114 THE BUILDING OF BEES. 



The following is the first stanza of another poem by one of 

 our later writers: 



' ' Out of the house, where the slumberer lay, 

 Grandfather came one summer day, 



And under the pleasant orchard trees 



He spake this wise to the murmuring bees: 

 ' The clover bloom that kissed her feet 



And the posey bed where she used to play 

 Have honey store, but none so sweet 



As ere our little one went away. 

 O bees, sing soft, and, bees, sing low; 

 For she is gone who loved you so.' " 



(Eugene Field.) 



244. CoMMBRCiAL UsKS OP Pbopolis. — ' ' Dissolved in alcohol 



and filtered, it is used as a varnish, and gives a polish to wood, 

 and a golden color to tin. A preparation made with finely- 

 ground propolis, gum arable, incense, storax, benzoin, sugar, 

 nitre, and charcoal, in quantities varied at will, is moulded 

 into fumigating cones, for perfuming rooms or halls." — (Dubini, 

 Milan, 1881.) 



345. The following letter from a noted Russian Apiarist, 

 to Mr. E. Bertrand, then editor of the Revue Internationale 

 d' Apiculture, will be found of interest: 



"During my pleasant stay at your pretty villa, I spoke to 

 you of the utilization of propolis in the varnish of our wooden 

 ware, which resists the dissolving power of hot water so well. 

 I have just found a description of the process, and will com- 

 municate it to you. 



"Propolis is purchased by hucksters, who pay five copecks — a 

 little over two cents — and sometimes even less, for permission 

 to scrape or plane the propolis from the walls of a, hive that 

 has lost its bees. The shavings, covered with propolis, are 

 heated, put into a wax-press, and subjected to the treatment 

 used in the extraction of beeswax; the propolis is then purified 

 in hot water, to which sulphuric acid is added. About fifty 

 per cent, of propolis is thus obtained, which sells at forty 

 cents per pound. 



