EXTRACTED HONEY. 



453 



and by, however, owing to very favorable conditions, the wild 

 woods swarmed with bees in the "hollow trees,'' and the bee- 

 hunter made his appearance. Thousands of trees fell under 

 his ax, to yield the sweets that they contained. Bee-hunting 

 became an occupation in some of our forests. The method 

 followed to find the colonies established in hollow trees, was to 

 place a bait of honey in some open spot, attracting the bees by 

 burning a little of the comb. When the bees had formed a 

 bee-line from the honey to their abode, a new baiting place was 



Fig. 203. 



COWAN HONEY EXTRACTOR. 



started in a diagonal position to the first. The meeting place 

 of both lines was of cour.se the spot occupied by the swarm. 



This rough-and-ready bee-keeping, or rather bee-killing, pro- 

 duced comparatively large quantities of honey; but, as this 

 honey was nearly always badly broken up and mixed with 

 pollen, dead bees, and rotten wood, it became customary to 

 boil the honey, so as to force the impurities and the wax to 

 rise on top with the scum. Hence the cheap, liquid, dirty and 



