Bee Tent Described. 301 
very cold water. In case horses are badly stung, as some- 
times happens, they should be taken as speedily as possible 
into a barn (a man, too, may escape angry bees by enter- 
ing a building), where the bees will seldom follow, then 
wash the horses in soda water, and cover with blankets 
wet in cold water. 
A wash or lotion, “ Apifuge,” is praised in England as 
a preventive of stings. The hands and face are simply 
washed in it. I have tried it but could see no advantage. 
The substances used are oil of wintergreen or methyl 
salicylate. ; 
THE SWEAT THEORY. 
It is often stated that. sweaty horses and people are 
obnoxious to the bees, and hence almost sure targets for 
their barbed arrows. In warm weather I perspire most 
profusely, yet am scarcely ever stung, since I have learned 
to control my nerves. I once kept my bees in the front 
yard—they looked beautiful on the green lawn—within 
two rods of a main thoroughfare, and not infrequently let 
my horse, covered with sweat upon my return from a 
drive, crop the grass, while cooling off, right in the same 
yard. Of course, there was some danger, but I never 
knew my horse to get stung. Why, then, the theory? 
May not the more frequent stings be consequent upon the 
warm, nervous condition of the individual? The man is 
more ready to strike and jerk, the horse to stamp and 
switch. The switching of the horse’s tail, like the whisker 
trap of a full beard, will anger even a good-natured bee. 
I should dread the motions more than the sweat. 
Often when there is no honey to gather, as when we 
take the last honey in autumn, or prepare the bees for 
winter, the bees are inordinately cross. This is especially 
true of black bees and hybrids. At such times 1 have 
found an invaluable aid in 
THE BEE TENT. 
This also keeps all robbers from mischief. It is simply 
a tent which entirely covers the hives, bees, bee-keeper and 
all. The one I use (Fig, 118) is light, large, and easily 
