26 THE HONEY BEE CAPABIiE OF BEING TAMED. 



asked if my bees had not been subjected to a long course of 

 instruction, to prepare them for public exhibition ; when the 

 very hives which I was opening, contained swarms which 

 had been brought only the day before to my Apiary. 



Before entering upon the natural history of the bee, I 

 shall anticipate some principles in its management, in order 

 to prepare my readers to receive the statements jn my book, 

 without those doubts which would otherwise be very natural, 

 and to convince Ihem that almost any one favorably situated, 

 may safely enjoy the pleasure and profit of a pursuit, which 

 has been most appropriately styled " the poetry of rural 

 economy ; " and that, without being made too familiar with 

 a sharp little weapon, which can most speedily and effectu- 

 ally convert all the poetry into very sorry prose. 



It must be manifest to every thinking mind, that the Crea- 

 tor intended the bee, as truly as he did the horse or the cow, 

 for the comfort of man. In the early ages of the world, and 

 indeed until quite modern limes, honey was almost the only 

 natural sweet ; and the promise of " a land flowing with 

 milk and honey," had then a significance, the full force of 

 which it is difficult for us to realize. The honey bee, there- 

 fore, was created not merely with tlie ability to store up its 

 delicious nectar for its own use, but with certain properties 

 which fitted it to be domesticated, and to labor for man, and 

 without which he would no more have been able to subject 

 it to his control, than to make a useful beast of burden of a 

 lion or a tiger. 



One of the peculiarities which constitutes the very foun- 

 dation, not merely of my system of management, but of the 

 ability of man to domesticate at all so irascible an insect, 

 has never, to my knowledge, been clearly stated by any 

 other writer, as a great and controlling principle. It may 

 be thus expressed : 



