them with so much art, and constructing those wonderful edifices, the architecture of which has been a subject of meditation for the most profound Geometricians.

After this short digression, I will endeavour to prove how little a Cottager consults his own interest who follows the old practice of suffocating his Bees, at that time of the year when, after all their labours, they have laid up a sufficient store to maintain themselves through the winter.

A hive of Bees should be considered like a sum of money in a Savings Bank. It will pay you good interest, and also increase your capital, by proper management; whereas, by destroying them, you lessen, if not annihilate your capital, and prevent the increase of that wealth you might otherwise have.

The fact is, that a healthy hive of Bees, in all tolerably good seasons, can afford to part with a portion of their hoard, and yet have sufficient to support themselves through the winter. This portion may be taken in the following manner.

With a sharp knife, cut out two or three rounds of the straw at the top of the hive, so as to make a hole four or five inches in diameter. Have ready a small hive which will hold from seven to nine pounds of honey, with a piece of glass in the side, or else a small square box, also with a piece of glass in it (the use of which I will presently mention) and place one of them on the top of the hive, protecting it from the

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weather by a straw-huckle, an old coal sack, a piece of matting, or any thing that will keep out the wet. Plaister the cage of the straw cap, or box, with clay, cow-dung or mortar, and let all this be done about the middle of May. The glass not only enables you to see when the hive is full, for the cells will be sealed up, but the light it affords almost always prevents the Queen from depositing her eggs in the cap or box, and the honey in it is consequently whiter and purer, and therefore brings more money in the market. In a good season, I have known one of these caps filled in three weeks. It may then be taken off, and another put on, which will also probably be filled. In addition to these two caps, which will readily sell for sixteen shillings, I have not unfrequently had a swarm from the same hive, which, if an early one, is worth from ten shillings to a pound according to its strength. If not sold, it goes to increase the stock of the owner. This is no small profit from one hive, and one which my Bees constantly yield me. Care should always be taken that the Bees have a sufficient stock of honey left to last them through the winter and early spring, as many stocks are lost from a want of attention to this point. This may be readily ascertained by lifting up the hive. If it feels light, a little coarse honey or dissolved sugar should be given, by means of narrow troughs of scooped out elder branches, put through the entrances of the hives. Those who can afford to substitute glass instead of straw caps or boxes, will

derive additional pleasure as well as profit by the change, as they will not only be enabled to see their Bees at work, but honey made in glass is of a purer quality, and sells for more money than that which is made in straw or wooden tops.

In taking off the tops, nothing is necessary but a table-knife and a bunch of nettles. At sunset, separate the top from the hive, after removing the clay round the edge with the knife, and replace it with an empty top. Take the one which has been filled, a little distance off, turn it bottom upwards, and cover it with the nettles. Most of the Bees will quickly leave it for the parent hive. If any young Bees are left in it the next day, they can be brushed off with some of the nettles. In this way not a Bee need be killed.

Let me give one more hint to the Cottager. Whenever he can get an old seven or nine gallon cask, he will find it an excellent substitute for a straw-hive, by taking out the bottom, making the usual entrance, and cutting a hole in the top for the cap. A hollow piece of elm, smoothed in the inside, and having a board nailed on the top, also makes a good hive, and I have generally found that Bees do better in wooden than in straw-hives. A Cottager, however, may soon learn to make the latter, and it is, at the same time, a useful, and not an unpleasant employment for him on a winter's evening.

I trust that these hints may be of service to the industrious and hard working Cottager. I had many

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hundred copies of them printed, and distributed in Cumberland and Westmoreland, where the practice of smothering Bees has long prevailed among the fine and well conducted peasantry of those Counties. Let me now express a hope that some of those country gentlemen, who endeavour to improve the condition of their poorer neighbours, will disseminate the foregoing hints amongst them.

Hornets, Wasps, and Humble Bees, like most insects and animals, may be perfectly managed by understanding their nature and habits.

Thus, two or three whiffs of tobacco-smoke used in a fumigator with a rose-nozzle-a very small one, that can be held between the teeth, is large enough-will instantly tranquillize all such insects and render them quite harmless as to their sting; making them appear as if they had forgotten that they possessed such formidable weapons. The sting of a Hornet I have never felt, nor that of the largest Humble Bee. The pain of the sting of other Humble Bees is a fine smart, much more intense, as well as more local, than that of a Wasp or Hive-Bee, though, in accordance with their name, they rarely use their stings until they are provoked to the last degree. The sting of a Wasp is the least painful of all.

When we break into the folds of the grass. and moss, with which Humble Bees surround their nests, the inmates do not immediately fly out and assail the of

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fending party; but a number of them throw themselves on their back, opposite to the quarter in which they are assailed, and make a stridulous noise with their wings, while the abdomen is elevated and in continual motion.

A single whiff of smoke into the entrance of a Beehive will enable a Bee-keeper, at any time, to turn it up and examine it at his ease, and to extract some of the combs and put it back upon the board, without any danger of being stung, if he continues now and then, during the process, to breathe a little of the smoke over the hive. The nests of Wasps and HumbleBees may, by this means, be easily dug out and taken during the day, and the combs transferred to boxes, placed near the same spot, for subsequent observation. The inmates of the nests, as I have repeatedly proved, will soon find them out and continue their operations as before.

I once also, by the same means, took a very strong Hornet's nest out of an old Ash-pollard, and with the same complete impunity; though I cut out the comb and carried it away, and was a long time at the work, during which the whole community were booming about me. But Hornets, as I then ascertained, are more easily confused than either Wasps or Hive-Bees. I did not at first feel quite at my ease, but these Hornets never offered to sting, or even to strike me, as Hive-Bees and Wasps will do, when they are angry, without stinging.

The Grubs of Hornets are white and fat with

very