FRENCH SYSTEM OF FEEDING. 239 



natural strength and health, and not allow them to be so 

 reduced by want, as to be scarcely able to imbibe the food 

 which is presented to them. A farmer does not allow his 

 cow nor his horse to be so debilitated for want of food, as 

 to be unable to perform their customary labours, and it is 

 well known that in all creatures, whether they be biped, 

 quadruped, or like the insect multipede, their physical powers 

 cannot be regenerated nor restored to their pristine vigour, 

 if allowed to sink below a particular degree : and it is simi- 

 larly constituted with the bees ; a protracted abstinence 

 from food renders them eventually so weak, that they ap- 

 pear to lose all their natural vigour, and become at last so 

 dispirited, that they die off by degrees, and the proprietor 

 has then to attribute his loss solely to his own improvidence 

 and neglect. 



There is no department of apiarian economy in which the 

 French are more ignorant than in the feeding of their bees ; 

 nor should we have considered their system as worthy of the 

 slightest notice, were we not aware that their prescriptions 

 have been followed by several keepers of bees in this country, 

 and who have consequently lost their hives ; but it was im- 

 possible to impress the conviction upon their minds, that that 

 loss was occasioned by an injurious system of feeding. Thus, 

 Mr. Ducouedic, who as a practical apiarian is in some respects 

 worthy of the highest consideration, recommends a quantity 

 of flour to be mixed with the food ; but on what ground that 

 substance is recommended, we are at a loss to conjecture. As 

 far as our opinion may be valid, we should consider the admix- 

 ture of flour or of any other farinaceous substance, as a direct 

 deterioration of the food, and carrying with it a positively in- 

 jurious effect upon the health of the bees. Flour is as much 

 the natural food of the bee, as a rumpsteak is the food of a 

 horse, and its incorporation with any artificial food, which 

 may be given to the bees will most probably give them the 



