HIVE OF WHITE. 277 



bee. Astonishing and most marvellous indeed would be the 

 benefit of the mirror hive if, as Huber asserts, it could force 

 the bees to make wax of honey, and honey of sugar ; being 

 two acts, which bees never yet performed ; but which in 

 defiance of all truth, have been disseminated by Huber as 

 verified by himself, and proper to be received into the 

 natural history of the Bee, as one of his indisputable 

 facts. 



THE HIVE OF WHITE. 



The Reverend Mr. White, of Holton in Suffolk, has con- 

 tributed much to improve the storifying system. For the 

 construction of his hive, he gives the following directions. 

 It may be made of deal or any well seasoned boards, which 

 are not apt to warp or crack. The thickness of these boards 

 should be nearly one inch, the shape of the box square, and 

 its height and breadth nine inches and five-eighths * every 

 way, measuring within. With these dimensions, the hive 

 will contain nearly a peck and a half of bees. A door must 

 be cut in the front part of it, in the middle of the bottom 

 edge, three inches wide, and nearly half an inch in depth, 

 which will give free egress and ingress to the bees, and yet 

 not sufficiently large to admit the entrance of a mouse. A 

 hole must be cut in the back part of it, with a rabbet in it, 

 in which a pane of glass must be fixed about five inches 

 high and three broad, and fastened with putty. The top 

 of the glass must be placed as high as the roof within- 

 side, where the bees mostly congregate with their stores. 

 By these means, a more correct judgment can be formed 

 of their state and strength, than if the glass were fixed in 

 the middle. The glass must be covered with another piece 

 of board by way of shutter, which may be made to hang by 



* A certain baronet, celebrated for his scientific pursuits, wishing to be 

 rather severe upon the worthy clergyman for the extreme minuteness in 

 his admeasurements, wrote to him to know if six-eighths would not do as 

 well as five-eighths; the minister answered, that it only required perhaps one- 

 eighth to make him a perfect fool, and he was most welcome to it. 

 N 3 



