22 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
creased brown, alternated with blotting-paper, rolled 
up until the diameter of the fire-box is reached, tied 
with string, and then soaked with the nauseating 
material, and placed in the ordinary Bingham, will 
act as well as a specially-made fumigator ; while, if 
corrugated brown paper be substituted for the ordinary, 
the passing air is driven through a multitude of small 
tubes, and is even more fully charged with vapour 
than it would be in travelling through and around a 
sponge. With very savage stocks, Mr. Sproule suggests 
that the creasote, to the amount of a few drops, 
should be rapidly vapourised by being added to the 
burning material in the usual smoker. When so 
employed, no colony can stand against it. He relates 
that one of his, that seemed utterly untamable, gave 
in at once; and Mr. Simmins by this method im- 
mediately vanquished some Syrians — of which more 
anon — which had been the bete noir of his whole 
apiary. 
In thus pointing out the best means of making 
bees succumb to our wishes, variations in race must 
not be overlooked. In former days, I had one or 
two sore battles with Cyprians, which, I have little 
doubt, might have been altogether avoided had I 
then known the special peculiarities of these most 
handsome bees. Their courage is boundless ; but 
their calmness is as marked, and no bees are less 
likely to interfere with a visitor to the apiary, and 
none can do more work with so little external fuss ; 
but they have immense “decision of character,” and 
cannot be conquered, after their antagonism is fully 
aroused, until their ranks are decimated and all are 
