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and frugality; insomuch that the ancients nourish- 

 ed and preserved them as much for pleasure as 

 profit; calling them the birds of the muses; and 

 Virgil, with wonderful eloquence, describes their 

 order, government, manner of waring, building, 

 obedience to their king, &,c. But not to enlarge 

 thereon, I shall proceed to the improving part, viz. 

 To store yourself, there are three manner of ways; 

 either by buying them, taking wild swarms, or 

 making them by art. If you buy your bees, ob- 

 serve they be lively, little, smooth, and shining; 

 rejecting the rough and unseemly ones: and above 

 all, let the King, or master-bee, be long, shining, 

 and cheerful, not too great, or too small for upon 

 his success, depend the welfare of the whole 

 swarm. Observe, likewise, that the swarm be 

 whole and great, which you may know by looking 

 into the hive, or observing great numbers cluster- 

 ing about the door; if these two observations fail, 

 finding them all at rest, blow in among them, and 

 by the greatness or smallness of the answering 

 sound, you will perceive them to be more or less. 

 If you transport them far, the change of the air 

 many times incommodes them; to remedy which 

 you must set them in pleasant gardens, or scatter 

 sweet smelling herbs about their hives. The best 

 way to carry them is upon a man's shoulder in 

 sheets upon a pole; one hive behind, and the other 

 before, in the night time when they are at rest, 

 being very cautious of jogging them, for fear of 

 mashing their combs; and the best time to remove 

 them is in the month of April; being sure you carry 

 them not from a pleasant place to one that is other- 

 wise, for if you do, they will soon leave you. Wiien 

 you have brought them to the place you intended. 



