The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1878]

The apiary; or, bees, bee-hives, and bee culture [1878] - being a familiar account of the habits of bees, and the most improved methods of management

JUST a few words at starting on the history of the bee in ancient and modern literature. Our work is not a critical survey, and still less an exhaustive treatise; but even that popular outline which it is our aim to produce seems defective without some mention of the great bee-students of the past. We find the first definitive description of the insect in Aristotle's "History of Animals," written about the middle of the fourth century before Christ, and combining much sound scientific information on our subject with other statements which better information has had to reject. A little before him lived Aristomachus, of Cilicia, who wrote works on agriculture and domestic economy which are lost to us except in a few quotations, but of whom we are told that he devoted some fifty-eight years to a continual observance of the habits of bees. One Philiscus, of Thasos, is mentioned as another of their votaries, who betook himself to a forest life in order uninterruptedly to pursue their study. Then just after the Christian era - 2 - came Pliny the Elder, from whom we learn these few particulars of the two just named, and whose celebrated "Natural History," which is the work rather of a student than of a master, honours the bee with an elaborate and interesting description. Shortly after him Columella, in his work "On Rustic Matters," gave copious instructions on bee-keeping, which, though reproducing some older errors, are greatly in advance of any that had appeared, and place him, for the accuracy that they display, at the head of the apiarians of antiquity. Theophrastus, Celsus, and Varro must also be ranked among the ancient writers whose attention was drawn to this industrious insect. But perhaps the most renowned of classic works upon the subject is the fourth book of the "Georgics" of Virgil, in which we are presented with a minute treatise upon bees and their culture, with all the sense as well as nonsense that then passed current thereupon, together with that most beautiful passage in the poet's writings, the story of the visit of Orpheus to the shades, which is appended by one of those incidental connecting-links of which ancient poets were wont to avail themselves. In more modern times the principal writers have been Swammerdam. The Dutch naturalist; Maraldi, an Italian mathematician; Schirach, a Saxon clergyman; Raumur, well known for his thermometer; Bonnet, a Swiss entomologist and jurist; the famous Dr. John Hunter; and above all Francis Huber, of Geneva. The last of these, though totally blind, contrived, principally by the aid of - 3 - his very intelligent and painstaking assistant, Burnens to accumulate a long series of minute observations which have brought about an entire revolution in the science. In connection with Huber must be mentioned Mlle. Jurine, who, by her delicate microscopic examinations, rendered him the most important services, and gave more than one valuable discovery to the world. At the same period lived Dr. John Evans, who may be fitly styled the poet-laureate of the bee. His poem, "The Bees," from which we shall make numerous quotations, is written with great taste, and combines, with rare felicity, scientific accuracy of detail with a poetic spirit which never flags.[3] A little later than these, though in part their contemporary, came Dr. Bevan, whose name is still cited as among the highest authorities on the subject, and whose work, "The Honey Bee," was regarded as its great text-book in our language, till superseded, with the progress of discoveries, by one under the same title from the pen of the Rev. L. L. Langstroth. This last gentleman, who is a Presbyterian minister in Ohio, stands undoubtedly at - 4 - the present day as the foremost apiarian of the English-speaking race. But we are forced to admit that the Germans bear the palm above us, for all the great advances in our knowledge of the bee which have been made for a generation have come from them. To Dr. Dzierzon,[4] therefore, a Roman Catholic priest of Carlsmarkt in Silesia, to whose acute investigations the great mass of these are to be ascribed, must be conceded a rank scarcely second to that of Huber; while Baron von Berlepsch, of Coburg, who is ever ready to follow up and improve upon the researches of the "great, master," has beyond question earned for himself a position inferior to that of the master alone. Of famous Scotch writers we should allude to Bonner, of Glasgow, who lived in the latter part of the last century, and the Rev. Dr. Dunbar, who dates at the beginning of this. [3] Dr. Evans's poem consisted of four parts, of which only three were ever published. We possess an author's presentation copy in which is a written memorandum that the manuscript of the remainder had been prepared for the press, and was still in the keeping of the family. We have written numerous letters with a view to tracking it out for publication; but very recently we have learnt that the only survivor of nine children is unable at present to discover the whereabouts of the document. Dr. Evans was some time a physician at Shrewsbury, but removed into and died in Wales. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68897
Author: Neighbor, Alfred
Release Date: Sep 2, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: Kent and Company
Publication Date: 1878
Publisher Country: UK