HIVES IN WALLS. 291 



The worthy proprietor had found it necessary to construct 

 a wall on one part of his premises, and being a most rigid 

 economist, he considered by what means he could repay 

 himself for the expenses, which would be incurred in the 

 building of the wall, and he fell upon the following notable 

 plan. The extent of the wall was about sixty yards; at the 

 interval of every yard, he formed a cavity sufficiently capa- 

 cious to hold a swarm of bees, and which was closed in 

 front by a hewn stone, in which a hole was made for the 

 ingress and egress of the bees : which stone could be re- 

 moved at pleasure, when the bees were to be deprived of 

 their stores. When we visited the worthy proprietor, he had 

 forty of these bee-houses well peopled, and in full work, and 

 he informed us, that in three years his bee establishment 

 had amply remunerated him for all expenses incurred in the 

 construction of the wall. 



The number of hives invented, and alleged to be origi- 

 nal, amount as far as our researches have extended, to fifty 

 three, and the number of those, which are mere modifications 

 of other hives, amount to thirty six ; and each of them bears 

 with it the recommendation of possessing some advantage 

 superior to any other, whether referring to the greater 

 harvest of wax and honey, or to the magnitude and number 

 of the swarms. These are however mere chimera?, which it 

 would be folly to pursue; for we know not of any method, 

 nor do we believe that one will ever be discovered, by which 

 a certain and abundant harvest of wax and honey can be 

 obtained ; as that depends upon contingencies, which human 

 skill can neither control nor avoid ; such as the season being 

 more or less favourable to the secretion of the mellifluous 

 juices ; the particular country which the bees inhabit ; the 

 richness or poverty of their pasturage ; the abundance or the 

 scarcity of the trees and flowers from which they extract 

 their honey, all or each of which have a direct influence on 

 the fecundity of the queen, and consequently on the annual 



