104 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
1 believe that it would be a good plan to have the cellar open 
in such a way as would let in the air and keep out the light. 
One morning, March 18, Emma went over to close the 
shop-cellar, the doors having been open all night, and called 
to me that there was as much as a colony of bees flying out- 
side the cellar. The out-door air was 60°, in the cellar 53°, 
and a very bright sun had been shining more than an hour. 
Being broad daylight in the cellar, the bees were well 
aroused, but there were not so very many outside— on the 
wing they made a big show. I took a hive containing a 
light colony and set it beside the door to catch the stragglers 
which were kindly received by the colony. 
SUB- VENTILATION OF CELLARS. 
During warm spells it is more difficult to keep the bees 
quiet in the shop-cellar than in the house-cellar. With 
doors and windows of the former closed there is no pro- 
vision for ventilation, except through the cracks, or the 
opening of a trap-door overhead. In the house-cellar there 
is a sub-ventilation pipe of 4-inch tile, 100 feet in length and 
4 feet deep. This is, I think, quite inadequate for a cellar 
having 31 by 33 feet for the outside measure of its walls, but 
it is enough to make a very favorable difference. It seems 
to me that the time may come when we shall understand 
this matter of sub-ventilation so well that an abundance of 
pure air will always be coming in at such a temperature that 
there will be no need of artificial heat, and no need to pay 
any attention to the bees from the time they are put in till 
they are taken out. The entrance for air through the sub- 
earth tube should be larger than the exit. Just how large 
it should be for every hundred cubic feet of cellar room, how 
long it should be and how deep, are matters that will per- 
haps be only fully learned by experiment. 
