98 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



lower end. Twelve inches from the point or lower end 

 bend the rod at right angles. Two inches higher up bend 

 again at right angles, leaving the rod straight except that 

 knee of two inches, upon which you can set your foot and 

 drive it in the ground as when spading. 



The cloth used for the shade is about as large as an 

 ordinary bed-sheet," and is usually the linen lap-robe, 

 which is always at hand, and on which a string is kept 

 tied on each corner so as to be always ready to set up in 

 a twinkling. This string has both ends tied around the 

 cloth at the corner, leaving the string in the form of a 

 loop. The loop is thrust through the eye of the standard, 

 looped back over the eye, and there you are. 



When the sun is not far from the horizon, only two 

 standards are used, from which the lap-robe hangs as a 

 wall between the operator and the sun. 



FEEDING MEAL. 



I used to read about feeding meal in the spring. I 

 tried it, put out rye-meal, and not a bee would touch it ; 

 baited them with honey, and if they took the honey they 

 left the meal. Finally, one day, I saw a bee alight on a 

 dish of flour set in a sunny place. It went at it in a 

 rollicking manner as if delighted. I was more delighted. 

 At last I had in some way got the thing right, and my 

 bees would take meal. The bee loaded up, and lugged off 

 its load, and I waited for it and others to come for more. 

 They didn't come, and that was the first and last load 

 taken that year. I cannot tell now exactly when the 

 change came about, neither do I know that I have done 

 anything different, but I have no trouble now in getting 

 the bees to take bushels of meal. I suppose the simple 

 explanation is that there was plenty of natural pollen for 

 the few bees I had in the first years, but not enough for 

 the larger number of colonies I had later. 



