156 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



be serviceable to me in the fertilisation of my fruit or 

 my clover, ho\\- will you prove that I am not obliged to 

 pay too hii;h a price for such serxices?" For the 

 answer to such a question one must fall back upon the 

 researches of the agricultural chemist, w hich will furnish 

 satisfactory evidence to establish the two following 

 facts : First, that saccharine matter, e\en when assimi- 

 lated and retained within the body of a plant, is not one 

 of the secretions of vegetable life w hich can in any way 

 tend to exhaust the soil, being made up of constituents 

 which are furnished exerywhere in superabundance by 

 the atmosphere and rain-water, and not containing any 

 of the mineral or organic substances supplied by the 

 soil or by the manures used in agriculture; and, secondly, 

 that in the form in which it is appropriated by bees, 

 either from the nectaries of flox\ers or as honeydew from 

 the leaves, it no longer constitutes a part of the plant, 

 but is in fact an excrement, thrown ofif as superfluous, 

 which if not collected by the bee and by its means made 

 a\ailable for the use of man would either be devoured 

 by other insects which do not store honey, or be resolved 

 into its original elements and dissipated in the air. 



The foregoing statements can be supported by 

 reference to authorities which can leave no doubt as to 

 their correctness — namely. Sir Humphrey Davy in his 

 " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry," written more 

 than seventy years ago, and Professor T/iebig in his 

 " Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and 

 Physiology," written some ten years later, and the 

 English version of which is edited by Dr. Lyon Playfair 

 and Professor Gregory. These works, which may be 

 said to form the foundation of a rational system of 

 agriculture, were written with that object alone in view, 

 and the passages about to be quoted were not intended 

 to support any theory in favour of bee-culture or other- 

 wise ; they deal simply with scientific truths which the 

 layman can safely follow and accept as true upon such 

 undeniable authority, although he may be incapable 

 himself of following up the processes which have led 

 to their discovery or which prove their fcorrectness, 



