rdon." After a few times, they learn
"it's no use," and allow an inspection. If you wish to take off a box,
raise it just enough to blow under the smoke; there is no trouble; you
can replace it with another; the bees are kept out of the way with a
little more smoke, _and no anger created about it to be remembered_.
Those in the box are all submission; they can be carried away and
handled as you please, without a possibility of getting them irritated,
until they once more get home, and then are much more "amiable" than if
the box had been taken without the smoke. They seem to forget, or do
not realize anything of the transaction. When bees are to be
transferred to a new hive, it is unnecessary to be so very particular
about the escape of a single bee; no fears need be entertained of such
as get out. In driving, the loud humming indicates their submission;
the upper hive can then be safely raised at any time. After being thus
driven out, they may be pushed about with impunity, and still be quiet!
In short, by using smoke on all occasions where they would be likely to
be disturbed without it by our meddling with them, it has a tendency to
keep dormant their combative propensities. When these have never been
aroused, there is much less danger from their attacks while walking or
looking among them. Any one wishing further proof, I would recommend
the experiment of managing one year with smoke, and the next without.

STING DESCRIBED.

Their sting, as it appears to the naked eye, is but a tiny instrument
of war; so small, indeed, that its wound would pass unheeded by all the
larger animals, if it was not for the poison introduced at the same
instant. It has been described as being "composed of three parts, a
sheath and two darts. Both the darts are furnished with small points or
barbs like a fishhook," that hold it when introduced into the flesh;
the bee being compelled to leave it behind.

DOES ITS LOSS PROVE FATAL?

It is said "to the bee itself this mutilation proves fatal." This last
is another assertion for fact, so often repeated, that perhaps we might
as well admit it; seeing the difficulty we should have in disproving
it. Only think of the impossibility of keeping our eye, for five
minutes, on a bee that is flying about, after it has left its sting.
Yet there are some persons so very particular about what they receive
as facts, that they would require this very unreasonable thing of
watching a bee till it died,