110 miner's AMERICAN 



melted bees-wax, fastened a few pieces of clean, new 

 combs in the hive, and saturated them with honey, I then 

 hived the bees, and set the hive in a new location, and 

 fed them plentifully with pure honey. The next day, 

 another swarm deserted, of the same character ; leaving 

 a little brood and no honey. I hived them also, pre- 

 cisely in the same way, and fed both swarms with as 

 much pure honey as they could consume, or carry 

 away. I found that both swarms began to build combs 

 rapidly, it being very warm weather for the season ; but 

 not a solitary pellet of farina was brought into the hives, 

 as I could discover ; and none being in the combs that 

 I fastened in myself, how can it be possible that wax is 

 formed from any other substance than honey ? I think 

 my own experiments have settled the question, in con- 

 nection with the general economy of the bee in wax- 

 working, that has come under my own observation — 

 that is, so far as my own opinion on the subject is con- 

 cerned, but lest some of my readers should still require 

 further proof, I will now give the experiments of the 

 " Prince of apiarians" on this subject, as a quietus. 



THE EXPERIMENTS OF HUBER, SHOWING THAT BEES WORK 

 IN WAX WHEN CONFINED, AND FED ON HONEY OR 

 SUGAR ONLY. 



He says : " The existence of the organs before de- 

 scribed, and the scales seen under different gradations, 

 induce us to believe them appropriated for the secretion 

 of wax. But in common with other animal and vege- 



