The

observed that there has been an importation of the stingless bees into this country. I doubt the success of their establishment here, as the fruits of their labours may very soon become the prey of wasps and corsair bees, and even of the hive bees which, in a dearth of honey or when from a paucity of numbers a hive is weakly defended, will commit depredations upon one another. stingless bees having no weapon of defence which enables them to cope with armed assailants must soon be exterminated. In their native clime, where there is an abundance of sweets, no temptations to predatory attack may occur; but in our hemisphere, as Buffon has observed, there are hundreds of lazy creatures, fond of honey and disliking labour, that would, but for the weapons of defence possessed by our bees, invade their hives and carry off the treasures.

Honey-bees do not appear to have been among the native productions of North America, though they have now become general throughout that continent. When established there, they extended themselves somewhat in advance of the white population; in consequence of which they were called by the native Indians, the white man's flies, and were regarded as indicating the approach of European settlements.-Jefferson's Virginia.

An elegant modern writer has observed upon this subject, that " a few years ago the hum of a

bee had never been heard on the western side of Alleghany Mountains: but that a violent hurricane having carried several swarms over that lofty ridge, they found there a new unexhausted country, singularly favourable to their propagation, where they have multiplied, till the whole of those boundless savannahs and plains have been colonized by these indefatigable emigrants."

From what I have said above, it would seem that the bees of all tropical climates store their honey in cells or bags of large dimensions; but from Mr. Basil Hall's account it appears that the bees of South America build small cells also, resembling those of our hive-bees; and in all probability this is the case with those of other hot climates, and that these small cells are merely used as receptacles for the young brood.

CHAPTER XXVII.

SEPARATION OF WAX AND HONEY.

AFTER deprivation, the box or hive containing the combs should be kept in a warm room, till it is convenient to drain it of its contents, as the more fluid the honey, the sooner and the more completely will it run off; this is of course a reason for not deferring the draining longer than can be avoided.

The

For

The combs should be separated from the boxes or hives with the broad spatula and the doubleedged instrument recommended in chapter XI. and placed afterwards on a clean dish. waxen covers, on both sides of the sealed combs, should be sliced off, when by placing them on a hair sieve the honey will run through tolerably fine, and may be caught in an earthen pan. prime purposes the purest combs should be selected, and their honey passed through a separate sieve. Mr. Isaac recommends letting this fine honey drop through the sieve into a silk sarse, such as is used by the apothecary for sifting fine powders, and from the sarse into an earthen pan; this would enable the apiarian to obtain The sarse his honey in a more depurated state. must be first wetted, or the honey will not run

through it. If the weather be cool, this business should be done in a room where there is a fire.

The ordinary combs may be chopped up, or broken down with the hands, and together with the refuse combs after draining, may be thrown into as much clear water as will cause the wax to swim : the whole may remain in this state for some days to dissolve all the honey for making common mead; or the combs may be spread out upon broad dishes, and set before the bees in an evening, as also the utensils which have been employed during the process, first strewing them over with short straws, to prevent the bees from smearing their wings. The former is the best mode of disposing of the refuse combs and utensils, as the latter is apt to produce quarrelling and robberies.

The combs having been cleared as completely as possible, the finest should be boiled in water enough to float them, till they are thoroughly melted: the melted mass should be poured into a canvass bag, made in the form of a jelly bag, with a draw tape or string at the top, and then be suspended over a tub or pan of cold water. The strings of the bag being tightly drawn, the expression may be effected in various ways. Some press the bag between two strong round sticks, tied or strapped together at their ends, so as to resemble a pair of nut-crackers, with which two

L

persons may by repeatedly stripping down the sides of the bag, express the whole of the wax. Others express it by making an inclined plane of a board about four feet long, placing one end of it in the tub or pan of water, and the other against the breast of the assistant, who puts the bag on the board and passes a round stick firmly down it, as long as the wax will run. A screw press, made hot, would of course answer the purpose better than either of the above modes.

The crumbled combs might be put over the fire, in a steam kettle, with water under it, and the wax which runs through might be afterwards melted again and passed through the bag. The new combs will melt almost entirely; but the old ones, owing to their cells having received so many linings, will preserve their form, the wax running from them but in small quantities.

The vessel used for melting the wax should be capable of containing a good deal more than is put into it, as the contents may boil up suddenly, and occasion loss and inconvenience as well as danger. The wax having been separated from the water in which it was melted, should be remelted with just water enough to prevent burning; and having been well skimmed, may be poured into proper moulds for forming cakes, the vessels being first rinsed with cold water to