196 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



occasionally that the leaves of the trees and shrubs have 

 a gummy appearance, and are sticky to the touch. If a 

 leaf so covered be put to the tongue it will taste sweet ; 

 this is honey-dew, and is a secretion of some species of 

 aphides ejected from their abdomen in little squirting 

 streams. This substance the Bees readily gather, and 

 when it is abundant, make large additions to their stores. 



In Scotland, and- on the Continent, cart-loads of hives 

 may be seen travelling to and from the heather. Often 

 on the spot they are looked after by some resident 

 cottager, who receives a gratuity of about is. per hive 

 from the proprietors of the stocks. In the south of 

 England this practice is not pursued, although I do not 

 see why it should not be in many places, there being 

 miles of heather equally available as in Scotland. On 

 the Nile there are Bee-barges which travel only at night, 

 stopping in the daytime at any place that affords abund- 

 ant pasturage for the Bees ; and we read in Pliny that 

 this was likewise the practice in Italy in his time. " As 

 soon," says he, " as the spring food for Bees has failed in 

 the valleys near our towns, the hives of Bees are put into 

 boats and carried up against the stream of the river in 

 the night, in search of better pasture ; the Bees go out 

 in the morning in quest of provisions, and return regu- 

 larly to their hives in the boats with the stores they have 

 collected ; this method is continued till the sinking of 

 the boats to a certain depth in the water shows that the 

 hives are sufficiently full, and they are then carried back 

 to their former homes, where their honey is taken out of 

 them." And this is still the practice of the Italians who 

 live near the banks of the Po, the river which Pliny 

 instanced particularly in the above-quoted passage. 



It was the advice of Celsus that after the vernal 

 pastures were consumed, the Bees should be transported 



