The Bee-Master of Warrilow. 



always have been, and work on the same principles as they 

 did in the time of Solomon. They go their appointed way 

 inexorably, and all the bee-master can do is to run on 

 ahead and smooth the path a little for them. Indeed, 

 after forty odd years of bee-keeping, I doubt if the bees 

 even realise that they are ' kept ' at all. The bee-master's 

 work has little more to do with their progress than the 

 organ-blower's with the tune." 



"Can you," I asked him, as we parted, "after all 

 these years of experience, lay down for beginners in bee- 

 manship one royal maxim of success above any other? " 



He thought it over a little, the gun on his shoulder 

 again. 



" Well, they might take warning from this same King 

 Solomon," he said, " and beware the foreign feminine 

 element. Let British bee-keepers cease to import queen 

 bees from Italy and elsewhere, and stick to the good old 

 English Black. All my bees are of this strain, and mostly 

 from one pure original Sussex stock. The English black 

 bee is a more generous honey-maker in indifferent seasons ; 

 she does not swarm so determinedly, under proper treat- 

 ment, as the Ligurians or Carniolans ; and, above oil, 

 though she is not so handsome as some of her Conti- 

 nental rivals, she comes of a hardy northern race, and 

 stands the ups and downs of the British winter better than 

 any of the fantastic yellow-girdled crew from overseas." 



15 



