BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



discover virtues in honey which had been well- 

 nigh forgotten. Old systems were clumsy and 

 uncertain, and yielded, at the best, but poor results. 

 Our modern plans give us complete mastery of our 

 bees, and enable us to obtain from five to ten times 

 the weight of honey from a single stock that the old 

 hands ever secured. Their honey in the comb was 

 generally stained, always irregular, and never to be 

 touched without leaving a sticky trail ; ours, if we 

 know the art, is faultless in colour, flat as marble slabs, 

 and would not sully the daintiest glove. Theirs, when 

 " drained," or "squeezed," was often dirty and con- 

 taminated by brood juices; ours, thrown out by the 

 extractor, is bright and clear, and of perfect purity. 

 It is no wonder, then, that purchasers increase and 

 apiculture is stimulated. There is a charm, too, in 

 modern bee-keeping, which never existed when the 

 hive was a sealed book and the bee supposed to 

 possess two points of interest only, and those at its 

 extremities — ■ its tongue and its sting — which had 

 nothing particular between them — to use the words 

 of a humorous writer — save " skin and squash." 



The amateur, the naturalist, and the trader, alike 

 find more to delight and attract than was formerly 

 possible, while the general public are beginning to be 

 more alive to the advantages which honey possesses 

 as a food. Apiculture, then, has a raison d'etre 

 which assures its permanence, a pleasing thought to 

 those who know how much bees have to do with 

 securing for us a fruit crop, and fertilising many of 

 the plants cultivated by the farmer. 



