326 CONTRADICTIONS OF KEYS. 



will believe it." Now, we have only the evidence of Huber 

 for these impossibilities, and having no other, founded on 

 actual experience, we reject it altogether as fallacious and 

 illusory. 



Not less paradoxical and contradictory is Keys in his 

 statements relative to the effect of cold on bees ; for he 

 asserts primarily, that in proportion to the mildness of the 

 winter and spring, so is the consumption of the stores of 

 the bees ; and in that statement he asserts what is perfectly 

 conformable with truth. He farther asserts that as it is 

 certain that extreme cold has no injurious effects upon 

 bees, it follows, that a cold winter is beneficial to them, 

 as it preserves the food, and in weak hives, that circum- 

 stance is of great importance. Keys however in the follow- 

 ing page (164) says, "The warmer the hives are kept the 

 better." Now this appears to us a gross contradiction, at 

 least, it is a manifest inconsistency, for to tell us in one page 

 that a cold winter is beneficial to them, as it preserves the 

 food ; and in the next to tell us, that the warmer the hives 

 are kept the better, proves at least that Keys had not 

 positively made up his mind upon the subject, and there- 

 fore left it to his readers to adopt whichever opinion they 

 pleased. 



From the foregoing statements we are entitled to draw 

 the conclusion that the mortality of bees is not effected 

 by cold ; but we know to our cost, that many hives are 

 destroyed by the other extreme, namely heat. It must, 

 however, be admitted that in this country, there are few 

 summers, the heat of which is so great as to have an in- 

 jurious effect upon the bees ; but still it becomes the pro- 

 vident bee master to adopt such precautions, that the rays 

 of the sun cannot penetrate to the interior of the hive, which 

 we have known to be the case, where the proprietor has 

 neglected to apply the necessary covering. Huber gives 

 the maximum of the temperature of a hive to be 104°, 



