which we must refer our readers to his treatise. It appears to be a very complex structure, and therefore so far ineligible; for every bee-master, in operating with his little irritable and impatient labourers, feels as very serious obstacles to his success, the machinery of drawers, dividers, sliders, grooves, &c. This form of the storied hive, accordingly, has never been brought into general use. A simpler construction has become popular. Ten years after Wildman's work was published, Mr. Keys published his Treatise, in which he gives his plan of a storied hive, the chief improvement of which consisted in the employment of the cross bars of the Grecian hive, and arranged nearly in the same manner, instead of the complex and cumbrous sliding frames of Wildman's. Seven years ago, Mr. Howatson, in a useful little manual on bees, advocated a story-hive, in the construction of which he professes having endeavoured to combine the advantages of both Wildman's and that of Keys, while he aimed at greater simplicity, and a diminution of expense. We think he has succeeded in his views, and his success would be still more complete were the troublesome, and, in our opinion, unnecessary apparatus of "glass slips" dispensed with. "The boxes (Pl. XI. fig. 1.) are made of fir-deal,[1] ¾ of an inch thick;" a full inch in thickness, and even a little more, would be an improvement,—there would be less chance of the internal heat escaping, or of the external cold penetrating.
- ↑ Poplar, in the opinion of T. A. Knight, Esq., would answer better, from its looser grain, and consequent non-conducting quality.
