INCONVENIENCES OF THE STORIFYING SYSTEM. 257 



accounts for the lateness, in which a storied hive throws off 

 its swarms, that is, if it throw any at all ; for we were once 

 in correspondence with a most strenuous advocate for the 

 storifying system, who possessed so much candour as to 

 admit, that he had few or no swarms from his storied hives ; 

 but then he tried to argue himself into the convenient con- 

 viction, that swarms were by no means beneficial, and ought 

 to be prevented. He, therefore, congratulated himself that 

 he had adopted a system, by which that advantage was so 

 easily and decidedly obtained. By degrees, however, his eyes 

 began to be opened to certain disadvantages connected with 

 the storifying system, and the knowledge of some of them led 

 him to the discovery of others, and ultimately to the renun- 

 ciation of the system altogether. 



One of the greatest and most serious inconveniences of 

 the storifying system is, the transversal separation of the 

 combs for the purpose of dividing the stories, and the evil of 

 which is greater in summer than in winter, on account of 

 the greater flaccidity of the combs in the former than in the 

 latter. The stories are generally separated by means of a 

 wire passed between them, and when the combs are in a 

 soft and tender state, they are apt to be crushed, rather than 

 yield to the incision of the wire. A risk is thus incurred 

 of the combs falling upon each other, and a number 

 of the bees, and perhaps the queen, are killed. 



One of the greatest drawbacks to the storied hives is the 

 flatness of the top, and this defect is even acknowledged by 

 the staunchest advocates of the system. In the summer, 

 the perspiration settles on the top, and thence falls in drops 

 on the bees ; and it was to obviate this evil, that Madame 

 Vicat placed a piece of tin, bored with little holes, on the 

 top of her boxes or stories, through which the perspiration 

 could exude, and Schirach recommends the adoption of the 

 same plan. 



Mr. Lombard, an apiarian of no mean celebrity, was very 

 m 5 



