65 



swarms, and over the graves of his victims he might put the 

 German epitah : 



Here Rests, 



cut off from useful labor, 



a colony of 



INDUSTRIOUS BEES, 



Basely Murdered 



By their 



Ungrateful and Ignorant Owner. 



Who could suffocate the busy bee after reading from Thomp- 

 son's seasons ? 



•« Ah, see, where robbed and murdered in that pit 

 Lies the still heaving hive ! at evening snatched. 

 Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night. 

 And fixed o'er sulphur ! while, not dreaming ill. 

 The happy people, in their waxen cells. 

 Sat tending public cares. 

 Sudden the dark, oppressive steam ascends, 

 And, used to milder scents, the tender race. 

 By thousands, tumble from the honied dome 

 Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame !" 



In our report last year, we remarked that our experience 

 •was, that when bees clustered on the outside of the hive, we 

 should not expect them to swarm. This was so contrary to 

 all we had heard or read on the subject that we hesitated about 

 advancing it ; but we have since seen, in a book published in 

 London in 1726, the same idea advanced. This writer says : 

 " For when the bees have once taken to lie without, the 

 hive will always seem empty, and they will have no mind to 

 swarm." He recommends placing a large pewter charger 

 under them to reflect the sun so as to drive them into tlie 

 hive ; probably a looking-glass would do better. 



In regard to hiving a swarm — What is the process ? we 



are often asked. We will give our method, but first we will 



relate what we saw within a few years. We were riding one 



day and heard one of the most unearthly dins which ever 



9 



