To a quart of ale add a pound and a half of sugar, gently boil them, in a sweet, well-tinned saucepan, over a fire clear from smoke, for five or six minutes, or until the sugar be dissolved and thoroughly incorporated with the ale; and, during the process of boiling, skim off the dross that rises to the surface. Some persons boil these ingredients much longer, and until they become, when cool, a thick, clammy sirup; this not only diminishes the quantity of the mixture, but renders it rather disadvantageous, to weak Bees in particular, by clogging and plaguing them, if, as they are almost sure to do, they get their legs or wings daubed with it. I prefer sirup in a more liquid state. For spring feeding, I advise--that not more than a pound of sugar be put to a quart of ale, or sweet wort, if it can be obtained, and that a small quantity of common salt be added. By a _small quantity_ I mean--a drachm or two at the most to a quart of the sirup. Salt, it has been said, is conducive to the health of Bees, and the most efficacious remedy for the dysentery, which sometimes affects Bees in the spring; therefore, it may not be amiss to put a little salt into their food, by way of preventive, rather than to have recourse to it afterwards as a remedy. Speaking of the substances which are proper for the feeding of Bees, Mr. Huish says[I]--"he is perfectly convinced that honey alone is very injurious to Bees, as it in general gives them the dysentery." Whether by this _extraordinary passage_ Mr. Huish has, or has not, subjected himself to the lash of his own ridicule, it would be hypercritical and unbecoming in me to determine. As an apiarian I respect him; in no other character am I acquainted with him. His work on the management of Bees I have read, and have derived information and occasionally assistance from some of its pages. There are in it, nevertheless, several untenable positions, of which I consider the above-quoted passage to be one: and, if what he has remarked somewhat sarcastically, in a note at the foot of page 31, be read in conjunction with this passage, it will be for the candid reader, apiarian, or other, to decide whether Mr. Huish in propriâ personâ does not, oddly enough, exemplify his own remark. It is there said--that "there is no wonder in nature which an apiarian has not seen." Professedly an apiarian himself, he must have seen some, at least, of _the wonders in nature_, otherwise he never could have been "_perfectly convinced_"--that honey--"_honey alone_"--the very substance which Bees, guided by the instinct of their nature, collect with so much industry, and store up with so much care, for their subsistence, should be "very injurious to them, and in general give them the dysentery." From this it seems that the substance, which is the natural food for one stock of Bees, is physic for another, if not poison!! I cannot but express my astonishment that a gentleman, so acute and experienced as Mr. Huish