224 SEPTEMBER 



desire ? This &quot; murmur of innumerable bees &quot; has ex 

 pressed in our ears the reality of a desirable summer, as 

 palpably as a shimmering air announces vibrant heat to 

 our eyes. 



Yet things are not always what they seem, or even 

 what they seem to the expert. Flowers have been marvel 

 lous. Much ambrosial sap, enriched by the sun and not 

 diluted by water, has bred flower buds in rare profusion. 

 As evidence, look at the &quot; keys &quot; on the ashes or the 

 acorns on the oaks or green pendants on the hornbeam ; 

 but the nectar dear to the bees and necessary to their very 

 life demands a greater amount of moisture than it has 

 been vouchsafed. So, at any rate, the baffled bee-keepers 

 suggest in order to account for the state of their hives. 

 The plain, surprising truth faces them that a number of 

 the bees are on the edge of starvation just at the date 

 when the hives should be overflowing with fatness. 

 Here are two hives in a colony of over a score. They 

 were strong swarms and possess young vigorous queens ; 

 but the wasps were seen to be going in and out almost 

 without challenge or protest ; and there is no worse sign 

 of feebleness. It is bad for the wasp that ventures among 

 the stores of a vigorous community. The report was 

 brought to the bee-keeper by a small and observant 

 daughter ; and he refused to believe it till her observa 

 tions were tested. The hives on examination were found 

 to be as nearly as may be empty of honey. The bees 

 were in actual need of food. In his experience of thirty- 

 five years of bee-keeping he had seldom, if ever, been more 

 astonished or more disappointed. That it was a bad year 

 for honey in his district he knew ; but that a healthy and 

 vigorous company should have failed to store enough 

 for their own consumption during the first month of 

 autumn is a thing his &quot; imagination boggles at.&quot; 



