*4 fe E E S. 19; 



haps, a confiderable quantity of honey re- 

 mained unexhaufted ! 



A man who has paid fame attention to 

 bees, and whofe ideas are frequently well- 

 grounded, was of opinion that the effect was 

 entirely owing to the want of a fucceflion of 

 young bees ; under a fuppofition that the 

 year preceding had not been a breeding year * 

 and that the bees which dwindled away in 

 the fpring were the old bees dying of age. 



There may be fome truth in this opinion ; 

 the unufually backward, and extremely wet 

 fpring and fummerof 1782, might check the 

 breeding of young bees ; but it is unlikely 

 that it fhould wholly put a flop to it ; and 

 that not one hive in ten Ihould have bred a 

 fingle bcei For under this argument the 

 young ones, though few, would, with an 

 ample (lore of honey, have furvived. 



In thccourfe of the fpring of 1783, an in- 

 cident led me to a theory which feems. to ex- 

 plain the phenomenon more fully. 



Being attentive to a female fallow which 

 was in blow, I obferved lhat bees were 

 equally buiy among its flowers, as they were 



among 



