THE HONEY-BEE. 
nr 
elaboration does take place in the food with which 
he had supplied his bees ; and that the sugar with 
which he fed them had precisely the taste and flavour 
of honey. Our experience, if we may venture to 
differ in the matter from men so deservedly celebrated 
for attainments in natural science, leads us, with 
Hunter and Bonner, to a different conclusion. We 
have repeatedly tasted the syrup of sugar, which we 
had seen the bees taking from the feeding-trough, 
and depositing in the cells, and could never discover 
the slightest difference in any respect, at least so far 
as taste and flavour are concerned. Perhaps the 
liquid was clearer — we sometimes imagined it was — 
if so, this constituted the only difference. 
The secretion of honey depends greatly on the 
state of the atmosphere. During the prevalence of 
dry easterly winds, the fields present to the bees no- 
thing but barrenness ; their out-door labours are sus- 
pended, and but for the already hoarded stores, the 
brood would be in imminent danger of starvation. 
But when the weather is moist and sultry, and the 
air charged with electricity, the circulation of this 
vegetable fluid is considerably accelerated, and the 
bees know well how to avail themselves of so favour- 
able a juncture for collecting their treasure. Huber 
remarks, that the collection is never more abundant 
nor their operations in wax more active, than when the 
wind is from the south, the air moist and warm, and 
a storm approaching. Heat too long protracted, how- 
ever, and its concomitant drought, — chill rains and 
a north wind, entirely suspend the elaboration of 
