134 VENTILATION. 



decree adequate to the necessities of those who are to occupy 

 them. 



The man who shall succeed in convincing the mass of the 

 people, of -the truth of the views thus imperfectly presented, 

 and whose inventive mind shall devise a cheap and effica- 

 cious way of furnishing a copious supply of pure air for our 

 dwellings and public buildings, our steamboats and railroad 

 cars, will be even more of a benefactor than a Jenner, or a 

 Watt, a Fulton, or a Morse.* 



To return from this lengthy and yet I trust not unprofitable 

 digression. 



In the ventilation of my hive, I have endeavored, as far as 

 possible, to meet all the necessities of the bees, under the 

 varying circumstances to which they are exposed, in our 

 uncertain climate, whose severe extremes of temperature 

 impress most forcibly upon the bee-keeper, the maxim of the 

 Mantuan Bard, 



" Utraque vis pariter apibus metuenda." 



* An able article on tbe subject of ventilation, may be found in the 

 Nov. number of the Horticulturist, for 1850, from the pen of the lament- 

 ed Downing. It seems to have been written shortly after his return 

 from Europe, and when he must have been most deeply impressed by the 

 woful contrast, in point of physical health between the women of 

 America and Europe. While he speaks in just and therefore glowing 

 terms of the virtues of our countrywomen, he says : " But in the 

 signs of physical health and all that constitutes the outward aspect of 

 the men and women of the United States, our countrymen and espe- 

 cially countrywomen, compare most unfavorably with all but the 

 absolutely starving classes on the other side of the Atlantic." Close 

 stoves he has most appropriately styled "little demons," and impure 

 air " the favorite poison of America." His article concludes as fol- 

 lows : 



" Pale countrymen and countrywomen, rouse yourselves ! Consider 

 that God has given us an atmosphere of pure health-giving air forty- 

 five miles high, and ventilate your houses." 



