.^6 BEE-FJRMING. 



FOREIGN BEES. 



Mr. Cotton in his Bee-Book has the following remarks 

 on bees in Siberia : — 



" Although these insects do sufficiently secure to man 

 the fruit of their labours by that admirable form of govern- 

 ment and polity which they observe amongst themselves, 

 yet they are so formed by nature to serve him, whenever 

 he shall see fit to employ them, as to be subject to his 

 directions, and to fly obedient to his call in as orderly a 

 manner as sheep obey the voice of their shepherd. As 

 the herdsman, by the winding of his horn, draws forth 

 horses, mules, goats, &c., from their stalls, and by a second 

 signal leads them to the water, and by a third reconducts 

 them home, in like manner the master of the hives by a 

 blast of his whistle can call all the bees of the village after 

 him, conducting them by this signal sometimes into one 

 field of flowers, sometimes into another, thus taking them 

 by turns, in order to give the flowers time to recruit their 

 stock of sweets, and thereby afford the bees a fresh repast. 

 With another blast of his whistle he leads them back to 

 their hives, when either impending rains or the approach of 

 night gives warning to sound a retreat. 



"This was a very common as well as an ancient 

 practice in the East, and to this the prophet Isaiah alludes 

 when comparing the enemies which God brings upon any 

 nation to afflict it to a swarm of bees which a shepherd 

 calls or dismisses by a signal given. He says: 'The Lord 

 shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost parts of the 

 rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of 

 Assyria.' This custom existed in Asia in the fourth and 

 fifth centuries, and St. Cyril speaks of it as a thing very 

 common in his time, and which he had very often seen." 



