HIVE OP HUISH. 



283 



a moment the loungers in the National GaDery of Science, 

 but its general introduction is wholly out of the question. 



With the knowledge of the many defects and disadvan- 

 tages exhibited by the various hives now in use, we considered 

 it possible to construct one on those principles, which, would 

 obviate those disadvantages, and at the same time combine 

 beauty with utility. Of all the materials which have been 

 used for the making of hives, the conviction is strongly 

 impressed upon us, that straw is by far the best. It is clean, 

 wholesome, dry, impervious to the effects of the weather ; 

 which are advantages not to be gained by wood or any other 

 material. Being a warm advocate for the deprivation of a 

 hive, in preference to the massacre of the bees, the parti- 

 cular shape of the hive became a matter of the first consi- 

 deration, and secondly, so to construct it that the use of the 

 sticks could be entirely abolished. In some parts of Greece, 

 the hives resemble exactly a large flower pot ; and we con- 

 sidered that the shape offered to us every advantage which 

 we were desirous of obtaining. The combs being begun at 

 the top would necessarily be larger than at the bottom, and 

 thus, acting upon the principles of the wedge, they would be 

 prevented from falling down, and the extraction of them 

 from the top would, in comparison from the bottom, be a 

 matter of great facility. In order, however, to effect the ex- 

 traction of the combs from the top, it was evident that 

 that advantage could not be gained, were the top of the 

 hive to be of one piece, for as such it could not be 

 lifted, without moving the 

 whole mass of the combs, 

 which in the first place would 

 be next to an impossibility, 

 and in the second, would 

 tend to the utter ruin of the 

 hive. Having therefore con- 

 structed a hive of the shape 



n 6 



