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POSITION AND ASPECT. 
As regards position, it is of great importance that 
an apiary should be free from damp, or from the 
drippings of trees, and as little exposed to the direct 
influence of the wind as possible, for which end a 
sheltered nook on a low level is preferable to an 
elevated one. Moreover, as Columella pointed out 
eighteen hundred years ago, a low level suits the bees 
better than a high one when they return laden from 
the fields. A dry gravel plot, or well-mown lawn, is 
often to be preferred, and it will be the better if 
closed in with evergreens, especially the laurel and 
laurustinus, which are much resorted to by the bees; 
but the arrangement must always be such as to leave 
an approach at the back of the hives. Let these not 
be placed too near water, into which the bees are apt 
to fall or be blown (though a shallow spring, rippling 
between pebbles, is rather an acquisition); and it is 
desirable that they should be within sight of some 
dwelling-house, to prevent losses in swarming time. 
The absence of noise and of bad smells ought to be 
studied; for no sense in bees is so acute as that of 
scent. Disturbers of any kind, as fowls, dogs, pigs, 
&e., should be kept at a distance; while the vicinity 
of confectioners’ shops, or such like temptations, is 
perhaps as serious an obstacle to success as any that 
could be named. Experience has shown that where 
bees are very extensively kept, the apiary is best 
divided on the same premises, so as not to have the 
whole crowded together—a circumstance often incon- 
