190 



HANDLING BEES. 



only natural sweet; and the promise of "a land flowing 

 with milk and honey" had once a significance which it is 

 difficult for us fully to realize. The honey-bee, therefore, was 

 created not merely to stoi'e up its delicious nectar^for its own 

 use, but with certain propensities, without which man could 



Pig. 89. 



OPENING THE HIVE AND EXAMINING THE COMBS. 



Apiary of Mr. Mont-Jovet, AlbertTille, Savoie. 



no more subject it to his control, than he could make a useful 

 beast of burden of a lion or a tiger. 



SyO. One of the peculiarities which constitutes the fomi- 

 dation of the present system of management, and indeed of 

 the possibility of domesticating at all so irascible an insect, 

 has never to our knowledge been clearly stated as a great and 

 controlling principle by any one before Mr. Langstroth. It 

 may be thus expressed : 



