"A HoNBT Thiep, ill may he theive." — Fage 65. — Every Bee keeper 

 will echo this wish. I know no sight more piteous than an apiary 

 the night after it has been plundered. Light Hives upset, and lying, 

 with the combs all broken, on the ground. The Bees crawling about 

 in wild confusion ai'ouud their violated homes, lately so neat, and 

 now the very picture of desolation. In vain they attempt to repair 

 the damage which the spoiler's hand has created; whilst the stands 

 where the heavy stocks stood the evening before, are one and all tenant- 

 less. Many devices to protect Hives from robbers have been tried. 

 Wooden boxes are tightly screwed to the bottom board from below, 

 whilst the bottom board itself is strongly bolted to the stand. This 

 will indeed protect a hive from anything but a, powerful crow bar. 

 But the remedy is worse than the disease, as it prevents your ever 

 changing or cleaning the bottom board, and is, in many ways, 

 inconvenient. The best preservative I can think of is to have a 

 savage dog, savage to all but his master, with a strong chain, not 

 fastened to his keuuel, but ending in an iron ring, which can slide 

 along a small pole placed horizontally about a foot from the ground 

 in front of the Hives. I have seen this mode of defence adopted 

 in G-ermany for the protection of the valuable Leech ponds, which 

 are there fattened for the market. It answers for the defence of 

 Leeches, and if so, why not for Bees. 



"Mant a nose, ■nPTTJENBD, WAS Snokino iht Eepose." — jpage. 66.— 

 My readers will doubtless remember, as I confess to have done 

 when penning the above line, the opening of Southey's Thalaba, 

 and the inimitable parody thereof in the Rejected Addresses. 

 When a thing has been done excellently well, it is folly to again 

 attempt the same with a certainty of failure before our eyes. We 

 verse makers do not steal from each other ; we are all one brother- 

 hood, and Corbies nae pike out corbies e'en. But we convey — conveys 

 the word, says glorious Will. 



"And between them eoee, 



"The felon to the pkison doge." — Page 66. 



This mode of removing a captive would have suited that extinct 

 species of our protective force, that of the Dogberry and Verges 

 order, and may be recommended to our new police as more merciful, 

 and less grating to the feelings of a prisoner than the present 

 mode of "running a man in ;" especially as they generally get hold of 

 the wrong person. A police sedan would enable the innocent captive 

 to conceal his features from the tail of little boys and idle quid- 

 nuncs, specially if he were carried like our honey thief head down- 

 wards. 



