236 
MANAGEMENT IN WINTER. 
clergyman, author of “ Le Consermteur des Abeilles," 
and the discoverer of this supposed fact, shall speak 
for himself. We have never put his discovery' to the 
test of experiment — at least with such minute nocu- 
racy as to warrant us in drawing conclusions, either 
affirmative or otherwise. But from the detail which 
M. Gelieu gives, there appears no great diflicultyjn 
settling the point beyond all doubt, whatever there 
may he in ascertaining the reasons for it, if well- 
founded. “ I expected,” says M. Gelieu, “ that in 
doubling the population, it would be necessary to 
double the supply too. The more mouths, said I to 
myself, the more need of provisions. I consequent- 
ly made a considerable addition to the stores of the 
hives whose population I had augmented; but, to 
my astonishment, when I weighed them at the re- 
turn of spring, I found that their consumption had 
been no greater than that of the single hives. I 
thought I must surely have made some mistake, and 
was not convinced of the fact till I had repeated the 
same experiment a hundred times, and always with 
the same result. I cannot conceive how an army of 
30,000 men can subsist on the supplies necessary for 
an army of only 10,000, supposing the soldiers of 
both to have an equal appetite, and equal means of 
satisfying it. It holds true, however, with the bees ; 
the fact is undeniable ; the reason is to me unknown. 
I leave to minds more penetrating than mine the 
task of discovering and explaining how two large 
families, when united, can live at as little expense as 
either of the two would have done when separated. 
