POLLEN. : 123° 
ascertained by tasting the little pellets, which in the hurry 
are loosened from their baskets, and fall to the bottom of 
the flour box. In fine, mild weather, they labor at this 
work with great industry; preferring the meal to the old 
pollen stored in their combs. They thus breed early, and 
rapidly recruit. their numbers. The feeding is continued 
till, the blossoms.furnishing a preferable article, they cease 
to carry off the meal. 
We will here add that, as a rule, colonies that do not 
carry in meal or pollen, at the opening of Spring, are.without 
brood, either because they are queenless, or from want of 
honey, or from some other cause. 
The discovery of flour, as a substitute for pollen, removes 
avery serious obstacle to the culture of bees. In many 
districts, there is for a short time such an abundant supply 
of honey, that almost any number of strong colonies will, 
in a good season, lay up enough for themselves, and a large 
surplus for their owners. In many of these districts, how- 
ever, the supply of pollen is often quite insufficient, and in 
Spring, the swarms of the previous year are so destitute, 
that unless the season is early, the production of brood is 
seriously checked, and the colony cannot avail itself prop- 
erly of the superabundant harvest of honey. 
268. As bees carry on their bodies the pollen, or fertil- 
izing substance, they aid most powerfully in the impregna- 
tion of plants, while prying into the blossoms in search of 
honey or bee-bread. In genial seasons, fruit will often set 
abundantly, even if no bees are kept in its vicinity; but 
many Springs are so unpropitious, that often during -the 
critical period of blossoming, the sun shines for only a few 
hours, so that those only can reasonably expect a remuner- 
ating crop whose trees are all murmuring with the pleasant 
lum of bees. 
269. One of the laws of Nature is that the crossing of 
the races produces offspring with greater vigor, endurance, 
