THE HONEY-BEE. 
173 
from the non-conducting quality of the material of 
which the former are constructed. The latter are 
more easily kept clean — they furnish better means 
of defence against vermin — they are a great deal 
more durable, and afford a much greater facility for 
operating experimentally, and studying the nature of 
their interesting inmates. And what is always of 
importance in matters of rural economy, their cost, 
at least as regards the simpler kinds, is very little 
more than that of the straw hives ; and if we take 
their durability into account, it is actually less. But 
the nature of the material of which they are made, 
rendering them easily affected by variations of the 
external temperature, furnishes an important and 
well-founded objection ; for notwithstanding all the 
precautions used, no practicable or manageable thick- 
ness of material, nor wrappings of straw ropes and 
straw covers have been found effectual in remedying 
this defect. We are of opinion, therefore, that those 
who cultivate bees for the sake of their produce only, 
and who have no particular desire to study minutely 
their natural history, or to witness their proceedings 
in the interior of their dwellings, will do well to ad- 
here to hives of straw ; and of these, by far the best 
in our estimation, is the storied straw hive of Wild- 
man, already described. 
There is a greater variety of form and structure in 
the wooden hives, than in those of straw; but the 
storied kinds, of various dimensions, are most gener- 
ally used. Wildman has invented one of this kind, 
for a long and somewhat unintelligible description of 
