FEEDING. 333 



comb, much prefer to buy it, (if they want it at all,) for 6 

 or 7 cents, in a liquid state ! It must be perfectly obvious 

 that to sell a cheap and ill-flavored article at a high price, 

 under the pretence that it is a superior article, is nothing 

 less than downright cheating. 



I am perfectly well aware that many persons imagine 

 that if any thing sweet is fed to bees, they will quickly 

 transmute it into the purest nectar. There is, however, no 

 more truth in such a conceit, than there would be in that of 

 a man who supposed that he had found the veritable philos- 

 opher's stone ; and that he was able to change all our cop- 

 per and silver coins into the purest gold ! Bees to be sure, 

 can make white and beautiful comh, from almost any kind 

 of sweet ; and why ? because wax is a natural secretion of 

 the bee, (see p. 76,) and can be made from any sweet ; just 

 as fat can be put upon the ribs of an ox, by any kind of 

 nourishing food. 



" But," some of my readers may ask, " do you mean to 

 assert that bees do not secrete honey out of the raw mate- 

 rial which they gather, or which is furnished to them, just 

 as cows secrete milk from grass and hay ?" I certainly do 

 mean to assert that they can do nothing of the kind, and no 

 intelligent man who has carefully studied their habits, will 

 for a moment, venture to affirm that they can, unless for the 

 sake of " filthy lucre," he is, attempting to deceive an un- 

 wary community. What bee-keeper does not know, or 

 rather ought not to know that the quality of honey depends 

 entirely upon the sources from whence it is gathered ; and 

 that the different kinds of honey can easily be distinguished 

 by any one who is a judge of the article. 



Apple-blossom honey, white clover hone'y, buckwheat 

 honey, and all the different kinds of honey, each has its own 

 peculiar flavor, and it is utterly amazing how any sensible 



