hive-boats from place to place along the 

 Nile according to the succession of 

 flowers. The custom also prevails in 

 Persia, Asia Minor and Greece. In 

 Scotland the same method is used while 

 the heather is in bloom and in Poland 

 bees are transferred back and forth be- 

 tween summer pastures and winter 

 quarters. 



A few years ago a floating bee house 

 was constructed on the Mississippi river 

 large enough to carry two thousand 

 colonics. It was designed to be towed 

 up the river from Louisiana to Minne- 

 sota, keeping pace with the blossoming 

 of the flowers and then drop back down 

 the river to the sunny South before cold 

 weather should set in in the fall. 

 Honey-bee ships have also been talked 

 of which could carry bees to the West 

 Indies to cruise for honey during the 

 winter. 



^ The bee is not fastidious, but will 

 live in any kind of clean box or barrel 

 that may be provided for its use, hence 

 it sometimes lives in queer places. A 

 swarm escaping will generally make its 

 home in a hollow tree or in a fissure of 

 some large rock. The ancient English 

 hives were generally made of baskets 

 of unpeeled willow. Cork hives are in 

 use in some parts of Europe, and 

 earthenware hives are in use in 

 Greece and Turkey. Glass hives are 

 mentioned as far back as the year 

 1665. In 1792 movable-comb hives 

 were invented and in the century fol- 

 lowing more than eight hundred patents 

 were granted on hives in the United 

 States. 



Bee products form an important item 

 of income in the United States, more 

 than two billion pounds of honey and 

 wax being produced in a single season. 

 When we consider that this appalling 

 amount of sweetness is gathered a drop 

 here and a drop there it leads us to 

 figures too large to be comprehended. 



In considering the value of bees we 

 must by no means think of honey as 

 their sole product, as beeswax is an 

 important article. After the honey has 

 been extracted from the comb the lat- 

 ter is mixed with water and boiled 

 down and run into firm yellow cakes, 

 from which the color disappears if ex- 

 posed for a certain length of time to 



the air. Thin slices are exposed until 

 thoroughly bleached, when it is again 

 melted and run into cakes, and is then 

 known as the white wax of commerce. 

 Before oil lamps came into use large 

 quantities of this white wax were used 

 in the manufacture of candles, which 

 made the best light then known, as 

 they burned better than tallow candles 

 and without the smoke or odor which 

 made the tallow article objectionable. 

 The advent of the oil-lamp, the gas 

 jet, and the electric light have prac- 

 tically disposed of its usefulness in 

 that direction, except in devotional 

 exercises, although colored tapers made 

 of white wax are now used for decora- 

 tive purposes, especially during the 

 holiday season, when numbers of them 

 are used to light our Christmas trees. 

 White wax is also used extensively for 

 making ornamental objects such as 

 models of fruits and flowers. Whole 

 plants are sometimes reproduced and 

 models of various vegetable and ani- 

 mal products are reproduced in colored 

 wax and used for educational or mu- 

 seum purposes. The anatomist finds 

 it of great value in reproducing the 

 normal and diseased structures of the 

 human form. No doubt the original 

 wax works of Mrs. Jarley, made famous 

 by Dickens in "The Old Curiosity 

 Shop," were a collection of wax images 

 made from the product of the honey- 

 bee. 



Metheglin is a drink made from 

 hone}^ and is consumed largely in 

 some parts of the world. It is the nectar 

 which the ancient Scandinavian ex- 

 pected to sip in paradise, using skulls 

 of his enemies as goblets. 



The East Indies and the Philippine 

 Islands seem to be under special obli- 

 gations to astonish the world in every- 

 thing, and in order to keep pace with 

 their reputations have produced honey- 

 bees of three sizes, one of which is the 

 smallest honey-bee known, and an- 

 other the largest. The smaller variety 

 is so diminutive that one square inch of 

 comb contams one hundred cells on 

 each side; the entire comb, as it hangs 

 from the twig of a small tree or bush, 

 is only about the size of a man's hand. 

 The workers are a little longer, but 

 somewhat more slender than our com- 



