72 BEES. 



tians, who had floating apiaries on the Nile, has tried 

 the experiment of floating several hundred colonies 

 north on the Mississippi, starting from New Orleans 

 and following the opening season up, thus realizing 

 a sort of perpetual May or June, the chief attraction 

 being the blossoms of the river willow, which yield 

 lioney of rare excellence. Some of the bees were 

 no doubt left behind, but the amount of virgin 

 honey secured must have been very great. In Sep- 

 tember they should have begun the return trip 9 

 following the retreating summer South. ' 



It is the making of the wax that costs with the 

 bee. As with the poet, the form, the receptacle, 

 gives him more trouble than the sweet that fills it, 

 though, to be sure, there is always more or less 

 empty comb in both cases. The honey he can have 

 for the gathering, but the wax he must make him- 

 self — must evolve from his own inner consciousness. 

 When wax is to be made the wax-makers fill them- 

 selves with honey and retire into their chamber for 

 private meditation ; it is like some solemn religious 

 rite ; they take hold of hands, or hook themselves 

 together in long lines that hang in festoons from 

 the top of the hive, and wait for the miracle to 

 transpire. After about twenty-four hours their 

 patience is rewarded, the honey is turned into wax, 

 minute scales of which are secreted from between 

 the rings of the abdomen of each bee ; this is taken 

 off and from it the comb is built up. It is cal- 

 culated that about twenty-five pounds of honey are 

 used in elaborating one pound of comb, to say noth- 

 ing of the time that is lost. Hence the importance. 

 in an economical point of view, of a recent device 

 which the honey is extracted and the comb re 



