Advantages of Bee-keeping. 7 



corked with sound corks. If these are grainy, the 

 wine will be liable to be tainted. 



' ' A sparkling mead may be produced by bottling 

 the wine before the fermentation has quite ceased ; or 

 by introducing into each bottle of the maturer wine 

 a small quantity from another cask in process of 

 fermentation. In this case the corks will, of course, 

 require stringing or wiring over. " 



Thus far Mr. Bancks. There is no doubt that the 

 reader will desire to make his further acquaintance 

 and see what a wonderful thing pure honey is, and 

 what a lot of things can be done with it. 



But bees are also of immense use to the gardener 

 and farmer as fertilizers, and this should be well 

 understood. Bees are the most useful insects in our 

 gardens. It is true they have been accused of spoil- 

 ing fruit, but this is false. A very great authority 

 on this subject is Professor Cook of the Agricultural 

 College, Michigan, U.S.A. He says that after very 

 careful observation, he has come to the conclusion 

 that bees never attack soundlrvcA. themselves. Wasps 

 and other insects commence the onslaught, and then 

 sometimes bees carry it on, but they do not commence 

 the attack. Bees have especially been blamed for 

 assaults on grapes, and the learned Professor Cook 

 knowing this well, caused a large quantity of grapes 

 to be continually watched. The result was, that the 

 bees were dismissed without a stain on their character. 



Even if they were guilty, their guilt is more than 



