272 ENEMIES OF BEES. 



As says the Prophet Joel, speaking of the ravages of the 

 locust, ' the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and 

 behind them a desolate wilderness.' Look out, brethren 

 bee lovers, and have your hives of the best unshaky, un- 

 knotty stock, with close fitting joints, and well covered with 

 three or four coals of paint. He who shall be successful 

 in devising the means of ridding the bee world of this de- 

 structive and mercilous pest, will richly deserve to be crowned 

 ' King Bee,' in perpetuity, to be entitled to a never-fading 

 wreath of budding honey flowers, from sweetly breathing 

 fields, all murmuring with bees, to be privileged to use, 

 during his natural life, ' night tapers from their waxen 

 thighs,' best wax candies, (two to the pound I) to have an 

 annual offering from every bee-master, of ten pounds each,^ 

 of very best virgin honey, and to a body guard, for protec- 

 tion against all, foes, of thrice ten thousand workers, all 

 armed and equipped, as Nature's law directs. Who shall 

 have these high honors.'" 



It might seem highly presumptuous for me, at this early date 

 to lay claim to them, but I beg leave to enroll myself among 

 the list of honorable candidates, and to cheerfully submit my 

 pretensions to the suffrages of all intelligent bee-keepers. 



I have already spoken of the ravages of the mouse, and 

 described the way in which ray hives are guarded against its 

 intrusion. That some kinds of birds are fond of bees, every 

 Apiarian knows, to his cost ; still, I cannot advise that any 

 should, on this account, be destroyed. It has been stated to 

 me, by an intelligent observer, that the King-bird, which de- 

 vours them by scores, confines himself always, in the seasons 

 of drones, to those fat and lazy gentlemen of leisure. I fear 

 however, that this, as the children say, " is too good news to 

 be true," and that not only the industrious portion of the busy 

 community fall a prey to his fatal snap, but that the luxuri- 



