no existence. 



But then comes the bee preacher with her wordless 

 sermon, " Let nothing be lost." She carries the juice to 

 her home, and there transmutes it into the honey and 

 wax which are not only necessary to her own community, 

 but render such inestimable service to mankind. 



The amount of annual waste in this country from 

 neglecting the summons of the bee preacher is almost 

 incalculable. An experienced farmer lately put the 

 point in a very terse and simple manner. When speak- 

 ing of a clover crop, he said that in every ton of clover 

 that was mown, at least seven shillings' worth of honey 

 alone was wasted in the juices which were not removed 

 because there were not sufficient bees to take them. 



How much work the bee can do when she has access 

 to suitable flowers may be seen from the fact that, in a 

 single hive, the bees put twenty pounds weight of honey 

 into the combs in forty-eight hours. In such a hive the 

 daily amount of consumption by the inhabitants is about 

 two pounds, so that on the whole the bees carried 

 twenty-four pounds weight of honey into the hive 



