186 DISEASES OF BEES. 



in this country, are detrimental to bees ; but these 

 vicissitudes would not alarm me, if the bees were 

 well sheltered, and had a convenient supply of 

 water, salt and sugar, in the early part of the 

 spring. 



Keys thought they were not fond of salt : from 

 my own experience as well as from that of my 

 apiarian friends, I am satisfied that he was mis- 

 taken, and my opinion is confirmed by the follow- 

 ing observation in Crevecoeur's Travels. " One 

 day, having remarked that my bees frequently 

 settled on spots, where brine had been spilt, I 

 placed some grains of salt before their hives. 

 What was my astonishment, when I saw them 

 repeatedly tasting it with eagerness, and carrying 

 it away with them ! Before this experiment, I 

 could not have believed that the manufacturers of 

 honey could taste with pleasure, a substance so 

 different from the nectar of flowers." 



In the winter of 1782-3, a general mortality 

 took place among the bees in this country, which 

 was attributed to various causes : want of honey 

 was not one of them ; for in some hives consider- 

 able store was found, after the bees were gone. 

 Some were of opinion that it arose from the pre- 

 ceding being a bad breeding year, and thought the 

 bees died of old age. Others attributed it to the 

 moistness of the spring of 1783, which rendered 

 the providing of pollen difficult, for without pollen 



