A Plague of Bees

Some time ago it was announced that bee farming had been taken up at Gennevillers, one of the most loathesome industrial suburbs of Paris. This was treated as a joke, but the news is, our correspondent says, nevertheless true, and the Prefect of the Seine has just received a petition from the inhabitants to abate the nuisance. The bees live upon the sugar refineries of the neighborhood, clearing away all the dust of the roofs, and even landing on the bare backs of the workmen. It has been stated by a sugar refiner that every hive in the neighborhood carries away twenty shillings’ worth of sugar in a year from the factories. He does not, however, complain of this loss, but of the irritation the perpetual buzz inflicts on the workmen.