A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



NATURAI. HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



" What atom forms of insect life appear ! 

 And who can follow Nature's pencil here?" — Mrs. Barbauld. 



From the very earliest historic times, the Hive Bee has 

 been cultivated by man for the sake of the delicious 

 honey and useful wax that it produces, as well as 

 studied for the manifold lessons it furnishes in industry 

 and physiology. 



The busy merchant, when wanting a symbol for his 

 house, could find no better sign than the "Bee-hive." 

 How common the axiom, " A very Hive of industry." 

 The poet and the moralist fails not to quote our little 

 friend as an example to the young; and the beautiful 

 hymn of Dr. Watts, ' The Little Busy Bee,' can never 

 be forgotten as a memory of our early days, and in ages 

 to come will be taught to our children's children with 

 the same loving wish of a good result as was hoped for us. 



To the naturalist and man of science, the Bee affords 

 a never-ending store of Nature's wonders ; although 

 philosophers, from Aristomachus, four centuries before 

 the Christian era, Cicero, Pliny, Philiscus, Virgil, Theo- 

 phrastes, Plutarch, and Columella, to those of modern 

 times, Maraldi, Reaumur, Sir Christopher Wren, the 

 illustrious blind Huber, and Lord Brougham, all wrote 



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