Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/177

Rh from the non-conducting quality of the material of which the former are constructed. The latter are more easily kept clean—they furnish better means of defence against vermin—they are a great deal more durable, and afford a much greater facility for operating experimentally, and studying the nature of their interesting inmates. And what is always of importance in matters of rural economy, their cost, at least as regards the simpler kinds, is very little more than that of the straw hives; and if we take their durability into account, it is actually less. But the nature of the material of which they are made, rendering them easily affected by variations of the external temperature, furnishes an important and well-founded objection; for notwithstanding all the precautions used, no practicable or manageable thickness of material, nor wrappings of straw ropes and straw covers have been found effectual in remedying this defect. We are of opinion, therefore, that those who cultivate bees for the sake of their produce only, and who have no particular desire to study minutely their natural history, or to witness their proceedings in the interior of their dwellings, will do well to adhere to hives of straw; and of these, by far the best in our estimation, is the storied straw hive of Wildman, already described.

There is a greater variety of form and structure in the wooden hives, than in those of straw; but the storied kinds, of various dimensions, are most generally used. Wildman has invented one of this kind, for a long and somewhat unintelligible description of