viii. Contents. 



CHAPTER XXXI.— BEE-KEEPING IN BAR-FRAME HIVES. 



Beginner's kit — How to get your bees — Transferring from trees Page. 

 — Foundation comb — Home made foundation comb — Gloves — 

 The smoker — Swarm catcher — Uncapping knife — Solar ex- 

 tractor 235-241 



CHAPTER XXXII.— BEE-WINTERING. 



"Apiology" — Climatic changes — Essentials for bee-life and 

 health — Winter feeding — Kind of food — Temperature — 

 Huber's experiment — Ventilation — Numerical strength of 

 colony — Outside protection — Internal dampness . . . . 242-249 



CHAPTER XXXIII.— NOTES ON HONEY. 



Virgil — Honeys from Crete, &c. — Cuban honey — Parramatta 

 and Gordon honey — Orange blossom honey — Almond flavored 

 — White box, yellow box, and prickly tea-tree honey — 

 Uses of honey 250-251 



CHAPTER XXXIV— THE VALUE OF BEESWAX. 

 Prices for wax — Wax production — Nature's economy — Huber's 

 experiments by forced production — Bees lengthen the cells 

 — Adulteration — Demand for beeswax — Profits — Alcohol — 

 Specific gravity — Cheshire on adulterations — Testing for 

 adulterations — Discoloration — Causes — Moulding — Black 

 combs — Loss of wax — Solar extractor — Apis dorsata . . 252-256 



CHAPTER XXXV.— THE INFLUENCE OF BEES ON CROPS. 



Essential addenda for crops — Nature's reproductive army — 

 Flowering and flowerless plants — No bees, no fruit — Butter- 

 flies — Cross-pollenisation — Reproductive organs of plant 

 life — Nature's use for blossoms — Stamens and pestils — 

 Fructification of entomophilous flowers, &c. — Parts of a 

 blossom and their uses — Bees and pollen or bee-bread — 

 The corolla — The calyx — Daylight and twilight flowers — 

 The nectary — Analogy between flowers and insects — Dar- 

 win on orchids — Male and female flowers on different plants 

 — Pollen for sale — Nature's safeguard against in-and-in re- 

 production — Herodotus — Apples and pears — A grain of pollen 

 necessary for every grain of seed — Cause of mis-shapened 

 fruits — Matrimonial ceremonies — Conjugal traits of plant 

 life — Bees gathering pollen — Adaptation of bees' bodies 



for pollen gathering — Ovule receives the "germ of life" 



Accomplished — How fruit becomes mature — Bees make no 

 mistakes — Work of butterfly and bee contrasted — Influence 

 of dust and rain storms on fruit crops — Destruction caused 



by insects other than bees — Bees have few enemies The 



fall of unpollenised fruits. . . . . . . . . . . 257-273 



