THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



55 



and draping the hives in black. 

 This was supposed to be necessary 

 to prevent the bees from flying 

 away in search of a new home : 



Under the garden wall, 

 Forward and back, 

 Went drearily singing the chore-girl small, 

 Di-aping each hive with a shred of black. 



And the song she was singing ever since 



In my ear sounds on : 

 " Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence ? 



Mistress Mary is dead and gone I " 



As good order is so strikingly 

 exhibited in the government of the 

 bees, for the bees, and by the bees, 

 it seems appropriate that in Egyp- 

 tian hieroglyphics the bee should 

 represent royalty, and, in later 

 times, become the symbol of the 

 French Empire. In France the 

 roj'al mantle .and standard were 

 thickly sown with golden bees, and 

 in the tomb of Childeric in 1653 

 there were discovered three hun- 

 dred bees made from the same pre- 

 cious metal. — The Literary World. 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE 



SOUTH. 



II. 



Bt G. W. Demakke. 



I HAVE already intimated that 

 the science of bee culture is more 

 likely to be neglected in a climate 

 in which bees "work for nothing 

 and board themselves," than in a 

 climate where it requires skill to 

 pilot them through long, cold win- 

 ters, and nurse them in the chilly 

 springtimes. 



Just the other day an old farmer 

 while speaking of the amount of 

 labor — skilled labor at that — neces- 

 sary to run my apiaiy during the 

 active honey season, remarked that 

 he "used to get twenty pounds of 

 box honey from his "gums" and 

 never do anything to his bees." 

 You see that much was made with- 

 out any cost of production, and 

 once in a while the twenty pound 

 boxes were filled two and even 

 three times in a single season, and 

 all without a cent's cost of pro- 

 duction. Of course such yields of 

 honey, without cost of labor or 

 thought, except to "rob" the bees, 

 is the exception instead of the 

 general rule. 



And then an nnpropitious season 

 in the absence of "care" sweeps 

 away the poor bees, the result of 

 bee famine, or queenlessness ; then 

 you will hear the emphatic an- 

 nouncement that "the moths took 

 our bees," when in fact the moths 

 had destroyed nothing but what 

 the perishing bees had to leave 

 behind. 



My experience has taught me 

 that modern bee culture presents 

 to the minds of the generality of 

 mankind more real mystery than 

 the most fertile imagination can 

 conjure up, and throw around any 

 other rural industry. 



Numbers of persons of both 

 sexes visit my apiary, some through 

 pure curiosity, and others because 

 they either have caught the "bee 

 fever," or feel a commendable in- 

 terest in any new enterprise in their 

 prosperous community. 



A modern apiary with its teem- 



