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MEN DOCTORS AND BEE DOCTORS.

I know some persons, who, like that dear old man, Evelyn, even now feed their Bees in his way. He says, in his Calendar for January, "Turn up your Hives, and sprinkle them with a little warm sugar and sweetwort; do it dexterously." What should we think of a doctor, who, when called to visit a patient in a low fever, and very weak, orders a gallon of broth to be poured upon him as he lies in bed, and then leaves him to dry himself as he can, or even opens the window on a cold frosty night, when he is in this pickle? We should all say this man had a fair chance of DYING OF THE DOCTOR, which I fear is a very common complaint; AND MANY BEES, I AM SURE, DIE OF BEE-DOCTORS WHO ACT IN THIS WAY. These feeders sometimes pull the bung out of the top of their straw Hive, and pour in a quantity of sugar and beer. A weak stock should have this food given them without stint in September, and then be let to store it up for themselves. If the weather be cold, the mixture will of course freeze on the Bees, or at least stick upon their wings, and make them "right nasty;" as old Evelyn said of Czar Peter the Great, when he was at his house, Say's Court, Deptford.

Many people, who would otherwise keep Bees, are afraid of their stings, and so will have nothing to say to them. There are some people, it is true,

WHAT ARE BAD, AND WHAT HARMLESS STINGS.

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to whom a sting is really dangerous: let them have nothing to do with them, unless they love their Bees so much as rather to brave all consequences than to give up keeping them. There are some people who if they get a sting in their finger straightway swell up to the shoulder, or even further; this is certainly not pleasant, though I do not believe any great harm comes of it. The worst place in which you can be stung is the inside of the throat; I have heard of a man dying of swallowing a wasp, which was inside a peach which he bit in half; it stung him in the throat, which, as he did not know what to do to cure himself, closed up the passage of the breath, and so stifled him. If he had been an unhappy Bee-murderer, he would then find how unpleasant it is to be stifled. He ought to have run straight off to a doctor, who would, I believe, have put a small pipe down his throat, to keep the passage for the wind open. I myself was once blowing into a glass, to drive the Bees out, when in drawing in my breath sharply I swallowed a Bee. I prepared myself for a run to the doctor's, had I felt its sting in my throat, or lower down in my inside pocket; but the Bee passed so rapidly down, that he had not time to sting; when he got to his journey's end, no doubt not a little surprised at the path he had travelled, he resigned himself to his fate, like a good Bee,

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EXTRACT FROM OLD BUTLER.

and did not revenge himself by stinging me. Many remedies have been given for a sting; above all, pull the sting completely out, as it is barbed, like a fishhook, and will work into the flesh. Then squeeze the poison out with the pipe of a small key, as you would a thorn, and put a little honey on the place, just to keep the air away: if this is done at first, the swelling will generally be a mere nothing. The pain only lasts two minutes: at worst, it is only a swelled eye for a day or two. But, as I have said before, prevention is better than cure. Listen to the words of an old writer, who lived two hundred years ago:-"If thou wilt have the favour of thy Bees, that they sting thee not, thou must avoid some things which offend them; thou must not be unchaste and uncleanly; for impurity and sluttiness (themselves being most chaste and neat) they utterly abhor: thou must not come among them smelling of sweat, or having a stinking breath, caused either through eating of leeks, onion, garlick, and the like, or by any other means, the noisomeness whereof is corrected with a cup of beer; thou must not be given to surfeiting or drunkenness; thou must not come puffing and blowing unto them, neither hastily stir among them, nor resolutely defend thyself when they seem to threaten thee: but softly moving thy hand before thy face, gently put them by;

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and lastly, thou must be no stranger unto them. In a word, thou must be chaste, cleanly, sweet, sober, quiet, and familiar, so will they love thee, and know thee from all other."* Above all, never blow on them; they will try to sting directly if you do. If they come all about you, making the noise which you will soon learn to know as a sign of anger, go quietly away, and put your head into a thick shrub, if any is near. This will brush them off. If you want to catch any of the Bees, make a bold sweep at them with your hand, as though there was no such thing as a sting in the world; the Bee will be so astonished, that he will not sting at first. Then hold him in your closed hand, without pressing him, and he will not sting. I have so caught three or four at a time. If you want to do any thing to a single Bee, catch him, "as if you loved him," between your finger and thumb, where the tail joins on to the body; he thus cannot sting you.

I have now said my say. Much good may it do you, which I am sure it will, if you give it a fair trial. READ IT OFTEN; KEEP IT SAFE; LEND IT TO YOUR NEIGHBOURS WHO DO NOT KEEP BEES; TALK IT OVER WITH THOSE WHO DO; LEARN FROM THE BEE TO WORK HARD AND WASTE NOTHING. REMEMBER, NOTHING WORTH DOING CAN BE DONE

Butler. Chap. i. part 33.

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WITHOUT A LITTLE TROUBLE; AND, ABOVE ALL,

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