HIVES IN POLAND AND RUSSIA. 243 



modious dwelling, to secure to themselves exclusively the 

 profits of their labours. We are borne out in the truth of the 

 above remark by the circumstance, that even at the present 

 day, the bee is in many parts of Europe, still in the savage 

 state. In Poland, Russia, and many adjacent countries, 

 there are no regular bee hives ; the hollows and cavities of the 

 trees being the places of their habitation, but still they are not 

 considered in the character of ferce natures, for the lords of 

 the soil derive a considerable revenue from the farming of 

 particular districts, the value of which is estimated according 

 to the number of the colonies of bees, which they may con- 

 tain. The price of a district varies from 51. to 251., and 

 although the rights of the farmer of it are scarcely ever in- 

 vaded, yet the difficulty of identifying the swarms is a source 

 of continual feuds. The first step which the Poles made to 

 the domiciliating of the bee, was to hollow out a piece of 

 a middling sized pine tree, of about two yards in height, 

 making an opening in front of the whole length of the 

 hive, by which the comb is extracted, and which is made to 

 open and shut at pleasure by two hinges. From the con- 

 tracted limits of this hive, the bees seldom made more than 

 one or two combs ; and, indeed, the general management 

 of their bees by the Polish peasants, is so directly opposite 

 to all good practice, that it scarcely deserves the slightest 

 mention. 



The trunks of trees were also used in Germany as the 

 original hives of bees, and they were placed perpendicularly 

 in a row, having the direct appearance of a number of 

 clumsy logs of wood. In Spain, the trunks of the box trees 

 are to this day used as bee hives ; and the natives of the 

 country entertain the opinion that the odour of the wood 

 is so agreeable to the insects, that both their health and 

 fecundity are promoted ; which, after all is perhaps nothing 

 more than the effect of the superiority of the climate. 



