374 HONEY. 



the season of its greatest abundance, the happy, humming 

 noise of the bees may be heard at a considerable distance 

 from the trees, sometimes nearly equaling in loudness the 

 united hum of swarming." — (Bevan.) 



In some seasons, honey-dews yield such extraordinary 

 supplies, that bees will often fill their hives in a few days. 

 If furnished with empty combs, they will store a prodigious 

 amount ; but no certain reliance can be placed upon this 

 article of bee-food, as in some years, there is very little, 

 while it is abundant only once in three or four years. 

 The honey obtained from this source, is generally good, 

 though seldom as clear as that gathered from the choicest 

 blossoms. 



The quality of honey varies exceedingly, some is dark, 

 and often bitter and disagreeable, while occasionally being 

 gathered from poisonous flowers, it is very noxious to the 

 human system. 



An intelligent Mandingo African, informed a lady of my 

 acquaintance, that in his country, they dare not eat unsealed 

 honey, until it is first boiled. In some of the Southern 

 States, unsealed honey is generally rejected. It appears to 

 me highly probable that most of the noxious properties of 

 the honey gathered from poisonous flowers, are evaporated 

 while thickening in the cells, before it is sealed over by the 

 bees. Boiling the honey, would seem to expel them much 

 more effectually, as some persons who are not able to 

 eat even the best honey wiih impunity, find it harmless after 

 it has been boiled ! Honey improves by age, and many are 

 able to use with impunity, that which has been long in the 

 hive, and which is much milder than any freshly gathered by 

 the bees. 



Honey, when taken from the bees, should be put where it 

 will be safe from all intruders, and not exposed to so low 



