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If we study the monumental records 

 of early times in Egypt, we may reach 

 back to the dawn of beedom. Egjptian 

 rulers seemed to place their chief 

 glorj- in rearing monuments for pos- 

 terity. Their temples and pyramids 

 were the grandest in the world, but 

 the obelisks, an Egyptian invention, 

 became the principal ornaments of all 

 countries. On the planes of these 

 stone pillars were inscribed the me- 

 morials of antiquity, the only data of 

 earlier times. 



According to eminent Egyptologists, 

 the obelisk taken to Rome, standing at 

 St. John Latern, is over 4,200 years 

 old. The obelisk (Cleopatra's Needle) 

 standing in New York city, is inscribed 

 with memorial data in prehistoric 

 times. No interpretations of the in- 

 scription, so far as I can discover, re- 

 lates to' bees, yet I believe they are 

 represented. We fail to fiillj' appre- 

 ciate that we have in the citj" of New 

 York such a treasure of antiquity — the 

 obelisk. We but faintly realize that 

 Moses and Aaron, Father Abraham, 

 the Prophets, Alexander the Great, 

 and great, personages — antique He- 

 brews, Israelites, Greeks and Romans, 

 and, quite likel3% the Divine Redeemer, 

 have stood near this obelisk and read, 

 or tried to decipher the inscription. 



In Egypt and everywhere honey- 

 bees in their natural state take up 

 their dwelling in trees, logs, under 

 stones, and in clefts of rocks. The ex- 

 pressions of Moses and of the Psalmist, 

 " Honey out of the i-ocks," is proof 

 that the habits of the busy bee has 

 ever been identically the same. 



The early part of Egyptian monu- 

 mental history was covered with the 

 arrivals of Abraham and Joseph, and 

 the exodus of the Israelites, and we 

 can only get a glimpse of what was the 

 state of the world at that period from 

 Biblical literature, from which we 

 learn that bee-keeping had ever been 

 a principal branch of their domestic 

 pursuits. 



What aliment, if anj', Adam sub- 

 sisted on, before his unfortunate dis- 

 obedience, we are not informed, but 

 milk and honey is the food first men- 

 tioned ; hence we are in possession of 

 evidence that honey-bees were coeval 

 with man's appearance on tlie globe — 

 created with and for his purpose, else 

 God would not have mentioned honey 

 as the food for His chosen people, j'ea. 

 He furnished honey as a special bless- 

 ing to His elect 



We find the honey-bee first on the 

 Delta in Egypt, and it is probable that 

 the original nucleus, or the colony 

 Noah put in, multiplied and spread 

 up along the vallej' of the Nile ; also 

 eastward over the Isthmus of Suez into 

 Syria, and along the eastern coast of 

 the sea, and crossed to Cj'prus, Greece 



and Italy. Wherever people migrated 

 bees were taken, for they were the first 

 domestics on wliich mankind were de- 

 pendent for a living 



Like other creatures, bees show dif- 

 ferent marks ; but the difference is not 

 radical — only a divei'gement within 

 the bounds fixed by the hand of na- 

 ture. We know of no type, breed or 

 strain of bees that ij constant in re- 

 producing, identically, progeny after 

 its progenitors. This fact settles the 

 claim that bees have but one origin 

 common with all of every name and 

 nature. The differences ol)served 

 comes aliout by reason of difterent 

 geographical influence, or by accident 

 — freak or physical nature. Color is 

 not organic in living creatures. Color 

 of epidermis (skin) and its appendages 

 (hairs, roots, etc.) is the creature of 

 accident ; dependent not on constitu- 

 tional element of species, but on the 

 secretive functions of the skin, an 

 aberation more or less common to all 

 creatures — fickle as the color of the 

 clouds 



Presumably the orginal type has at 

 some remote periods, diverged some- 

 what, yet identical in attributes which 

 are enduring and constant as are the 

 planets in their respective spheres. I 

 think the Oriental bees, perhaps by 

 reason of congenial climatic influence, 

 were and are more through long 

 periods in rigorous climates. Color 

 seems to be more uniform or fixed, 

 and the tj-pe reproduced more closelj- 

 by the native bees of the country about 

 the Mediterranean than elsewhere. 

 This circumstance indicates that cli- 

 matic influences incident thereto sub- 

 ject bees to what is called freaks of 

 nature 



In my research I found one item in 

 sacred history that tells of the original 

 home of the honey-bee. The Prophet 

 Isaiah explained to the people that the 

 Lord would punish people for their 

 disobedience by introducing armies 

 into their country and compare the 

 armies swarming among the people 

 like bees swarming among flowers. 

 "The Lord shall hiss (whistle) for the 

 fly (bee) that is in the uttermost part 

 of the rivers (Nile) of Egjqit, and for 

 the bee that is in the Land of Assyria." 

 chap, vii : ver. 18. (The words fly 

 and bee mean the same. Rivers refer 

 to the lower branches of the Nile, and 

 "hiss," in the version, means whistle.) 



The Prophet illustrated the idea of 

 armies by alluding to a tradition com- 

 mon among the people of the Orient, 

 which was superstitiously believed that 

 the proprietor of an ajjiary by one hiss 

 or whistle could summon all the bees 

 to the village, and bj- the same signal 

 conduct them into one bed or field of 

 flowers ; that is, the bee-master could, 

 by the signal, call all the bees from 



two countries into one locality making 

 the number fearful, and the idea that 

 the Lord's armies compared in hosts 

 with the myraids of bees must strike 

 terror. If the Prophet wrote bj' dicta- 

 tion of the Omniscient, he could not 

 mistake the locality of the bee, 1st, 

 Rivers of Egjpt, 2d, Assyria. 



The foregoing is mj' version of the 

 subject, independent and alone. Per- 

 haps I am one who can never ri.se into 

 the region of essayist, but formed to 

 plod on the lower levels of thought, 

 unpossessed of the pinions necessary 

 to reach the heights, and cannot rea- 

 lize the mental act bj' which a man of 

 genius reaches a conception which un- 

 ravels and illuminates the tangle of 

 centuries of observation. » 



Richfield, N. Y. 



WINTER REST. 



Iminediale Work of Preparing 

 Bees for Winter. 



Written for the Farm, Field and Stockman 

 BY S. E. MILLER. 



I prefer to have them in shape so as 

 to not have to meddle with them after 

 the honey-flow has ceased, for there is 

 a vast dift'erence between handling 

 bees during hone)--flow and after it has 

 ceased. I have had Italians just as 

 gentle as any one could wish just be- 

 fore the frost, which were just the re- 

 verse when the honey-flow was cut 

 short by frost. Tlierefore, if you wish 

 to avoid robbing, stinging and trouble 

 in general, get jour bees in shape be- 

 fore frost comes. Of course I would 

 not advise closing the bees up for win- 

 ter while there is still a chance of pro- 

 curing surplus honey, but with the 

 present signal service arrangements, 

 we can tell prettj' nearly when to look 

 for frost, and thus have our bees in 

 shape for winter, and still not lose 

 more than a few daj-s that might be 

 devoted to the storing of surplus 

 honey, and even if the flow does con- 

 tinue a few days after you have them 

 prepared, they will make room for it 

 somewhere. I must describe 



The GbaflrDIvlslon-Board 



or dummy, and the chaff cushion 

 which are two of the great essentials 

 to successful wiutering. The division- 

 board is made as follows : Make the 

 frames the same as you use in your 

 hives, only, instead of the ordinary 

 width, make them about an inch and 

 a half wide, and on each side nail 

 boards about i of an inch thick, thus 

 forming a complete box, only before 

 nailing on the Last side, fill it with dry 

 chaff or chopped straw.. Before nail- 

 ing on sides, however, you should 

 fasten a strip of strong cloth on the 



