BEE CULTURE. 233 



it, and then take a bee-line or straight course for the bee-tree. 

 Now comes the hunter's coveted opportunity. He wishes to get 

 the " line of the swarm," as it is called. With a practiced eye, 

 he watches the bees until they are beyond his sight, and finally 

 determines by their unerring course, the direction of the bee- 

 tree. Having " got the line," he closes his box on tlie bees, 

 and moves on toward the " bee-tree." He then takes a new 

 stand, and makes new observations, and thus gradually nears 

 the wild colony, searching all the while for them in every lioUow 

 tree, until he at last discovers their retreat. An experienced 

 bee-hunter having once got the line of a swarm, seldom fails of 

 finding it. Large quantities of honey have often been found 

 deposited in the capacious hollows of some of our forest trees. 

 The sport of bee-lmnting, setting aside the honey, amply com- 

 pensates for the time devoted to it, as a pleasant and healthful 

 recreation. 



Uses of Honey and Wax. — Honey affords for the talkie one 

 of the most delicious luxuries. Bread and butter and honey, 

 why, it makes one's mouth water to write about it. No dessert 

 can be named more delectably palatable and rich. Boiled with 

 water and spices, and fermented, it makes metheglin, a choice 

 medicinal drink. It also enters largely into many of the choicest 

 medicaments of the apothecary, and is highly esteemed among 

 medical men as a valuable article of the materia-medica. Bees- 

 wax, made from the honey-comb, is also very valuable for many 

 purposes. What house-wife or seamstress could possibly get 

 along without her ball of white wax, for polishing furniture and 

 smoothing thread and silk ? It is also used in the laundry, and 

 by the tallow chandler. It enters into the composition of many 

 famous salves and unguents. The nurseryman uses it in pre- 

 paring his grafting-wax, and the dentist in taking impressions 

 for setting artificial teeth. It would be impossible to name here 

 all the uses to which honey and wax are applied. 



The Moral op Bee-keeping. — We cannot close our subject 

 without a few " inferences," as the clergy say, " drawn from 

 the habits " of bees. From their well known diligence comes 

 one of our pleasantest proverbs, " As busy as a bee." They 

 commence their work early, and pursue it unremittingly 

 through the day. Tlicy never stop to play, or lounge among 



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