THU ffiMERICa^M BE® J©1SPRHffiIU. 



809 



liquid food, which it graduall}', through 

 many distinct ■forms, uses up, going 

 tlirough tlie various forms of larva, 

 pupa (whore it spins its cocoon, whicli 

 serves as a velvet lied for its immature 

 body to bounce about in, and also to 

 guard against jars, as well as apieul- 

 tural eruptions indulged in by illiterate 

 bee-men), to the imago state where it 

 assumes the real form of the bee. 

 During this time — niirabile diclu — the 

 pabulum in the cell seems to change 

 directly into the body of the bee, and 

 if any offal escapes, it must be in the 

 form of gaseous vapors. 



At the birth of a child his life be- 

 comes aerial ; he soon, through nour- 

 ishment from his mother's bosom, ac- 

 quires the power to use his limbs with 

 energj- ; to expand his lungs with the 

 atmospheric air, and squall, and many 

 other doings I need not 7nentioii to those 

 blest with little children. How won- 

 derfully similar to the bee in its pecu- 

 liarities is man ! No wonder that great 

 poet. Green, wrote this lovely little 

 passage : 



To the mind's ear, and inward silence, 

 't'here silence spealts. and sliade gives light : 

 While insects from the threshold preach, 

 And minds disposed to musing teach ; 



Proud of strong limbs and painted hues, 

 They perish by tlie slightest bruite : 

 Or maladies begun within 

 Destroy more slow life's frail machine : 



From maggot-youtti thro' change of state, 



They feel like us, the turns of fate. 



Some born to creep have lived lo fly, 



And changed eartti's cells for dwellings high ; 



And some that did tlieir six wings keep, 

 Before they died, been forced to creep. 

 They politics, like ours, profess ; 

 'i'he greater prey upon tlie less. 



Some strain on foot huge loads to bring, 

 Home toll incessant on tne wing ; 

 Nor from their vigorous schemes desist 

 Till death ; and then they are never mist. 



Some frolic, toil, marry, increase. 

 Are sick and well, have war and peace ; 

 And broke with age in half a day, 

 Yield to successors, and away. 



Yes, truly, Green saw and under- 

 stood the bee in the way the poet. 

 Gray, meant the following lines, thus : 



To contemplation's sober eye 

 Such is the race of man. 



The quotation from Green's "Grotto," 

 I consider one of the gems of bee- 

 literature, wortliy of being learned Ijy 

 ever3- bee-loving person, notwithstand- 

 ing the apicultural effusions of Shakes- 

 peare, or the embellished sayings in 

 Virgil's Fourth Georgics, to the con- 

 trary ; for where in all the realm of 

 bee-literature will you find a poem 

 containing so great a maximum of 

 thought in so small a number of 

 words, which at the same time may be 

 construeil to apply to the human race 

 so minutely ? 



Are we not proud of brawny arms 

 and sparkling eyes, rubicund cheeks 

 and dainty hands ? Yet, is not a 

 slight cut or bruise able to produce 

 tetenus, when Death, with his reaping 

 scythe, claims us as his own? Although 

 nianj' are the panaceas that have been 



recommended and tried to cure con- 

 sumption, it, like foul brood, may 

 emanate from the mother, so that no 

 remedy may be able to cure it. If the 

 parents are consumptive, .we know 

 that the child may, in all probability, 

 be made the possessor of what may be 

 termed hereditarj' consumption ; and 

 we know also, that a healthy person 

 without the slightest blemish of 

 hereditary consumption, may contract 

 that awful disease through the neglect 

 of a cold. 



So also there is hereditary foul 

 brood, emanating from the queen-bee, 

 the germs of which are supposed to 

 exist in the eggs themselves, and also 

 the foul brood that grasps a healthy 

 colony being convej'ed to it by bees 

 from other infected colonies ; or the 

 germs may be wafted through the air, 

 or it is supposed that the bacilli may 

 exist in the newly-gathered pollen, 

 and thus find its way into the rank 

 and tile of the bee-hive. 



The following lines of Pope, in his 

 "Essay on Man," seem to apply di- 

 rectl}' to hereditary consumption in 

 man, ami ma}' bo construed to apply 

 to hereditary foul brood in bees, thus : 



As man perhaps, the moment of his breath, 

 Receives the lurking principle of death : 

 The young disease, that must subdue at length. 

 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his 

 strength. 



Returning to Green's sayings, we 

 can easily construe the distich. 



Pome born to creep, have lived to fly. 



And cbang'd earth s cells for dwellings high, 



to apply to man. Yes, some men who 

 were born in penury, like Lincoln, 

 Grant and Garfield, changed their 

 humble abodes for dwellings high, as- 

 cending step by step to the top of the 

 ladder of Renown, until at its summit 

 they stood environed with the Nimbus 

 of fame, and tho Aureola of glory ; 

 while some, born with " silver spoons 

 in their moutli," before thej' died have 

 been forced to beg from door to door. 

 Nor do we from our vigorous schemes 

 desist till death, and then we are 

 missed very little, for the world still 

 gjratcs on its axis, our orb still circles 

 round the sun, seed-time and harvest 

 come and go, and the busy populations 

 of tho earth still fill up the combs of 

 prosperity witli the rich productions 

 of our globe, while we go into oblivion 

 and gliilc down the river of Forgetful- 

 ness. Truly our " life is but a sheet of 

 paper white, where on each one maj' 

 write his word or two, and then comes 

 night ;" or we can exclaim with Gray : 



Poor moralist I and what are thou ? 

 A solitary fly ! 



Thy joys no glittering female meets. 

 No hive hast thtni of hoarded sweets. 



No painted plumage to display ; 

 On hasty wings thy youth is flown ; 

 Thy sun is set. thy spring is gone— 

 We' frolic while 'tis May. 



Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. 



NECTAR. 



Honey Is IVot I?Iadc, but Gath- 

 ered from Flo\ver§. 



Written for the Prairie Farmer 



BY MRS. L. HARBISON. 



In an old book that my father used 

 to read from as I stood by his knee, 

 are these words : " My son, eat thou 

 honey, because it is good." Yes, in- 

 deed, "it is good;" not only for the 

 young, but the old, decrepit, and mid- 

 dle-aged. It gives warmth to the sys- 

 tem, arouses nervous energj', and gives 

 vigor to the vital functions. 



After the closing of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Convention 

 during the fall of 1880, a number of 

 bee-keepers, myself among the num- 

 ber, called at the home of General 

 Witliers. We walked through and 

 admired that beautiful palace, with its 

 many stained windows, perfect venti- 

 lation, and hard-finished interior, fur- 

 nished with every convenience, for the 

 comfort and health of the horses, 

 which were to be its inmates. In the 

 course of conversation this genial gen- 

 tleman said the horses had paid for 

 their home, and among other things, 

 that his father, who lived to be a very 

 old man, alwaj's ate a little honey 

 every day. 



People have said to me : "I thought 

 honey was all the same ; that bees 

 made it, and you bee-keepers call it 

 basswood, clover honey, etc." It is 

 true, that all that the bees collect and 

 store in tlieir combs is honey, whether 

 it is the product of the leaves or bark 

 of trees, honey-dew or sweet juice 

 oozing from corn-stalks, wheat-stubble, 

 or distilled in tlie corollas of beautiful 

 flowers. 



Bee-masters now endeavor to keep 

 the different kinds of honey as distinct 

 as possible, and they do it in this way : 

 All the honey gathered in the North 

 and the West, up to the time of the 

 blooming of white clover, is used in 

 brood-rearing. There may be excep- 

 tions to this, in the vicinity of large 

 apple orchards, but in this locality 

 there are but few trees, and what there 

 are, are crab apples. 



During some seasons, very large 

 colonies, at near the close of fruit- 

 bloom, will have their combs built out 

 white with new wax, and the bees 

 rich in wax, so much so that the scales 

 are visible with the naked eye, and 

 occasionally a swarm issues. These 

 are the right conditions for colonies to 

 be in when surplus boxes are to be put 

 on ; but instead of putting them on we 

 remove two or three frames of brood 

 and honey, as the circumstances may 

 favor, and fill their places with empty 

 comb. 



