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| FROM KŒHLER'S MEDICINAL-PFLANZEN. | LEMON. | |
ABOUT BEES.
FRED. A. WATT.
THIS subject is an ancient and honorable one. The most ancient historical records make frequent reference to the honey-bee. A poem written 741 B. C., by Eremetus was devoted to bees. In Scripture we read of them and learn that Palestine was "a land flowing with milk and honey" and we know that wild bees are very numerous there even to the present time. In the year 50 B. C., Varro recommended that hives be made out of basket-work, wool, bark, hollow-trees, pottery, reeds, or transparent stone to enable persons to observe the bees at work. The name "Deborah" is from the Hebrew and means bee; "Melissa," from the Greek, has the same meaning.
Honey-bees were introduced into the United States from Europe, in the seventeenth century, and our wild honey-bees are offspring of escaped swarms. Like all enterprising Yankees they first settled in the eastern states and rapidly spread over the West, where they were regarded with wonder by the Indians and called the "white man's fly." They traveled, or spread, with such regularity that some observers claimed to mark the exact number of miles which they traveled westward during each year.
A great many species are almost, or entirely, worthless for domestic purposes, while those that are especially valuable are very few. The favorite at this time seems to be the Italian species, which was introduced into the United States in 1860.
At the opening of the season each colony of honey-bees contains one laying queen, several drones, and from 3,000 to 40,000 workers. The workers begin by cleaning up the hive, and the queen starts in to rear other bees at once; new comb is started, honey is brought in from the earlier varieties of flowers and the busy bee is launched into another season of sweetness and good works.