Part I 



The Honey-Makers 



STRUCTURE, HABITS, AND PRODUCTS OF 

 THE HONEY-BEE 



Literature is filled with the Honey- makers and their in- 

 comparable gift, which appears now as ambrosia, now as 

 nectar, and always as the synonym of sweetness unsur- 

 passed. 



The Vedic poets sang of honey and the dawn at the 

 same moment, and all the succeeding generations of India 

 hav^e chanted honey and its maker into their mythologies, 

 their religions, and their loves. 



The philosophers of Greece esteemed the bee, and with- 

 out honey and the bee the poets of Hellas would have 

 lacked expressions of sweetness that all succeeding ages 

 have seized upon as consummate. 



The Latin writers studied the bee not only for its use- 

 fulness as a honey-maker, but because of its unique character 

 for industry, for its skill as a builder, and for its wonderful 

 sagacity in its social organization. 



The writers of the middle ages were not only familiar 

 with what had been said in the classics, but themselves 

 knew the bee, its virtues, and its uses in hterature. 



Modern writers are principally concerned with the struc- 

 ture and habits of the bee as revealed by modern science. 



