18 
BEE-CULTURE. 
vessel that is to contain the honey — then set the combs on 
their edges on these sticks, and all the liquid honey will 
settle below. A better way is to keep the lionoy in the box 
in which it was made until ready to use. 
POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 
The impregnating substance of the flowers of fruits and 
plants is a kind of farina or flour, in consistence much the 
same as rye flour, and which, when gathered by the bees, is 
called Pollen, or Bee-bread. It is collected from ragweed, 
dandelion, pnmpkin, and many other kinds of flowers. Bees 
serve an important end here in carrying pollen on their bod- 
ies from flower to flower, thus making them fertile and cross- 
ing the varieties. In this there is a notable adaptation of 
means to ends in the Divine economy, that, apparently to 
preserve the integrity of each species of plants, a bee will al- 
ways complete its load from whatever plant it commences on, 
regardless of the scarcity of the flowers on which it com- 
mences or the abundance of others around them. They col- 
lect their pollen in little pellets or balls on the sides of their 
legs, and when it is dry they carry an additional portion by 
dusting it over their bodies. Bees eat a small portion of 
bee-bread themselves, but it is mainly used for feeding their 
brood, and is always placed in close proximity to the brood; 
so that the bee-keeper who wishes his table honey free from 
bee-bread must have it made as far as possible from the 
brood. 
Bees can subsist during winter and spring without bee- 
bread ; but they do not seem to prosper so well. Rye, or 
even wheat flour, may be fed advantageously to bees in 'the 
spring, before they are able to collect it from natural sources. 
Place the flour in shallow boxes, set in the sunshine, in a 
calm place, near the bees, where they will delight to roll 
themselves in it. Millers tell me they are troubled by the 
bees getting in their flour chest in the spring of the year. 
PROPOLIS. 
Propolis is a kind of paste or bee-glue, used by the bees to 
glue cracks in their hives. Their hives are sometiiyes al- 
most lined with it. Hives are sometimes so glued to their 
stand that it requires considerable force to remove them. It 
