REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



winged insects or millers, and are soon ready to deposite their 

 eggs, from which another crop will be raised.* It is thus seen 

 that 'the miller enters the hive, deposits her eggs, in due time 

 they hatch, a moth is produced, and the race of destroyers per- 

 petuated. t 



The method now generally recommended, as having been 

 found best adapted to prevent the ravages of the moth, is sim- 

 ply to raise the hive by placing under it small blocks at each 

 corner, by which means the bees have free egress and ingress 

 throughout the moth season. The bees should be carefully 

 examined every day throughout the season, and the worms or 

 maggots of the moth destroyed, which can be done in the 

 morning without disturbing the bees unless they have been 

 neglected too long; the worms will be found almost invariably 

 collected near or under the edges of the hive. Care must be 

 taken not to raise it so high as to admit the entrance of mice. 



Bees-wax, a solid concrete, obtained from the honey-combs, after the sweet 

 and liquid parts are extracted, by heating and pressing them between iron 

 plates. The best sort should be hard, compact, of a clear yellow colour, and 

 an agreeable odour, similar to that of honey. Pure bees-wax, when new, is 

 tough, yet easily broken: by long keeping, it becomes harder and more brittle, 

 loses its fine colour, and partly also its fragrance. The purposes to which 

 bees-wax is applied, are various: great quantities of it are annually bleached, 

 and converted into candles. On account of its softening and healing nature, it 

 is much used in cerates, plasters and ointments. 



Stings of bees are more virulent than even those of wasps, and sometimes 

 attended with very violent effects. As the sting is barbed, it is always left in 

 the wound. When, therefore, a person is stung by a bee, the sting should be 

 instantly extracted; for, by its peculiar form, it will penetrate progressively 

 deeper into the wound, and communicate more of its poison, according to the 

 time it is suffered to remain. It should be carefully pulled out with a steady 

 hand; for if any part of it breaks in, remedies will in a great measure be inef- 

 fectual. When the sting is completely extracted, the wounded part should be 

 sucked; and little, if any, inflammation will ensue. If a few drops of spirit of 

 hartshorn be immediately rubbed on the part affected, the cure will be more 

 speedily accomplished. This spirit, however, acts only as a stimulating anti- 

 spasmodic, enabling the vessels to overcome the spasm formed on the extremi- 

 ties. An application of Goulard-water, or a cold saturnine poultice, would pro- 

 duce a similar effect. 



Another simple remedy, equally efficacious and expeditious, is a solution of 

 indigo in water; speedily applied to the injured part. 



Honey and olive oil may also be occasionally substituted with advantage; 

 but their application should be repeated till the pain ceases. 



For treating the stings of these insects, common salt is almost a certain and 

 almost instantaneous cure; if the sting be internal the salt must be swallowed; 

 in the contrary case, the skin should be previously moistened, in order that it 

 may more easily absorb the saline matter. 



* Weeks's Manual. 



t At an early stage of their existence, while yet a small worm, they spin a 

 web, and construct a silken shroud or fortress, in which they envelope them- 

 selves, and form a sort of path or gallery, as they pass onward in their devas- 

 tating march at the same time being perfectly secure from the bees, in their 

 liken case, which they widen as they grow larger, with an opening in their 

 front only, near their head, they commit the grcaiest devastation on the eggs 

 and young bees, and all that come in their way. 



