27 
the parliament and a member* of the court, the revolu- 
tionary movements which followed, and his advanced age, 
—made him abandon his enterprise. 
It was in this state of things, that M. Bourdonnaye 
charged me with the solution of his problem on the mode 
of raising bees, and of drawing from them an annual profit, 
without doing them the least injury. He put into my 
hands, the journal of his experiments. It was not until 
after years of attempts, more or less profitable, and re- 
searches, more or less troublesome, that I was convinced 
of the necessity of forgetting, for at least one year, his 
‘hive of two stories, formed from a simple hive of an ordi- 
nary family, under which an empty box had been placed. ‘a 
Here our author inserts a repeated description of the 
Scottish hive, and its defects and uncertainty. Also, a long 
extract from the Corps of Observations of the Society of 
Agriculture, Commerce, and Arts, by the government of 
Bretagne, in the years 1757, ’58, ’59, and 760, which oc- 
cupies the whole of the seventh chapter. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE. 
/ At the opening of the second spring, the Scottish hive 
changes its form and name. It ceases to be a hive of two 
boxes or stories: a third box being put under the two for- 
mer; and then I call it the pyramidal hive, on account of 
its elevation. This hive may have thirty to thirty-six 
inches in height, and ten to twelve in diameter. The 
_ junction of the second and third pannier, must be luted for 
the same purpose as the luting of the first and second. 
M. Bourdonnaye thought that the Scottish hive of two 
stories would be sufficient to secure an annual harvest. 
‘Lo try the experiment, he engaged all the members of the 
Society of Bretagne. For a series of years, they made 
fruitless attempts to obtain, annually, the harvest of a pan- 
nier full of wax and honey, without flies or larvee; and at 
* The Duke of Aiguillon 
