176 
THE farmer’s MANUAL- 
tiie cavities of their hinder legs. The Bee roams 
from flower to flower in quest of this substance, and 
never quits the species of flower on which she first 
alights, until she has collected her load, and returned 
with it to her hive, where she is unburthened of her 
load, by the attending labourers. This is performed 
with their teeth, and the treasure deposited in a cell, 
and pressed close with their hinder feet. This pol- 
len, or farina, is placed at the bottoms of the cells, 
until they are about half full, and then covered with 
honey until the cell is filled; this secures the pollen 
from both air and moisture ; and thus, by their won- 
derful sagacity, they screen their food from the two 
elements, which, if they found access to it, would 
sour and destroy it. This perishable property in 
farina, shows, also, that it is not wax, although it is 
the substance from which wax is made, for wax is 
imperishable, either from air, or water; wax is solu- 
ble with heat, pollen is not; wax will float on water, 
but pollen sinks in water; all these particulars show, 
that pollen is not wax, yet all Apiarians are agreed, 
that wax is the result of certain operations which 
pollen undergoes by the management of the Bees, 
yet they are not agreed how' this is performed ; the 
Bee has never disclosed the secret, and probably 
never will. All are agreed, that farina is converted 
into wax, by the mouth of the Bee, and many, that 
the digestine powers of the stomach are brought into 
action to aid the process ; hut, even here, all becomes 
conjecture again, and the question is left as undeter- 
mined, as how the leaf of the mulberry is converted 
into silk, by the mouth and stomach of the silk- worm ; 
so much behind the curtain, and so concealed from 
the research of man, are these two useful, common 
and valuable operations of nature. The use of pol- 
len as food for the Bees, and more particularly for 
the broods, may be illustrated more fully by the fol- 
lowing fact. “ Mr. Huber had a stock of Bees in a 
glass hive, with twelve partitions; the queen of 
