'SWEATING' BEES 



THE pamphlets and newspapers which deal with the 

 minor forms of live-stock farming are generally amus- 

 ing reading, even to an outsider. But the columns 

 of Poultry and other fanciers' journals, whether devoted 

 to fur or feather in domestication, are more practical 

 than scientific. They belong, as Aristotle would say, 

 to the sphere of art which treats of production and 

 avoids philosophy. An apparent exception occurs in 

 the case of modern books on apiculture and the British 

 Beekeepers' Journal. The nature of the subject is 

 attractive ; but it is not to this that the difference is 

 traced. The modern beekeeper is not specially in- 

 terested in the bee as an architect and engineer, nor, 

 except for ends of his own, does he * go out ' on 

 the moral excellence of the bee, ' the model of 

 patience, industry and thrift.' It is not till after a 

 careful course of apicultural study that the c root- 

 thought,' the text of the whole matter, becomes clear 

 to the curious reader. All these books and pamphlets 



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