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An epistle dedicatory to the Right Worshipfull Mistres Margaret Astley, wife to John Astley, Esquier, Master and Treasurer of her Maiestie's Jewels and Plate, and Gentleman of her Highnesse Privie Chamber; followed by an Address to the Reader.

The treatise is divided under various heads, and concludes with the following story:

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"I remember once there was a gentleman, a very friend of mine, which had good store of Bees, unto whom the parson (who yet liveth, and I feare is one of Martin Malapert's house) came and demanded tythe Bees. 'Tythe Bees!' quoth the gentleman, 'I never yet payd any, neither is it the custom in this parish, and I am loth to be the first that shall bring it up, and yet I am very willing to pay my due; honey money and wax you shall have, with all my heart; but Bees cannot be told, therefore how shall I pay them?' Told, or told not,' quoth the parson, 'or due, or due not, I will have the tenth swarme, and you were best bring them home to my house.' 'Why, then, I might deceive you,' quoth the gentleman, ' and bring you a castling or an after swarme for a whole swarme.' 'Well,' quoth he, honey money and wax shall make amends for that.' 'But you can never have profit of those Bees, if they be castlings,' quoth the gentleman, which I bring you.' 'It is no matter for that,' quoth the parson, ‘bring them me, I pray you.' 'The which shall be done,' quoth the gentleman. It fortuned within two daies the gentleman had a great swarme, the which he put into a Hive, and towards night carried them home to the parson's house; the parson, with his wife and familie, he found at supper in a faire hall; the gentleman saluted them, and told the parson he had brought him some Bees. 'I mary,' quoth the parson, 'this is neighbourly done; I pray you carry them into my garden.' 'Nay, by troth,' quoth the gentleman, 'I will leave them even here.' With that he gave the Hive a knock against the ground, and all the Bees fell out:

THE QUESTION SETTLED.

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some stung the parson, some stung his wife, and some his children and family; and out they ran as fast as they could into a chamber, and well was he who could make shift for himself, leaving their meate upon the table in the hall. The gentleman went home, carrying his emptie Hive with him. On the next morning the Bees were found in a quickset hedge by a poore man, who since hath had good profit of them, and is yet living. Within foure daies after the gentleman was cited to appear before the ordinary, who when he came, demanded why he had used the parson after that manner? 'Why, Sir,' quoth the gentleman, ‘I have not misused him, to my knowledge.' 'No!' quoth the parson, 'did not you make your Bees sting me and all my folks?' 'Not I,' quoth the gentleman; 'but you would needes have a swarme of Bees, the which I brought you home according to your own request, and left in your hall, and since I saw them not.' 'I but,' quoth the ordinary, why did you not let them alone in the Hive?' 'So I would,' quoth the gentleman, 'if they had been in my own garden.' 'Why did you not let the parson have the Hive?' quoth the ordinary. I could not spare it,' quoth the gentleman; for I bought my Hive in the market, and I am sure, as covetous as he is, he can have no tithe of that. I buy in the market according to the English laws; but I did by his Bees as he willed me, and as I have done by all his other tithes, which I have ever left in his hall, and so I did these; and yet there was no Bees ever demanded for tithes in our parish till now; and beside, the statutes for tithes in this case provided, is on my side; but honey money and wax he shall have with a good will.' 'And that is not much amiss,' quoth the ordinary. So noting the circumstances of every case, gave sentence that both of them should stand to their own charges. So they were contented, and afterwards became friends; and if they do not well, I pray God we may."

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103

THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE BEES.

BEES IN ATTICA.

Communicated to me by MR. JOHN HAWKINS, of Bignor Park, near Petworth, Sussex, in 1802; and collected by him some years before from the Equimanus of Mendeli.

THE size of the Hive ought to have a certain proportion to the size of the swarm which accompanies it. The Bees thrive not in an apartment too large and roomy.

The aspect of the Hives is towards the south; they ought to be well protected against the north wind. The mode of fixing them is, first, by excavating the ground to the depth of a spear or pithami, in which is placed the bore of the Hive; four large stones are then placed round, to fix it therein. The Mendeliotes do not clean the Hives, but the peasants, who have a few, visit them occasionally, particularly in March, and clean them; at the same time giving a little smoke. All the sickness and mortality of the Bees are supposed to proceed from the scarcity and want of food in the first instance. The Bees are not apt to be surprised, when they are ranging, by sudden showers or storms, having a faculty for foreseeing those changes of the atmosphere, and consequently they retire in time to their Hives. If a strong wind blows on the Hives in summer, they will issue forth, but do not venture to raise themselves high above the ground. In the cold weather of winter they confine themselves to the Hives.

The greatest enemy of the Bees is the Melisurgo, or Merops Apiaster, who makes great havoc in the air among these insects. The best precaution against the depredations of the Melisurgos is that of destroying their nests, which

THE QUEEN BEE-ONE IN EACH HIVE.

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are built in the holes of rocks and ravines. The Arvas, or Badger, after overturning a Hive, eats all the combs which it contains. The wasps attack only infirm Hives, being easily driven from the healthy and strong. The strong and healthy communities plunder the weak and infirm. To prevent the depredations of certain Hives, the only method is to change the situations of the plunderers and of the plundered, by which means a balance is established in the respective communities, the weak acquiring the superfluous force of the other, because the Bees return always to the same spot, without regarding the change of habitation.

The presence of a Queen Bee is absolutely necessary to every community, all operations being at a stand when she is wanting. The sex, however, of the Queen Bee is unknown, as well as the nature of the drones.

Bees are apt to range as far as four or five miles; but require water near their Hives.

Hives may be exhausted by swarming too often; the remedy against which is by killing the supernumerary Queen Bees, either in their worm state, or when they have escaped with the young swarms. In the first place they may be distinguished by their position on the outer row of cells, or on the lower cells of each cake in the Hive. The Hive is at this time carefully visited, and the worms in these lower cells cut off and destroyed by the hand.

No Hives are habitually barren.

The fecundary Hives yield the least honey. The Hives which have not produced swarms yield that season the most. The early swarms, such as are sent off in April or May, which are however rare, are most healthy and vigorous and productive; they are consequently more esteemed than the rest. A community, wanting a Queen, will not tolerate a new one from another Hive, which it inevitably puts to death; but the Hive must be suffered to generate a new Queen from the combs of another Hive.

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BEE-KEEPING AT ATHENS.

Answers from Buera of Athens, aged eighty years.

THE Bees like not too roomy an apartment, as is found by the weak swarms; and if such an habitation be not changed for a smaller one more proportionate to their numbers, they languish, and ultimately perish. In a year of abundance, it is necessary to enlarge the kosinia two fingers, by extending the wicker work.

The Hives must be placed in a situation where they are not only well protected against the north wind, but where they catch the rays of the rising sun.

In bad years (in such as have a scanty supply of food, and therefore afford but little honey) the Hives are subject to the worm, and the Queen Bee is subject to a louse, which fixes itself on her back, between the wings, and causes a visible decline in her health. In these bad years, too, the wasps make considerable havoc among the Hives. Smoke is applied as a remedy for the louse, vinegar for the worm, and an expedient is used by the Bees against the wasps, by narrowing the doorway with a composition resembling tar. The wasps attack weak Hives, but not every year; the present year, for instance, has proved a very bad one for honey, yet the wasps have been very few. It is remarkable that they devour not only the honey, but the Bees themselves, after a sharp contest. One Hive is only plundered by another in the event of its wanting a Queen. The only remedy is by straightly giving them a cake of worms from another Hive, from which is soon generated another Queen, provided that it happens in the proper season. Should this cake not generate a Queen Bee in fifteen days, another should be placed in the Hive. If a young Queen be introduced, it would infallibly be killed as an usurper. A Hive, however, which loses its Queen in the winter, cannot be provided with another in this manner, and thus perishes.

The Queen Bee is the mother of all the rest, no worms

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