42 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
argument and show of learning equally benighted 
superstitions of their own. 
A little book published in 1656, and called 
“The Country Housewife’s Garden,” is interesting, 
as it was probably written for cottagers by one 
almost in the same humble walk of life, whereas 
the bee-books generally of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries were, for the most part, the work 
of men of considerably higher station. 
This book, almost alone of its kind, harbours no 
fine theories on bee-keeping, but keeps throughout 
to rule-of-thumb methods. The writer, evidently 
caring little for speculation as to the origin of 
bees, but confining his remarks to practical honey- 
getting, takes up the following wholesome position: 
“Much discanting there is of, and about the 
Master Bees, and of their degrees, order, and 
Government: but the truth in this point is rather 
imagined, than demonstrated. There are some 
conjectures of it, viz., wee see in the combs diverse 
greater houses than the rest, and we commonly 
hear the night before they cast, sometimes one 
Bee, sometimes two or more Bees, give a lowde 
and severall sound from the rest, and sometimes 
Bees of greater bodies than the common sort: 
but what of all this? I leane not on conjectures, 
but love to set down that I know to be true, and 
leave these things to them that love to divine.” 
The “greater houses” here mentioned were, no 
doubt, the large cells in which the queens are bred. 
