228 PROTECTION AGAINST STINGS. 



practical department of the apiary, as directly injurious, 

 and utterly destitute of any of those advantages, which the 

 founder or the abettors of the system considered it to 

 possess. 



The French apiarians, wishing to improve upon the system 

 of Schirach, introduced a plan of augmenting the number 

 of hives by dividing the swarms, which they called essaims 

 forces (forced swarms). This plan is, however, but a modifi- 

 cation of the system of Schirach, possessing all its disad- 

 vantages, without any attendant profit. 



In all the operations with bees, and particularly with 

 swarms, we cannot too strongly recommend every one to 

 use that protection, which will place him beyond the power 

 of the infuriated insects to inflict a single wound upon him. 

 It is no sign of courage to enter upon the execution of a 

 task, which is accompanied with danger, and to despise or to 

 discard those means, by which that danger may be obviated 

 or averted. Such conduct degenerates into mere rashness 

 and fool-hardiness, whereas in all the actions of man, whether 

 they have a relation to himself or to the objects of his imme- 

 diate employment or pursuit, a consciousness of safety 

 imparts to him that coolness and presence of mind, which in 

 many transactions are absolutely indispensable in order to 

 insure success, and perhaps in no instance are they more 

 requisite than in the transactions of an apiary. A dozen 

 stings are no trifling injury ; with six only, we have seen a 

 person confined to his bed, and his face so swollen that 

 scarcely a feature could be recognized. It becomes, therefore, 

 the extreme of folly to enter upon any of the experiments, 

 or even the commonest points of practice with bees, without 

 a complete and efficient safeguard. A common veil will in 

 many instances suffice to protect the face, but the bees 

 appear to possess so much cunning, that they will insinuate 

 themselves through the smallest opening, and when the ope- 

 rator thinks himself secure, he will on a sudden experience 



