The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

Egypt, the cultivation of bees forms a leading object, and their productions constitute a part of its riches. About the end of October, when sustenance cannot be provided for them at home, the inhabitants of Lower Egypt embark their bees on the Nile, and convey them to the distant regions of Upper Egypt, when the inundation is withdrawn, and the flowers are beginning to bud. These insects are thus conducted through the whole extent of that fertile country; and after having gathered all the rich produce of the banks of the Nile, are re-conducted home about the beginning of February. In France also, floating bee-hives are very common. One barge contains from sixty to a hundred hives, which are well defended from the inclemency of the weather. Thus the owners float them gently down the stream, while they gather the honey from the flowers along its banks, and a little bee-house yields the proprietors a considerable income. At other times they convey bees by land, to places where honey and wax may be collected. The hives are fastened to each other by laths placed on a thin packcloth, which is drawn up on each side and tied with packthread several times round their tops. Forty or fifty hives are then laid in a cart, and the owner takes them to distant places where the bees may feed and work. But without this labour the industrious bee might be cultivated to great advantage, and thousands of pounds weight of wax and honey collected, which now are suffered to be wasted on the desert air, or perish unheeded amidst the flowers of the field.--Those whose attention may be directed to the subject by these remarks, and who intend to erect an apiary, should purchase the stocks towards the close of the year, when bees are cheapest; and such only as are full of combs, and well furnished with bees. To ascertain the age of the hives it should be remarked, that the combs of the last year are white, while those of the former year acquire a darkish yellow. Where the combs