BKES, BEE-HIVES, AND BEE CULTUUE. 101 



The engraving represents our stand in the Agricultural 

 Department of the International Exhibition of 1862. The space 

 granted us in the World's great Fair was somewhat limited ; but 

 we were able to exhibit a tolerably complete stock of apiarian 

 apparatus and all the more important bee -hives. Amongst these 

 was a Unicomb Hive stocked with the Yellow Alpine or " Ligurian " 

 bee. This was an object of great attention, and daily hundreds of 

 visitors flocked round our stand in order to watch the movements 

 of the Italian queen with her gay and busy subjects. The entrance 

 way for the bees being in the " Open Court," to which all visitors 

 had access, it was necessary to place the hive in an elevated position, 

 so as for it to be beyond the reach of incautious passers by, and to 

 obviate any chance of annoyance to the vast crowds of people con- 

 tinually around. 



Among others who took a deep interest in our exhibition, was 

 Mr. Edward Wilson, President of the Acclimatisation Society of 

 Victoria. This gentleman requested us to pack four stocks of the 

 Ligurian bees for conveyance to Melbourne. With the assistance 

 of Mr. Woodbury — whose aid was, indeed, essential — these stocks 

 were sent off on the 25th of September, 1862, by the steam 

 ship Alkambra, so as to arrive at the colonj during the Austral 

 summer. The hives were Woodbury-frame hives, having ample 

 space and ventilation, as well as the means of supplying water to 

 their inmates during the voyage ; there was, also, a sufficient store 

 of honey to last until the following March. The bees arrived at 

 Melbourne, where they were released after an imprisonment of 

 seventy niue days, and have since rapidly multiplied, the climate 

 and pasturage of Australia greatly favouring the increase of this 

 superior variety of the bee. 



Mr. Wilson was so well pleased with the careful manner in 

 which these stocks were fitted out for their voyage across the seas, 

 that he subsequently instructed us to prepare him three more hives, 

 which were sent out in a sailing vessel. Owing to the mismanage- 

 ment of the water supply during the voyage, only one stock 

 survived in this instance. 



Upwards of twenty years ago, we sent a Nutt's Hive stocked 

 with bees to New Zealand. We then adopted the plan of fixing 

 the hive in a meat safe, so that the bees could fly about a little, and 

 also cleanse the hive of their dead, for bees are very attentive to 



