412 TRANSPORTATION OF HIVES ON THE PO. 



are the most ignorant in the management of the bee. Of its 

 natural history, they know less than the savages of Africa ; 

 they consider themselves very wise in knowing that the bees 

 make honey and wax, but as to any further research into 

 their history, it is beneath the notice of such celestial beings. 



A very ingenious method is practised by the people who 

 inhabit the banks of the Po, in regard to the transportation 

 of their hives. They load the boats according to the manner 

 of the Egyptians, and then transport the hives to the vicinity 

 of the mountains of Piedmont. On their departure, a line 

 is marked out round the boat, from which a scale is drawn, 

 and as the bees collect the honey, the boat sinks deeper into 

 the water ; thus, by looking at the scale, the boatmen know 

 when the bees have gathered a sufficiency of honey, and they 

 then prepare for their return. 



Alexander de Montfort relates, that the people in the 

 vicinity of Juliers generally convey their hives to the foot 

 of the mountains when the wild thyme is in flower. 



M. Valmont de Bomare, in his Dictionary, observes : — 

 " Great is the advantage of being in the vicinity of a naviga- 

 ble river, for by these means the spring of a dry country can 

 be united with the autumn of a fertile and umbrageous one, 

 and thereby ample amends be made for the poverty of the 

 country in which the apiarian may be established." 



M. l'Abbe Tessier, Proutant, and others, inform us, that 

 the proprietors of the bees in La Beauce transport their 

 hives every year in the month of August in carts, into the 

 country of the Gatinois, or to the environs of the forest of 

 Orleans, about the distance of ten miles from their habita- 

 tion. They find heath or buck-wheat in flower at a time 

 when in La Beauce, after the gathering of the sainfoin and 

 the vetches, no further addition can be made by the bees to 

 their winter store. 



This manner of transporting the bees is called in the 

 country, leading them to pasture. A single cart contains 



