are animated by incubation, or by the care and nourishment bestowed upon them by the working or neuter bees.

On this point experiment has proved nothing. The greatest diversity of opinion exists. There are upwards of a thousand writers on the history and policy of the bee, and yet no two have either observed or reasoned alike. Even the two distinguished naturalists, who have passed the best portion of their lives in studying bees, with equal zeal and with equal opportunity, have come to very different conclusions. Huber is by far the most circumstantial experimentalist who has turned his attention to this subject. But his truly philosophical mind has been rendered comparatively useless, nay, worse than useless, by the ignorance or wilful misrepresentations of his assistant Francis Burnens. Huber could but philosophize on facts as they daily were represented to him. His solutions of things unreal, and having no truth in nature, are most ingenious and rational. Had his physical sight been as perfect as his mental vision, his work would doubtless have been all that could be effected by the industry and talent of man.

The naturalists of Europe, misled by his extraordinary talent, adopted Huber's notions with respect to bees, and his opinions were considered as conclusive. The public opinion became imbued with the spirit of his doctrines; and we find the greatest and acutest reasoners discussing, in perfect security, the nature of an insect, that could at one moment organize animal life and impart to it new instincts, and in the next, construct bulwarks and other modes of defence, to protect himself from an enemy, that until the last century never molested

him.

The real fondness that was inspired for the study of the bee by the interesting work of Huber, engaged many in the pursuit; and the very mistakes that he has made, have led to something nearer the truth. Owing to the general improvement in education, the taste for the marvellous is fast disappearing; and there are now many who set themselves down to the study with their reason unbiassed, and their judgment free to decide according to the evidence of facts.

Huish, amongst the late writers, has most successfully combated the principal errors in Huber's theory; but although he has fixed a base on which a rational theory may be built, his object seems less to elicit truth, than to expose the errors of Huber. This he has endeavored to do in the most unamia

ble and bitter spirit, which destroys the gratification with which his book would be read by the candid inquirer. In addition to this, he has laid himself open to the charge of plagiarism. He must have studied the subject sufficiently to acquire a knowledge of the different forms of hives, that have been in use from the earliest antiquity to his own time; and the peculiar shape of the Greek hive could not have escaped his vigilance, for drawings and descriptions of it are within the reach of every student; yet he boldly states, that a flower-pot first gave him the hint of the plan which he adopted for his own hive.

The little work, the title of which we have prefixed to this article, called 'The Farmer's Manual,' contains, in a small compass, as much of the minutiae of the management of bees as is necessary to the common cultivator. Mr Butler is a sensible, practical writer, as well on other branches of rural economy, as on bees, and we would recommend his book to all who are engaged in those pursuits; for, with some slight deviations from his rules, such as a different climate would indicate, his experience may be beneficial to all.

We esteem it a very desirable object to make the care of the bee more common than it has hitherto been, in this part of the country. With the exception of a small one under the superintendence of the society of the Shakers, established at New Lebanon, we neither saw nor could we hear of more than a single apiary, on a journey last summer to Lebanon Springs, although we made many inquiries. Never was there a country more suited to the cultivation of bees. Even in August there is an abundance of white clover, and small springs and shallow rivulets appear at every turn. There is no doubt that bees were formerly more frequently kept in America than at present. In many places in New Jersey, where there is now scarcely a bee to be seen, there once existed millions of these insects, to the great profit of their owners. It was common for one dealer in a country town, to sell from fifteen to twenty barrels of strained honey alone, to say nothing of wax and combhoney, as well as a kind of wine, made of the washings of combs, called metheglin. These articles of commerce have almost disappeared, and we find that it is mainly attributable to the ravages of the millers, or night-moths, which have of late years spread destruction through the hives.

The attention of naturalists has been directed to the history of this fatal enemy of the bee, and many attempts have been

made to construct hives that would prevent the miller from depositing its eggs in them; but the plans were defective, because there was no contrivance for inspecting the hives. Before we close this article, we will endeavor to give a description of a hive, that is so constructed as to enable any one to see the interior and to free it from all extraneous matter, as well as to protect it from the inroads of the night-miller.

On the general subject of the care of bees, the following remarks, the result of personal experience, may be acceptable to the reader.

The situation of an apiary is of little importance. We have seen bees thrive as well with an eastern as with a northern aspect. If the entrance of the hive face the north, the bees may possibly be detained within, a minute or two later in summer; but this is more than counterbalanced by the same cause operating in winter, when it is desirable that the bees should remain in the hive. But for ourselves, we have seen no difference in the time of quitting the cells, between those that faced the north, and those that had a southern exposure. Nor have we observed that there is any difference in the welfare of hives as placed in valleys or elevated on hills, meaning, of course, hills of thirty or forty feet in height.

We have seen hives prosper, adjoining a stercorary, and oftentimes near a piggery. We have known colonies of bees to exist for a term of twenty years, with no other protection from the heat and cold, than the top of the hives. They have multiplied equally well under an open shed; but as a free circulation of air is necessary to their health and comfort, we have never known them to thrive when quite enclosed. A house, therefore, strictly so called, which is shut on all sides, may serve to amuse the observer for a year or two, but there must be an extraordinary combination of fortunate circumstances, if the bees increase, while confined in it.

It is better to begin with a single hive, and so attain a knowledge of the habits and instincts of the bees by degrees. We have known several persons, who have purchased a number of hives at once, and relinquished the pursuit from the perplexity that ensued when the swarming season commenced. But there is no similar occupation so easily followed, and none that requires so little capital, as that of keeping bees. The profit is enormous. If a person, well trained to the employment, should follow the plan adopted in some parts of Europe, of removing

the bees from place to place, in a kind ark on a river of some length, thus providing a plentiful supply of food, he might increase his stock to any extent.

An apiary of twenty hives could maintain itself in an area of a mile, where there is plenty of blossoms. Every farmer should however provide pasture for his bees, as well as for his cows; and therefore when the spring and summer flowers are gone, he should have a field of buckwheat ready, which, although not so palatable as other flowers, will serve the bees for winter food.

An apiary, or bee-shed, should be, at the eaves, about four ⚫ feet from the ground, with a roof sloping both ways, and with any aspect that the owner chooses. It should be ten feet wide, and the length of it should be increased as the hives multiply. It is, however, difficult to describe one accurately.

The most convenient one that we have seen, is on a farm near New Brunswick in New Jersey. It is fifty feet long, and contains sixteen hives on each side. The swarms which are successively cast off, are placed under the same shed in the winter, and an equal number of the old hives are sold to make room for them. This apiary might be enlarged to any extent, were there pasture enough for the bees; but the area of the bees' flight, as there are now many cultivators of bees in this district, does not furnish food enough for a great number.

In this apiary the miller or night-moth is successfully guarded against. A small wire door, made to slide behind two doorposts, formed of needles, is closed over the entrance of the hive, as soon as the bees have retired for the night. This is done during the months of April, May, and June; after that, if the weather sets in warm, and the bees are oppressed by heat, the floor of the hive is let down, which, as it is fastened to the hive behind with hinges, and on the sides with hooks and staples, can easily be accomplished. Two rows of scantlings or joists four inches square, and running the whole length of the apiary, receive the hives between them, which are thus suspended at a distance of about three feet from the ground.

The hive is thirteen inches square at the top, and is of the same size at the bottom of the front and back, but the bottom of the sides is only seven inches wide. By this slope of the hive, the combs wedge themselves as they are made, and there is no use for the ill-contrived crossed sticks, that are generally

thrust in the old hives, to keep the combs from falling down by their own weight. The floor is, as we observed, fastened by hinges and hooks. It is likewise an inclined plane, having a slope of at least four inches.

The advantages of this inclination will be instantly seen. The perspiration of the bees, which is copious, is, by the inclination of the sides and floor, conveyed off at once, without being absorbed by the boards. All extraneous matter can be carried away by the bees with very little trouble, and they can defend themselves from robbers or corsair bees with much greater ease than if the floor were flat.

As the floor opens and shuts, the observer can inspect the interior of the hive at pleasure, not with the hope of getting at the minutiae of the bees' policy, but to see the forwardness of the combs, the number of the bees, and the general appearance, which a practised eye can soon understand. When the floor of the hive is left down all night, and the bees hang very low from the combs in the morning, they will soon remove themselves up again, if the floor is raised very gently and slowly, and fastened as usual.

The cover of the hive is of course thirteen inches square. It is made of common pine, as is the hive, with two cleats on the upper part, as well to prevent the board from warping, as to prevent the box, or upper story, which is always added, from being moved from its place. The cover of the hive has three holes of one inch diameter, within a quarter of an inch of each other. These holes are to allow the bees to pass to the upper box, when the hive is full of honey.

It is ascertained satisfactorily, that the young brood and the bee-bread or pollen are deposited in the hive where the swarm is first put. The holes in the cover are therefore kept shut by plugs, until the hive be filled. The holes are then opened, the bees immediately pass up, and if the season be propitious, they fill the upper box with comb and honey, which, as there is neither brood nor bee-bread, is of the finest and purest kind.

We have often seen forty and sixty pounds obtained by this simple proceeding; and the box is also used to feed a famished hive in the spring. A single comb left in one of these boxes will sustain a swarm, that has eaten up all its honey, until vegetation commences. As the boxes and hives are of equal size, any one box will fit a hive.

When the combs in the hive are three years old, two of them VOL. XXVII.-NO. 61.

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