“Halt!” he shouted. The great wheel-of-fortune stopped. A long iron bar was pulled down and the wheel rose out of the vat. Now I could see that its whole outer periphery8 was covered with frames of honeycomb, each in its separate gauze-wire cage. The bee-master tugged9 a lever. The cages—there must have been twenty-five or thirty of them—turned over simultaneously10 like single leaves of a book, bringing the other side of each comb into place. The wheel dropped down once more, and swung round again on its giddy journey. From my place by the door I could hear the honey driving out against the sides of the vat like heavy rain.
“Halt!” cried the bee-master again. Once more the big wheel rose, glistening11 and dripping, into the yellow lamplight. And now a trolley12 was pushed up laden13 with more honeycomb ready for extraction. The wire-net cages were opened, the empty combs taken out, and full ones deftly14 put in their place. The wheel plunged15 down again into its mellifluous16 cavern17, and began its deep song once more. The bee-master gave up his post to the foreman, and came towards me, wiping the honey from his hands. He was very proud of his big extractor, and quite willing to explain the whole process. “In the old days,” he said, “the only way to get the honey from the comb was to press it out. You could not obtain your honey without destroying the comb, which at this season of the year is worth very much more than the honey itself; for if the combs can be emptied and restored perfect to the hive, the bees will fill them again immediately, without having to waste valuable time in the height of the honey-flow by stopping to make new combs. And when the bees are wax-making they are not only prevented from gathering18 honey, but have to consume their own stores. While they are making one pound of comb they will eat seventeen or eighteen pounds of honey. So the man who hit upon the idea of drawing the honey from the comb by centrifugal force did a splendid thing for modern bee-farming. English honey was nothing until the extractor came and changed bee-keeping from a mere19 hobby into an important industry. But come and see how the thing is done from the beginning.”
He led the way towards one end of the building. Here three or four men were at work at a long table surrounded by great stacks of honeycombs in their oblong wooden frames. The bee-master took up one of these. “This,” he explained, “is the bar-frame just as it comes from the hive. Ten of them side by side exactly fill a box that goes over the hive proper. The queen stays below in the brood-nest, but the worker bees come to the top to store the honey. Then, every two or three days, when the honey-flow is at its fullest, we open the super, take out the sealed combs, and put in combs that have been emptied by the extractor. In a few days these also are filled and capped by the bees, and are replaced by more empty combs in the same way; and so it goes on to the end of the honey-harvest.”
We stood for a minute or two watching the work at the table. It went on at an extraordinary pace. Each workman seized one of the frames and poised20 it vertically21 over a shallow metal tray. Then, from a vessel22 of steaming hot water that stood at his elbow, he drew the long, flat-headed Bingham knife, and with one swift slithering cut removed the whole of the cell-tappings from the surface of the comb. At once the knife was thrown back into its smoking bath, and a second one taken out, with which the other side of the comb was treated. Then the comb was hung in the rack of the trolley, and the keen hot blades went to work on another frame. As each trolley was fully6 loaded it was whisked off to the extracting-machine and another took its place.
“All this work,” explained the bee-master, as we passed on, “is done after dark, because in the daytime the bees would smell the honey and would besiege23 us. So we cannot begin extracting until they are all safely hived for the night.” He stopped before a row of bulky cylinders25. “These,” he said, “are the honey ripeners. Each of them holds about twenty gallons, and all the honey is kept here for three or four days to mature before it is ready for market. If we were to send it out at once it would ferment26 and spoil. In the top of each drum there are fine wire strainers, and the honey must run through these, and finally through thick flannel27, before it gets into the cylinder24. Then, when it is ripe, it is drawn28 off and bottled.”
One of the big cylinders was being tapped at the moment. A workman came up with a kind of gardener’s water-tank on wheels. The valve of the honey-vat was opened, and the rich fluid came gushing29 out like liquid amber30. “This is all white-clover honey,” said the bee-master, tasting it critically. “The next vat there ought to be pure sainfoin. Sometimes the honey has a distinct almond flavour; that is when hawthorn31 is abundant. Honey varies as much as wine. It is good or bad according to the soil and the season. Where the horse-chestnut is plentiful32 the honey has generally a rank taste. But this is a sheep-farmers’ country, where they grow thousands of acres of rape33 and lucerne and clover for sheep-feed; and nothing could be better for the bees.”
By this time the gardener’s barrow was full to the brim. We followed it as it was trundled heavily away to another part of the building. Here a little company of women were busy filling the neat glass jars, with their bright screw-covers of tin; pasting on the label of the big London stores, whither most of the honey was sent; and packing the jars into their travelling-cases ready for the railway-van in the morning. The whole place reeked34 with the smell of new honey and the faint, indescribable odour of the hives. As we passed out of the busy scene of the extracting-house into the moist dark night again, this peculiar35 fragrance36 struck upon us overpoweringly. The slow wind was setting our way, and the pungent37 odour from the hives came up on it with a solid, almost stifling38, effect.
“They are fanning hard to-night,” said the bee-master, as we stopped halfway39 down the garden. “Listen to the noise they’re making!”
The moon was just tilting40 over the tree-tops. In its dim light the place looked double its actual size. We seemed to stand in the midst of a great town of bee-dwellings, stretching vaguely41 away into the darkness. And from every hive there rose the clear deep murmur42 of the ventilating bees.
The bee-master lighted his lantern, and held it down close to the entrance of the nearest hive.
“Look how they form up in rows, one behind the others with their heads to the hive; and all fanning with their wings! They are drawing the hot air out. Inside there is another regiment43 of them, but those are facing the opposite way, and drawing the cool air in. And so they keep the hive always at the right temperature for honey-making, and for hatching out the young bees.”
“Who was it,” he asked ruminatively44, as the gate of the bee-farm closed at last behind us, and we were walking homeward through the glimmering45 dusk of the lane—“who was it first spoke46 of the ‘busy bee’? Busy! ’Tis not the word for it! Why, from the moment she is born to the day she dies the bee never rests nor sleeps! It is hard work night and day, from the cradle-cell to the grave; and in the honey-season she dies of it after a month or so. It is only the drone that rests. He is very like some humans I know of his own sex; he lives an idle life, and leaves the work to the womenkind. But the drone has to pay for it in the end, for the drudging woman-bee revolts sooner or later. And then she kills him. In bee-life the drone always dies a violent death; but in human life—well, it seems to me a little bee-justice wouldn’t be amiss with some of them.”
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1
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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2
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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reverberating
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的现在分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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6
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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timing
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| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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8
periphery
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| n.(圆体的)外面；周围 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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12
trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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13
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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15
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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16
mellifluous
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| adj.（音乐等）柔美流畅的 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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besiege
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| vt.包围，围攻，拥在...周围 | |
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cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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28
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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30
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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rape
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| n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸 | |
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34
reeked
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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37
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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39
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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40
tilting
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| 倾斜，倾卸 | |
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41
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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42
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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43
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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44
ruminatively
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| adv.沉思默想地，反复思考地 | |
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45
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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46
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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