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by M. M. Tidd, and engraved by D. T. Smith, both of 

 Boston Mass. The cells are of the size of nature. The 

 large ones are drone-cells, and the small ones, worker-cells. 

 The irregular, five-sided cells between them, show how 

 bees pass from one size to another. 



Mr. Cheshire, in his book, has criticized this engraving, 

 on account of the acuteness of the cells of transition, or as 

 he terms them, of accommodation. He writes: "The head 

 of a bee could not reach the bottom of the acute angles as 

 they are represented." Our first impression, on reading 

 the criticism, was that Mr. Cheshire was right. Then the 

 thought that Mr. Langstroth had his engravings made from 

 nature led us to inspect some combs, when we found several 

 cells of accommodation with angles at least as acute as in 

 the cut. But we noticed also that this acuity exists only 

 on the rims of the cells and not inside ; the bees, Inside the 

 cells, having pushed out the walls, to be enabled to reach 

 the bottom of the angles which were thus rounded inside.* 



219. The combs are built with such economy, that the 

 entire construction of a hive of a capacity of nine gallons 

 does not yield more than two pounds of bees-wax when 

 melted. 



According to Dr. Donhoff, the thickness of the sides of 

 a cell in a new comb is only the one hundred and eightieth 

 part of an inch ! Cheshire states that he found some that 

 measured only the four hundreth of an inch. 



220. Most Apiarists before Huber's time supposed that 

 wax was made from pollen, either in a crude or digested 

 state. Confining a new swarm of bees to a hive in a dark 

 and cool room, at the end of five days he found several beau- 

 tiful white combs in their tenement ; these being taken from 

 them, and the bees supplied with honey and water, new 



• Mr. Langstroth wrote to ns, In regard to this criticism of lUr. Cheshire: 

 ' ' This piece of comb was actually copied from nature by a man of extraordi- 

 nary accuracy." 



