202 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
one of which had failed ; and yet the theory is not 
at fault. In the former, the rhomboids are small and 
the cell-walls very wide, most of the material forming 
them being driven from under the dies : each wall, 
in fact, is made by two lots of wax flowing, during the 
squeeze, towards each other, but which never become 
actually one, and, as a result, present little resistance 
to fracture or tensile strain. 
The mischief wrought by the wires amongst the larvae 
led me to experiments which some may yet repeat 
with advantage. I placed on the face of the founda- 
tion, perpendicularly, and at each i^in., lengths of fine 
sewing-cotton, previously dipped into thin glue, pass- 
ing the finger along them, to bring them into contact 
with the incipient cell-walls. The sheets, under try- 
ing conditions, were given to bees, when no trace of 
sagging occurred, for each cell-base acted as a bow, 
of which the cotton was the string, preventing the 
points of attachment from receding from each other. 
The cotton, after some days, is teazed away by the 
bees. A great variety of fibres were experimentally 
used, glued human hair answering much better than 
most. Political economists say that the value of an 
article increases with its scarcity ; so my experiments 
with this material had to be discontinued on the 
ground of extravagance. A young lady, it is true, 
came to my relief with a beautiful lock, but not until 
fine silk had shown itself to be the best substance 
hitherto tried. This was at first built in near the 
base of the cell, but wherever it crossed from wall 
to wall it was soon nibbled completely away. Those, 
then, may venture to give foundation anywhere, and 
