have been accidentally disturbed, very serious consequences ensue. The inhabitants of the Isles of Greece transport their hives by sea, in order to procure change of pasture for their bees. Huish relates (p. 287) that

"Not long ago a hive on one of these vessels was overturned, and the bees spread themselves over the whole vessel. They attacked the sailors with great fury, who, to save themselves, swam ashore. They could not return to their boat until the bees were in a state of tranquillity, having prefor creating a smoke, to suffocate the bees in case viously provided themselves with proper ingredients of a renewal of their hostility.”

future. He who rushes between contend-| presence of mind is wanting, or where they ing armies must not complain of the flying darts; therefore in a bee-battle, unless you are sure you can assist the weaker party, it is best to keep out of the way. In very hot weather and very high winds, especially if one has much to do or to say-who does not feel a little testy? Bees are the same. There is one other case where interference is proverbially ill-taken-in domestic quarrels; and herein Mr. Cotton assures us that the female spirit is as much alive in the bee as in the human kind. When the time comes in autumn for turning the drones out of the hive (of which we shall speak more fully presently), many think they can assist their bees in getting rid of these unprofitable spouses, and so destroy them as fast as they are turned out; this uncalledfor meddling is often very fiercely resented, and the bee-keeper finds to his cost, like "A small privateer with forty or fifty men, havthe good-natured neighbor who proffered his mediation on the "toast and bread-andbutter" question of Mr. and Mrs. Bond, that volunteer peacemakers in matrimonial strife

"Are sure to get a sting for their pains." At all other times they are most tractable creatures, especially when, as at swarming time, they are in some measure dependent on man's aid. They are, as a villager once told us, "quite humble bees then." They undoubtedly recognise their own master; and even a stranger, if a bee-keeper, soon finds himself at home with them. What they cannot bear is to be breathed upon; and as people ignorant of their ways are very apt to begin buffeting and blowing when bees seem disposed to attack them, it will be serviceable for them to keep this hint in mind. The Rev. John Thorley, who wrote in 1744, gives a frightful account of a swarm of bees settling upon his maid's head-the fear being not that they would sting her to death, as stories have been told, but that they would stifle the poor girl, for they covered her whole face. Presence of mind failed neither-he bade her remain quite still, and searched for the queen, whom her loyal people followed with delight as he conducted her safe to her hive. Sometimes, however, where

*

The Bee-volume of the "Naturalist's Library" supplies us with an anecdote, in which the anger of the bees was turned to a more profitable purpose

ing on board some hives made of earthenware full of bees, was pursued by a Turkish galley manned by 500 seamen and soldiers. As soon as the latter came alongside, the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with their hives, and hurled them down on the deck of the galley. The Turks, astonished at this novel mode of warfare, and unable to defend themselves from the stings of the enraged bees, became so terrified that they thought of nothing but small vessel, defended by masks and gloves, flew how to escape their fury; while the crew of the upon their enemies sword in hand, and captured the vessel almost without resistance."-p. 194.

It must strike the reader how well-furnished this vessel must have been to afford on the moment "masks and gloves" for forty or fifty men. In these disturbed times the following receipt to disperse a mob may perhaps he found useful. We have heard of a water-engine being effectively employed in the same service.

"During the confusion occasioned by a time of war in 1525, a mob of peasants, assembling in Hohnstein, in Thuringia, attempted to pillage the house of the minister of Fleude, who, having in from their design, ordered his domestics to fetch vain employed all his eloquence to dissuade them his bee-hives and throw them in the middle of this furious mob. The effect was what might be expected; they were immediately put to flight, and happy to escape unstung."-Nat. Lib., p. 195.

As we should be sorry to arouse the fears of our readers, our object being rather to For fatal cases, one of which is related by Mr. enamor them of bees, we will console them Lawrence in his Surgical Lectures, see Dr. Bevan,too much perhaps in the fashion of Job's p. 333. Animals have been frequently fatally at- friends-with an anecdote which appeared tacked by them. Butler tells of "a horse in the heat of the day looking over a hedge, on the other side of which was a stall of bees; while he stood nodding with his head, as his manner is, because of the flies, the bees fell upon him, and killed him." This exemplifies the proverb of the danger to some folk in "looking over a hedge."

lately in a Scotch newspaper, of an elderly gentleman upon whose face a swarm of bees alighted. With great presence of mind he lifted up his hat, hive-like, over his head, when the bees, by their natural instinct, at

once recognising so convenient a home, be- "Letters" were sold, he has forborne to took themselves to his head-gear-it surely press further upon them a doubtful good. must have been a wide-awake-which he This is, however, our own conjecture entirethen quietly conveyed into his garden. Had ly, from what we know of the failure of his he fidgeted and flustered, as most old gen- system among our friends, and from what tlemen-and young ones too-would have we gather of his own character in the pages done in his situation, he would doubtless of his book. In this we think he has acted have presented the same pitiable object that well and wisely. Delighted as we ourselves our readers must remember in Hood's ludi- have been with many parts of his volume, crous sketch of "an unfortunate Bee-ing." we think he has failed in that most difficult One of the most dangerous services, as of all styles to the scholar-" writing down" may well be imagined, is that of taking their to the poor. In saying this we mean no dishoney, when this is attempted without suffo- paragement to Mr. Cotton, for we are not cating, or stupefying, or any of those other prepared at this moment with the name of a methods which leave the hive free. This single highly-educated man who has comshould be done in the middle of a fine day pletely succeeded in this task. Bunyan and when most of the bees are abroad; and then Cobbett, the two poor man's authors in very in those hives where the removal can be different schools, came from the tinker's made from the top the danger is more ima-forge and the plough-tail. It is not enough ginative than real. The common barbarous to write plain Saxon and short sentencesplan is to suffocate the whole stock with though how many professed writers for the sulphur, and then, as dead men tell no tales, unlearned neglect even points like these!— and dead bees do not use theirs, it is very the mode of thinking must run in the same easy to cut out the comb at your leisure. current as that of the people whom we wish But in any case Mr. Cotton's plan is far pre- to instruct and please, so that nothing short ferable. Instead of suffocating, he stupefies of being one of them, or living constantly them. Instead of the brimstone-match, he among them,

blame,"

gathers, when half ripe, a fungus (F. pul-" In joy and in sorrow, through praise and through verulentus) which grows in damp meadows, which country-folk call "puff-balls," or being conversant not only with their afflic"frog's cheese," or "bunt," or "puckfist," tions and enjoyments, and ordinary life, but dries it till it will hold fire like tinder, and even with their whims and crotchets, their then applies it to the hive in what he calls follies and crimes, will fit a man to be their a "smoker." The bees being thus rendered book-friend. Where a million can write for quite harmless, any operation of the hive, the few, there are but few who can write for such as taking the honey, cutting out old the million. Witness the unread pamphlets, comb, removing the queen, or joining stocks. written and distributed with the kindliest may be most easily performed. The bees feeling, that crowd the cottager's shelf. We may be then handled like a sample of grain. grieve that this is a fact, but we are convinThis plan of fumigation-which he does not ced of the truth of it. We grieve deeply, for profess himself the author of, but to have there are hundreds of scholarly men at this borrowed from the work of the before-men-moment, writing books, full of the best postioned Mr. Thorley, reprinted in the "Bee-sible truths for the lower-and indeed for all book"-we consider as the most valuable of classes of this country, and thousands of the practical part of Mr. Cotton's book, good men distributing them as fast as they practical, we mean, to apiarian purposes; come out, in the fond idea that these books for there is excellent advice leavened up are working a change as extensive as their with the bee-matter, which will apply equal- circulation. That they are doing good in ly to all readers. The rest of his system, many quarters we gladly admit, but we will with which we own ourselves to have been venture to say that there is not one among a little puzzled, is too near an approximation the many thousands published that will hold to Nutt's to require further explanation or its rank as a cottage classic fifty years trial. We should guess from the present hence; and that not from want of interest form of his book-which, originally pub- in the subjects, but of style and tone to lished in the form of two "Letters to Cot-reach the poor man's heart. The mode of tagers from a Conservative Bee-keeper," is thought and expression in some of these now sent forth in one of the most elegant well-meaning books is perfectly ludicrous volumes that ever graced a library-table-to any one who has personal knowledge of that he is convinced that his plan is not advantageous for the poor; and therefore, though upwards of 24,000 copies of his first VOL. I. No. III. 33

The sale of such books is no test of their real

popularity, as a hundred are given to, where one is bought by, the poor.

า

a laborer's habit of mind. However, Mr. to conquer the strongholds of heathenism. Cotton's book, though not quite as success- However, it is never too late to do well. ful as we could wish, is very far indeed The solemn ceremonial of the consecration from partaking of the worst defects of of five bishops to the colonies, within the books of this class. Indeed, he has so near- walls of Westminster Abbey in August last, ly reached the point at which he has aimed, which produced an effect on those who that we feel continually annoyed that he witnessed it which will not soon pass away, just falls short of it. We do not think him shows that the Church is not neglectful of happy in his jokes, nor at home in his fami- her duties; though they, like the bishop liarity. From the familiar to the twad- of New Zealand, should have led the van dling is but a step, and a very short step on the foundation of the colonies instead of too. His Aristotle has taught him the use following after a lapse of years, when the of proverbs to the vulgar, which he has usurpations of schism and disorder have everywhere taken advantage of, though, more than trebled the difficulty of their with singular infelicity, he has printed them task. There are among the crew of that in a character-old English-that not one gallant vessel-and not least of that numout of a hundred of the reading poor can ber, the chief Shepherd himself, and our understand. He translates a bit of Latin author Bee-master-men of the highest (p. 309) for the benefit of his "Cottager," mental attainments, of the gentlest blood, but leaves a quotation from Pindar to be on whom our Public Schools and Univer Greek to him still! (p. 283.) It is, how-sities had showered their most honorable ever, want of clearness and method-great rewards, and to whom, had they remained faults certainly in a didactic work-of which in this country, the most splendid prospects we have chiefly to complain in his "Short opened-who have yet borne to give up and Simple Letters;" but, taking the work all these prospects and sever all the ties of as it comes to us in its present form, with blood and old affection, to cross, at the its exquisite wood-cuts, perfection of dress, call of the Church, in the service of their prelude of mottoes (of which we have not Master, half a world of ocean to an island scrupled to avail ourselves), list of bee-books unfrequented and barbarous, and where, (which, though imperfect, particularly as to for at least many years to come, they must foreign works, is the first of the kind)- give up all idea, not of luxury and comfort, appendices-reprints-extracts, etc., we but of what they have hitherto deemed the hardly know a book of the kind that has of very necessaries of existence; and, what is late pleased us more. The ingenuity with more to such men, the refinements of inwhich every ornament, within and without, tellectual intercourse and the charities of introduces either the bee itself, or its work- polished life. God forbid that we should manship, reflects great credit on the de- not have a heart to sympathize in the signer, and on the engraver, Mr. J. W. struggles of those uneducated and enthusiWhimper, to whose labors the author pays astic, but often misguided men, who are a well-earned compliment. Professing no sent out with the Bible in their hand by sort of arrangement, it is the perfection of voluntary associations on a pitiable paya scrap-book for the gentleman or lady bee- ment barely greater than what they might keeper. have earned with their hands in their own The great interest, however, in Mr. Cot-parish: it is the system and the comfortaton's work lies in the conclusion. He is ble committee at home with which we one of that noble crew, mainly drafted quarrel, not with the painful missionaries from the ranks of aristocratie Eton, that have gone out in the first missionary enterprise that has left the shores of England, worthy of the Church and country that sent them. The good ship Tomatin sailed from Plymouth for New Zealand on the 26th of December, 1841, St. Stephen's day, with a "goodly fellowship" of emigrants, schoolmasters, deacons, and priests, with a Bishop at their head. And we, an Apostol-cated endure, who are authoritatively comic Church, have been these many years in learning the first lessons of Apostolic discipline and order! wasting the lives and energies of an isolated clergy-a few forlorn hopes sent out without a commander

themselves; but while we grieve over the martyred Williams, we have nothing in common with that sympathy which is monopolized by the exertions of missionary artisans, enured from their cradle to a life of hardship, and which can feel nothing for the tenfold deprivations, mental and bodily, both in what they encounter and what they leave behind, which the rich and the edu

missioned to plant the standard of the Cross within the ark of Christ's Church in our distant colonies. It becomes us who sit luxuriously in our drawing-rooms at home, reading the last new volume in our

easy chairs, to cast a thought from time to time on the labors of these men, of like tastes and habits with ourselves, and encourage them in their noble work, be it in New Zealand or elsewhere, not only in good wishes and easily-uttered "Godspeeds," but in denying ourselves somewhat of our many daily comforts in for warding that cause which they have "left all" to follow.*

but small. The import of wax altogether has been steadily declining: in 1839 it came to 6314 cwt.; in the last year it was but 4583. The importation, however, of honey has, in the last few years, increased in an extraordinary degree; 675 cwt. being entered in the year ending January, 1838, and 3761 cwt. in last year: the foreign West Indies, Germany, and Portugal, having furnished the greater part of this increased supply. But the connection which all this has The honies of Minorca, Narbonne, and with our present subject is, that in the Normandy are the most esteemed in the same ship with this "glorious company," markets from their whiteness. We wish Mr. Cotton has taken out with him four we could believe the decreased importastocks of bees: the different methods tion of wax arose from the more extensive of storing away may be seen in page cultivation of the bee in this country; but 357. Seizing, and, we are sure, gladly we fear that the daily-rather, nightly-diseizing, a hint thrown out in Mr. Petre's minishing show of wax-candles on our book on New Zealand, of the great honey- neighbors' tables, and the murderous sysharvest in the native flowers, with no la- tem of our honey-farmers, combined with borers to gather it, he is carrying out the the increased consumption of foreign hofirst bees which have ever visited those isl-ney-(£12,000 worth of which was imands. "I hope," he says-and who does not ported last year)-tell a different tale. It join in this hope of Bishop Selwyn's chap- would be a better sign of bee-prosperity lain?"that many a busy bee of mine will in England if the increase in the importa'Gather honey all the day tion were removed from the honey to the From every opening flower' wax; for the staple of the wax of comof Phormium tenax in New Zealand. merce is the produce of the wild beehope," he adds, a bee will never be killed of the honey of commerce that of the doin New Zealand, for I shall start' the native mesticated bee; and it is a singular fact, bee-keeper in the no-killing way; and when illustrating the history of these two species they have learned to be kind to them, they in relation to civilized and uncivilized man, will learn to be more kind one to another." that while the bushmen of the Cape look with It is probable that the produce of the bees jealousy on the inroads of cultivation, as may be made useful to the inhabitants destroying the haunts of the only live-stock themselves; but we much question whether they possess, the Indians of America conany exportation could be made of wax or sider the same insect as the harbinger of honey. It is too far to send the latter; the white man, and say, that in proportion and, in wax-gathering, the domesticated as the bee advances, the red man and the hives can never compete with the wild buffalo retire. bees' nests of Africa, which furnish much the largest amount for our markets. Sierra Leone, Morocco, and other parts of Africa, produce four times as much wax for our home consumption as all the rest of the world together. The only other country from which our supply has been gradually increasing is the United States, and that is

66

I

Great credit is due to the New Zealand company, who have consulted their interest as well as their duty in the liberality of their Episcopal endowment. There can be no doubt that the estab

We have spoken of the possibility of bee-pasturage being over-stocked, and such may be the case in certain localities in England; but we are very confident that this is not the general state of the country. We are assured that hives might be multiplied in England tenfold, and yet there would be room: certainly, more than five times the quantity of honey might be taken. But then it will require an improved system of management, more constant attention paid to the hive, more liberal feeding lishment there of a regular clergy will be a great inducement to the best class of settlers to fix on in spring and autumn, and more active such a spot for the port of their destination. A measures against their chief enemies. In large, though inadequate sum having been already all these matters we must look to the highcollected for the general purposes of founding Coer classes to take the lead. We know lonial Bishoprics, we would now suggest to our ecclesiastical rulers that separate committees many, both rich and poor, who do not should be forthwith formed of persons interested in keep bees, on account of the murder they the several colonies, for increasing to something think themselves forced to commit: let like a proper sum Episcopal endowments for furthering the cause of the Church in each particular such be assured that this slaughter is not only unnecessary, but unprofitable too.

see.

But, on the other hand, let no one fancy that all he has to do is to procure a swarm and a hive, and set it down in the garden, and that streams of honey and money will forthwith flow. Bees, like every thing else that is worth possessing, require attention and care. "They need," said a poor friend of ours, "a deal of shepherding ;" and thus, to the cottager who can afford to give them his time, they may be made a source of great profit, as well as pleasure. Our own sentiments cannot be given better than in Mr. Cotton's words :

"I would most earnestly beg the aid of the clergy and resident gentry-but, above all, their good wives; in a word, of all who wish to help the poor who dwell round about them in a far humbler way, yet perhaps not less happily; 1 would beg them, one and all, to aid me as a united body in teaching their poor neighbors the best way of keeping bees... A row of bees keeps a man at home; all his spare moments may be well filled by tending them, by watching their wondrous ways, and by loving them. In winter he may work in his own chimney-corner at making hives both for himself and to sell. This he will find almost as profitable as his bees, for well-made hives always meet with a ready sale. Again, his bee-hives are close to his cottagedoor; he will learn to like their sweet music better than the dry squeaking of a pot-house fiddle, and he may listen to it in the free air, with his I wife and children about him."

they sting thee not, thou must not be unchaste or uncleanly; thou must not come among them having a stinking breath, caused either through eating of Leeks, Onions, Garlic, or by any other means; the noisomeness whereof is corrected by a cup of beer: thou must not be given to surfeiting or drunkenness," &c. &c.

He makes a very proper distinction, which our Temperance Societies would do well to observe, between a "cup of beer," and "drunkenness ;" and indeed there seems to be a kind of bee-charm in a moderate draught, for Mr. Smith, a dry writer enough in other respects, says, "Your hive being dressed, rub over your hands with what beer and sugar is left, and that will prevent the bees from stinging them; also drink the other half-pint of beer, and that will being stung." (p. 34.) very much help to preserve your face from

We hold to the opinion already expressed of presence of mind being the best beedress, notwithstanding the anecdote told of M. De Hofer, Conseiller d'Etat du Grand Duc de Baden, who, having been a great bee-keeper, and almost a rival of Wildman in the power he possessed over his bees, found, after an attack of violent fever, that he could no more approach them without exciting their anger-in fact, "when he came back again, they tore him where he stood." "Here, then, it is pretty evident," says the doctor who tells the story, "that some change had taken place in the Counsellor's secretions, in consequence of the fever, which, though not noticeable by his friends, was offensive to the olfactory nerves of the bees." Might not achange have

nerves?

taken place in the Counsellor's

The latter part of this has, we fear, a little too much of the green tint of Arcadia. It is seldom, indeed, that you can get a husbandman to see the peculiar excellences and beauties of his own little world; though it is only fair to add, where you find the exception, the bee-master is for the most part that man. The great matter is to get the man who does love "the dry squeaking of the pot-house fiddle," and the wet pota As Critics as well as Counsellors may be tions that succeed thereon, to keep bees: stung, we have, for our own good and that and this can only, and not easily then, be of the pubic, examined all the proposed redone by showing him the profit. Fair and medies, and the result is as follows:-Exgood housewives-if ye be readers of the tract at once the sting, which is almost inQuarterly-don't bore him with long lec- variably left behind: if a watch-key is at tures; don't heap upon him many little hand, press it exactly over the wound, so books; but give him a hive of the best con- that much of the venom may be squeezed struction-show him the management-out; and in any case apply, the sooner of and then buy his honey; buy all he brings, course the better, laudanum, or the least even though you should have to give the drop of the spirit of ammonia. Oil and surplus to some poor gardenless widow. honey, which are also recommended, probaBut only buy such as comes from an im-bly only act in keeping off the air from the proved hive-and you can't easily be deceived in this-which preserves the bees and betters the honey.

Then when you pay him, you may read to him, if you will, the wise rules of old Butler-exempli gratiá :—

wound. The cure varies very much with the constitutions of individuals; but the poison being acid, any alkali will probably be serviceable.

But, with reference to the cottager, we must consider the profit as well as the sting; and that it will be får better to un"If thou wilt have the favor of thy bees that derrate than exaggerate. Tell a poor man