INTRODUCTION 



hunters were compelled to smoke and destroy 

 the bees, thus creating in them a fear of smoke 

 that has been inbred for centuries. 



So deeply ingrained is this fear that the 

 modern beekeeper has but to puff a little 

 smoke into the entrances of their hives to 

 render them tractable and permit of their 

 easy handling, and that without any serious 

 interference with their multiform labors. 



We do not have to search the records of 

 the past to find evidences of the brutal and 

 needless destruction of bees to secure their 

 honey; for it is still the custom of a large 

 number of ignorant beekeepers to brimstone 

 their faithful little workers, when the adoption 

 of modern hives and methods, neither expen- 

 sive nor intricate, would render it unnecessary. 



During the last few centuries there have 

 been naturalists of note who have given much 

 time to the study of the habits of the honey 

 bee, and the literature of the world has been 

 greatly enriched by the observations of Jan 

 Swammerdam, born at Amsterdam in 1637; 



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