244 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



of the chapters devoted to the management of the apiary, an effort has been made to 

 present the various systems of manipulations in such a way that the underlying 

 principles shall be evident, rather than to attempt to describe each system as if it were 

 separate." 



According to the author's plan, the book is divided into two main discussions: 

 first, of bees as they exist without man's interference, and second, of how man may 

 profitably use or interfere with natural colony conditions. 



The first division occupies chapters 3 to 9, using 171 pages. According to an old 

 phrase in teaching, the author here goes "from the known to the unknown." First 

 taking the colony as the unit, he describes its morphology and physiology in the third 

 and fourth chapters under the headings "Colony and Its Organization," and "The 

 Cycle of the Year." Next, the subdivisions of the colony — the individual bees — 

 are discussed, first in relation to the colony (chapter 5), then as to their own Ufa 

 processes (chapters 6, 7, and 8). Finally, chapter 9 gives the entomological clas- 

 sification of the bee, and the chief characteristics of the different races of honey bees. 



Transition is made to the second main division by a discussion of regional differences 

 in the United States with reference to beekeeping in chapter 10. The next two 

 chapters give advice on first steps in beekeeping and apiary management. Then five 

 chapters of only 86 pages give all the directions one finds in the book on bee man- 

 agement, with the exception of a short chapter later on devoted to queen rearing, 

 and one on "The Care of Bees in Winter," which consists mostly of directions for let- 

 ting them alone. True to his foreword, the author has presented these simple sys- 

 tems of manipulation, so that the underlying principles are evident. 



So much then for the main divisions of the book. In addition to these, the fii'st 

 chapter, by way of introduction, discusses beekeeping as an occupation, and the 

 second, one of the shortest, gives a list of the bare essentials of equipment, on the 

 grounds, no doubt, that an ai't consists not of tools, but of their use. The remaining 

 chapters deal with marketing the honey crop, the production and care of beeswax, the 

 sources of nectar and pollen, bee diseases and enemies, and miscellaneous informa- 

 tion. Every one of these chapters is worthy of special mention, but" space is limited. 



One's first impression of the book is that it is different. No other author has un- 

 dertaken the subject in just this way. Placing principles first and emphasizing them 

 all the time is fundamentally sound teaching. If there were any adverse criticism it 

 would be that phases of the subject are not followed through from principles to man- 

 agement in the same chapter. For example, the wintering of bees is treated in 

 chapter 4, and the care of bees in winter in chapter 20; but from different standpoints. 

 According to the plan of the book, this is unavoidable. 



In clearing away the fog of details of equipment and management, and presenting 

 beekeeping as a scientific art using very simple tools and methods, the author has 

 made a valuable contribution to bee literature. 



The style is clear and concise, at times perhaps too condensed for the average 

 beekeeper reader. The illustrations, mostly original, are pen drawings and are splen- 

 did. There are 457 pages with 24 chapters, 190 illustrations, and a very complete 

 index. To say that "Beekeeping" is published in Bailey's Rural Science Series by the 

 Macmillan Company, is sufficient commendation of binding, type, and general style - 

 •of this most excellent pul)lication {Adrotisemeyit). 



M.P. 



