98 
vered with furze and broom, furnish an abundant supply. 
Their harvest continues as long as the vegetation of the — 
eee 
that is over, the succeeding fruits furnish immense resources 
for the bees. Finally, in the autumn, when every thing 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
A VIEW OF SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM THE 
INVENTION OF THE PYRAMIDAL HIVE. Bn, 
One chief advantage which society owes to the pyramidal 
hive is, the preservation of the bees.. They will subsist for — 
centuries, if they be not destroyed by unforeseen causes, — 
which no attentions could prevent. There is no necessity — 
to destroy, rob, smoke, or transvase them, to obtain their — 
yearly products. They, of their own mere motion and in- 
stinct, surrender, annually, to their proprietors, a box full — 
wax and honey, when they descend from the upper to the — 
lower stories, to continue their labours. 3) 
Another advantage derived from the pyramidal hive is, 
that the honey collected in this manner, is always extreme- _ 
ly pure. It is not infected by dead bees, nor the old sloughs 
of the nymphs, nor couvain remaining in the cells, which 
are always corrupted when the bees are destroyed or trans- 
vased by smoke. Ms 
If this pure honey be not pressed with the wax, but al- 
lowed to flow spontaneously from the cells, there is no — 
doubt it would have much less of that disagreeable taste, — 
which it contracts when pressed from combs filled with — 
dead bees, old nymphs, and couvain. 
It is presumable that this observation will be understood, 
and it will be readily conceived, that honey extracted in — 
this manner, must be infinitely superior to that furnished 
by ordinary manipulation, and that it would be much easier 
to blanch and convert into common or refined sugar. 
sll BSS eg) Fee 
