130 



THE BEE-HIVES. 



276. To get the honey from the gums, or boxes, the 

 bee-keepers used at first to drive the bees to another hive 

 (574) and take all the contents. But most of the thus 

 impoverished colonies perished. This led to the thought 

 that killing bees would be more facile, and the brim- 

 stone-pit was invented. This killing of bees was so cus- 

 tomary that, about one hundred years ago, Joseph II, 

 Emperor of Austria, decreed that every bee-keeper who 

 would cut the combs in Spring, instead of brimstoning 

 the bees, would receive one florin (about forty cents) per 

 colony. 



Fig. 4fi. 

 STRAW HIVE, WITH CAP. 



(From Hamet.) 



Fig. 47. 



BOX HIVE, WITH CAP. 



(From Hamet.) 



277. Nearly sixty years ago, our senior, then a boy, 

 saw this harvesting of combs for the first time. Clothed with 

 a heavy linen frock, equipped with a mask of wire, 

 strong enough to be sword-proof, and sweating under a 

 scorching sun in this heavy garment, he helped (?) the old 

 priest of his village to prune about twenty colonies., removing 

 the back combs with a curved knife, from the upturned 

 hives. It was in April ; and, while the crop thus harvested 



