26^ 



gLEan1:ngs in i^EE cuLtOue. 



Apr. 



ries [the honey to the hive in the back part of its 

 raouth, it would be nearer the truth than to say in 

 its stomach." 



Mrs. Cole asked, " Is it nice to cat what comes 

 from a bee's mouth?" 



Mr. Cole said, " My wife us;s sug-ar, molasses, and 

 the dififerent kinds of syrups sold in the stores, 

 thinking these cleaner than honey. I have been 

 south, and have Wsited sugar-manufactories. If I 

 should go into details of wliat I have seen in manu- 

 facturing sugar and molasses, I guess she would 

 conclude that the cleanest sweet we have is what 

 we get from the bee-hive." 



" Yes," said Mr. Meek, " not only the cleanest, but 

 the purest and best. Molasses and syrups in these 

 days are often made from corn, out of a substance 

 called glucose; or, at least, glucose is frequently 

 mixed with these. All such syrups are demanded 

 by the people, clear and nice looking. To make 

 them so they arc ti-eated with acids and various 

 drugs, which tend to make them unhealthfiil 

 as food; or, at least, I have been told so by physi- 

 cians. How different with honey! Nature, which 

 is only another name for God, forms the honey in 

 the cells of the flower. The little bee, a nice clean- 

 ly insect, sucks it from the flower, and carries it in 

 the back part of its mouth to its hive. I have read 

 that learned men, by many experiments, have de- 

 cided that the honey is not changed in the least bj' 

 being thus carried. It is just the same in the hive 

 as in the flower, only the ^heat of the Lire boils it 

 down, as it were, and makes it thicker. I think 

 nice comb honey like this is the purest and cleanest 

 sweet you can obtain. We might say it is just as it 

 comes from the hand of God himself." 



" How about the wax?" asked one in the com- 

 pany; " is it gathered from the buds of trees?" 



" No," said Mr. Meek. "Bees do obtain a sub- 

 stance from buds of trees, but it is not wa.\. It is 

 called propolis, and it is a kind of pitch, or bee-glue, 

 and is used to glue up crevices in th^ir hives. Wax 

 comes from the bodies of the bees; It is a kind of 

 bee-sweat, or bee- fat. On the back part of the bees' 

 bodies are five rings, and the wax comes out at the 

 joints of these rings in what are called wax scales. 

 When bees secrete wax they eat much more honej' 

 than at other times." 



Here Mr. Jones, an Irishman, said: "Sure an' 

 bees must be curious lads, if they know how to do 

 all these things. Faith, an' I believe I would keep 

 bees if I knew where to buy somft. Do you think, 

 Mr. Meek, it would cost much to buy a couple, so I 

 could get a start?" 



Mr. Meek replied, "I suppose you mean a couple 

 of colonies of bees." 



"No," said Mr. Jones, "I mean a couple of bees. 

 A cock-bee, andj'a hen-bee, or whatever you may 

 call them." 



A roar of laughter greeted this remark. 



Mr. Jones looked around inguiringli', as though 

 he could not understand why they laughed. Mr. 

 Meek explained that his idea of starting out in the 

 bee-business, with only two bees, was rather f unnj*. 



"Why should that tickle you?" said Mr. Jones. 

 " You all admire my flock of White Leghorn chick- 

 ens, and ] began that flock with just a single pair 

 —acock and a hen,[and now look at them. Why, 

 this fall I had over two hundred— all birds of a 

 feather. Why can I not begin with a couple of 

 bees?" 



"Bees are quite different from chickens," said Mr. 



Meek. " They will not live and prosper, unless in a 

 hive, and that must contain a queen-bee and sever- 

 al thousand workers." 



For some time they joked Mr. Jones about his 

 cock-bee and hen-bee, and then Mr. Smith told a 

 joke about one of his neighbors, an Irishman who 

 had recently come to this country, and bought a 

 small farm ncai- him. One hot day, said Irishman 

 was plowing his potatoes with a quiet, gentle old 

 mare. In one corner of his tield were some hazel- 

 bushes into which he drove the animal, when all 

 at once she began to prance and kick, and, turning 

 around, rushed across the field as though some 

 terrible thing were after her. Jerry manfully held 

 to the lines and plow, and finally quieted the ani- 

 mal, but not until his shouting at her to stop had 

 brought his wife to tiie field to learn what was the 

 matter. Jerry asked his wife to hold the lines 

 while he went to the hazel-bush to inv'cstigate the 

 cause of the runaway. He came back with the 

 news that there was a nest of bees in there on a 

 little bush. 



"Now, Peggy," says he, " if you will bring me the 

 little box that is by the well I will put them into it, 

 and they will make us honey." 



Peggy returned with the box, and Jerry Avent 

 cautiously into the brush; but he soon came out as 

 rapidly as his old mare had done; and from the 

 way he flung his arras around, it appeared as 

 though he had a dozen arms at least. In telling 

 Mr. Smith about it afterward, Jerry said, " I was 

 sure I was killed; about fifty of the bees give me a 

 dab, and each one raised a lump as large as a wal- 

 nut." 



Mr. Smith said, "Probably ihey were not bees 

 at all." 



Jerry asked what bees looked like. 



Mr. Smith said, " Bees are about the size of those 

 green-headed horse-flies you see about j'our team; 

 they are brown, and some are yellow." 



" Well, then," said Jerry, " those of mine were no 

 bees at all, for they were black, had bald faces, and 

 were as poisonous as a rattlesnake." 



The company at the table laughed heartily at this, 

 for all knew that Jerry had been trying to hive a 

 nest of white-faced hornets. 



Mr. Smith continued, "Poor Jerry had nothing to 

 laugh at. The stings made him so sick he had to 

 quit work, and was in bed most of the afternoon. 

 His face swelled until both eyes were almost closed. 

 There is one thing about bee-keeping I can not un- 

 derstand. Men who keep many colonies of bees 

 will woi'k among them day after day. I do not 

 think a person can work with them without receiv- 

 ing some stings. A single sting will lay me aside 

 from woi'k. How can the}' stand it?" 



Mr. Meek replied, " The pain and swelling caused 

 by a sting do not come from the wound, but from 

 the i)oison left in the wound by the stiug. Our 

 systems will become accustomed to a poison, so that 

 it ceases to afl'ect us. Tobacco is a poison. When a 

 person begins its use, it sickens him. He experi- 

 ences evil effects from its use; but by and by his 

 system becomes accustomed to the poison, and 

 these effects no longer follow its use. In like man- 

 ner, after receiving stings repeatedly the bee-keep- 

 er's system is no longer affected by the poison as at 

 the first. He does not experience the same pain 

 from a sting, nor is it usually followed by swelling." 



Mr. McMillen, a native of Scotland, next told the 

 company about the wild bees of his native land. 



