GLASS HIVES. 
55 
or in the public parts of some of our cities, hives con- 
taining tumblers, some of them neatly filled, others 
empty, and this magic sentence written upon them, 
not to he filled 1 Pretending to govern the bees, as the 
j uggler sometimes does his tricks, by mysterious in- 
cantations 1 I once encountered an agent of this hum- 
bug, and modestly suggested to him that I had a coun- 
ter charm : that I could put a tumbler on his hive 
and it would be filled if the others were, however much 
he might forbid it by written charms! He saw at a 
glance how the matter stood ; I was not the customer 
he wanted, and intimated that the show was only in- 
tended for the extreme verdancy of most visitors. It 
no doubt assisted in displaying his profound knowledge 
in bee management, which <he wished to establish, as 
he had a little work on the subject to sell, also hives, 
and bees. The reader no doubt will guess as I did, 
the reason that those tumblers were not filled, was be- 
cause no combs were put in for a start. 
PERFECT OBSERVATORY HIVE DESCRIBED. 
There are many things pertaining to bees that can- 
not be properly examined and understood, without a 
glass hive of some sort. Yet a perfect observatory 
hive containing but one comb, is not a perfect hive for 
the bees. We can see very well what the bees are 
doing, but it is not a tenement they would choose if 
left to themselves. It forces them to labor in an un- 
natural manner, is unsuitable for wintering bees, and 
otherwise but little profit. If the satisfaction of wit* 
nessing some of their operations more perfectly than 
