180 miner's AMEEICAN 



humbug of a bottom-board, to make it " take" with the 

 public ! 



STRAW HIVES. 



Straw hives are not much used in this country ; and 

 they never would have been made in any country, but 

 for their cheapness. The peasantry of Europe, who are 

 not able to furnish their apiaries with wooden hives, still 

 continue in the use of those made of straw. I consider 

 this kind of hive as wholly unfit for the use of people 

 who live in a land of plenty, and who are able to make 

 wooden ones at a rate but a little dearer than those made 

 of straw. Straw hives are only worthy of a state of 

 abject poverty, and I hope that I shall never see one in 

 use in this land of milk and honey, where every man 

 can sit down to his " roast beef and plum pudding," and 

 go to bed with his pockets jingling with " mint drops." 



LOG HIVES. 



Every one, I presume, has seen hives made from hol- 

 low trees, by cutting aS the log of a suitable length, and 

 then nailing a board on the opening at the top. This is 

 a much better hive than those made of straw. These 

 log-hives are called "gums," in some parts of the coun- 

 try. I recommend this kind of hive to those who wish 

 to keep bees without any expense whatever. There is no 

 principle of the habits and economy of the bee, that 

 conflicts with log-hives ; yet when boards are as cheap 

 as they are, in tho^e sections of the country that abound 



