PDMIGATION. 103 



CHAPTEE XXI. 



FUMIGATIOK. 



This is a grand invention — how long it has heen prac- 

 .tised I cannot tell. About sixty years ago, when selling 

 honey in Edinburgh, my father met an Irishman, who 

 undertook to teach him how to carry a hive of bees, open 

 and exposed, through the streets of that city without re- 

 ceiving a single " stong," for a gill of whisky. Par too 

 tempting an offer this to be rejected by my father. He 

 got the secret, and, I presume, the Irishman got some 

 whisky for it. The secret was worth all the whisky in 

 Edinburgh; for ever since we have been enabled to do 

 what we hke with oui bees without risk or fear. Smoke 

 from the rags of fustian or corduroy, blown into a hive, 

 is the secret bought from the Irishman. A few puffs of 

 smoke from a bit of corduroy or fustian rolled up like a 

 candle, stupefies and terrifies bees so much, that they run 

 to escape from its power. Tobacco-smoke is more power- 

 ful still, but it has a tendency to make bees dizzy, and 

 reel Kke a drunken man ; besides, it is far more expensive 

 and less handy than a bit of fustian or corduroy. Old 

 corduroy or fustian is better than new, unless the matter 

 which is used to stiffen it be completely washed out. 

 This stiffening matter won't burn — won't let the rags bum ; 

 hence we use and recommend old stuff which has lost it. 

 The old worn-out and cast -away fustian and corduroy 



