I 
BEES. £51 
\ ' V . ' ' 'jf 
jnay be made by selling the honey, which is, and may 
be used, in many instances in the place of sugar: honey 
also makes an excellent wine called mead, the only 
sort of made Avine of the produce of this nation, that 
requires no sugar, and is esteemed very fine.” 
Whether the increase of bees, to the utmost limits of 
Avhich they are capable, Avould be consistent with pru¬ 
dence, or general economy, is questionable. Dr. Dar- 
Avin says, in his Phytologia, “ a great number of bees 
must be very injurious to floAvers, and, consequently, 
to the production of fruits, as they plunder the necta¬ 
ries of their honey, and thence deprive the anthers and 
stigma of their adapted nourishment; they likewise 
injure the seminal products of A'egetables, by plunder¬ 
ing the stamina of flowers of their anther dust, for bee 
bread ; and also of the Avax Avhich covers the anthers 
for their defence against rain.” 
He further says, “ the bees of one society fre¬ 
quently attack those of another, destroy most of them 
in battle, and plunder them of their honey ; in this 
respect, resembling the societies of mankind; to pre¬ 
vent AA'hich, he laid a board of about an inch thick on 
the bee bench, and set the hive with its mouth exactly 
on the edge of this board ; he also made a semicircular 
hollow in the board, and contracted the mouth of the 
hive, thus fortifying the entrance; this, in some mea¬ 
sure, prevented the attack ; the next day he removed 
the attacked hive to a distant part of the garden, after 
Avhich, the Avar entirely ceased* 
CHAP, 
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