bee-keeper's manual. 329 



ground, endeavoring to rise on the wing, but cannot. 

 To the experienced bee-keeper, this is no news ; but I 

 make mention of it for the benefit of those who are inex- 

 perienced in bee-culture, and who might, perhaps, be 

 led to think, that a deadly strife was going on in the 

 apiary. Such bees as are seen under these circum- 

 stances, are imperfect or disabled, and come into ex- 

 istence with a broken wing or leg, or possess some 

 imperfection, that consigns them to immediate ejection 

 from the hive. 



DISEASES OF BEES. 



Long epistles have been written upon this subject, and 

 more, as I have thought, to fill up, and swell the pages 

 of works on the bee, than to benefit the public, by 

 stating interesting facts. I shall simply say, that 

 we need not trouble ourselves in the least, about 

 " dysentery," " vertigo," " tumefaction of the antennm," 

 "faux convain," &c. All we have to do is, to afford 

 our bees a plenteous infusion of pure air, at the bottom 

 of the hives during summer and winter, and see that 

 famine is not at their door, and the foregoing diseases 

 will all vanish from our apiaries. 



ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. 



The skill and mathematical knowledge exhibited by 

 the bee in her architecture has astonished philosophers 

 and scientific men of every age. It has been fully demon- 

 strated, that the same space occupied by their cells cannot 

 possibly be filled with any shaped vessels, that will either 



