184 DISEASES OF BEES. 



CHAPTER XXTV. 

 DISEASES OF BEES. 



I SUSPECT that much which has been written upon 

 this subject is fanciful, and that most of the ailments 

 of bees originate from want of cleanliness or want 

 of food ; for if bees be not kept clean, and be not 

 supplied with food in backward springs, particu- 

 larly in those which succeed mild winters, a mor- 

 tality among them is usually experienced ; and it 

 is in spring that their alleged maladies prevail. 



" For late the lynx-ey'd scout, in nice survey, 

 Had mark'd the ravage of ungenial May, 

 Where the lorn bee-herd wail'd his empty shed, 

 Its stores exhausted, and its tenants dead." 



" So mourn'd Arcadia's swain* his honey'd host, 

 By keen disease or keener famine lost, 

 Till his fond mother, on her glassy throne, 

 Heard through deep Peneus'f wave the filial moan. " 



EVANS. 



During a mild winter the stock of honey is often 

 exhausted, such a season encouraging the bees to 



* Aristaous, the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, to 

 whom mankind were said to be indebted for the art of 

 curdling milk, managing bees, making hives, and cultivating 

 olives ; on which account he was worshipped as a God by 

 the Greeks. He was the father of the unfortunate Actaeon. 



f A river of Thessaly. 



