GLASS HIVES. 55 



or in the public parts of some of our cities, hives con- 

 taining tumblers, some of them neatly filled, others 

 empty, and this magic sentence written upon them, 

 not to le filled I Pretending to govern the bees, as the 

 j uggler sometimes does his tricks, by mysterious in- 

 cantations ! I once encountered an agent of this hum- 

 bug, and modestly suggested to him that I had a coun- 

 ter charm : that I could put a tumbler on his hive 

 and it would be filled if the others were, however much 

 he might forbid it by written charms I He saw at a 

 glance how the matter stood ; I was not the customer 

 he wanted, and intimated that the show was only in- 

 tended for the extreme verdancy of most visitors. It 

 no doubt assisted in displaying his profound knowledge 

 in bee management, which he wished to establish, as 

 he had a little work on the subject to sell, als(J hives, 

 and bees. The reader no doubt will guess as I did, 

 the reason that those tumblers were not filled, was be- 

 cause no combs were put in for a start. 



PERFECT OBSERVATORY HIVE DESCRIBED. 



There are many things pertaining to bees that can- 

 not be properly examined and understood, without a 

 glass hive of some sort. Yet a perfect observatory 

 hive containing but one comb, is not a perfect hive for 

 the bees. We can see very well what the bees are 

 doing, but it is not a tenement they would choose if 

 left to themselves. It forced them to labor in an un- 

 natural manner, is unsuitable for wintering bees, and 

 otherwise but little profit. If the satisfaction of wit- 

 nessing some cf their operations more perfectly than 



