THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 39 



appears to be tlie bond of union in the community of it, 

 — bees knowing each other by smell — the intelligent bee 

 master will keep his hives as far asunder as he conveni- 

 ently can, or sufficiently far to prevent the peculiarity 

 from being lost. Close proximity may destroy it. 



Bee-houses are very expensive and inconvenient. All 

 bee-masters of experience consider them a hindrance to 

 good management, and objectionable in many senses. We 

 have nothing to say in their favour, save that they help 

 to protect hives from the severity of winter storms. To 

 say more about bee-houses in a work on the profitable 

 management of bees would be a work of supererogation. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 



It is believed that a twenty-acre field of grass, well 

 sprinkled with the flowers of white clover, yields to bees 

 every fine day at least 100 lb. of honey, and strongly 

 scents the air as well ; and that twenty acres of heather 

 in flower yield 200 lb. of honey per day. If this cal- 

 culation is correct (and we think it is), who will ven- 

 ture to estimate and give the sum total of all the counties 

 of Great Britain and Ireland? We remember being 

 startled at the statement of a citizen of Manchester, in a 

 paper which he read before the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, when that Association met 

 ia that city some years ago. I forget the title of the 

 paper, but the subject of it was the poisonous exhalations 

 of the town. The number of tons of carbonic acid gas 

 constantly passing off into the atmosphere was named — a 



