144 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY 



and articles are written with a single object. That 

 object is ' sweating ' bees. All the nice little pictures 

 of new hives and feeders' and 'smokers' and arti- 

 ficial comb foundation, are so many tips from old 

 hands to the sweaters of future generations of the 

 most industrious insects in the world. The moral 

 aspect of this enterprise is, it must be owned, rather 

 perplexing. It is open to those who advocate ' sweat- 

 ing' bees, to urge that, if it is good for the bee to 

 be busy, it is perhaps better for him to be busier. 

 In any case it was a great thought ; and it forms 

 the common bond of union which unites and animates 

 the powerful society known as the British Beekeepers' 

 Association. The humorous side of this latest effort 

 to expand the limits of animal service to man, has 

 apparently escaped the notice of the members of the 

 Apicultural Association ; but it is sufficiently obvious 

 to the general reader, and more to anyone who 

 watches the working of the new contrivances which 

 have been so kindly introduced to the notice of the 

 bees. Ingenious as these contrivances are, their 

 success is due in the main to the absorbing desire 

 for work which possesses the bees themselves. It 

 is the artful diversion of this praiseworthy energy 

 into new and remunerative channels which is the 

 beekeepers' object ; and in contemplating the differ- 

 ence of purpose which animates the industrious insect 



