92 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



beekeepers, to publish a journal 

 that would fairly represent and pro- 

 tect their interests. Though there 

 are those who have kindly written 

 our epitaph, yet, in spite of this, the 

 Apiculturist still lives, and as we 

 shall commence with the June 

 number to issue 5,000 copies per 

 month, it gives us great liope that 

 it will not always remain that 

 " youthful bee journal," but will 

 in the near future take its place 

 among the " more aged ones." 



Study and experimental investi- 

 gation, both scientific and practi- 

 cal, are the life of any vocation or 

 industr}', and as during the brief 

 summer months it is utterly impos- 

 sible for the honey producer to 

 devote sufficient time to any ex- 

 periments, to test them thoroughly 

 it becomes necessary that we es- 

 tablish such experimental apiaries 

 as those to which we have referred. 

 Lacking these, apiculture in this 

 country has not advanced as it 

 should, but we look forward with 

 great hope and anticipation to 

 great and grand changes and im- 

 provements in this as well as in 

 many other regards within the 

 next few years. With this object 

 in view, we have purchased from 

 Mr. Henry Alley, of Wenham, 

 Mass., the old "Bay State Apiary," 

 established by him twentj'-seven 

 years ago, together with his entire 

 bee and queen business, including 

 his choice and valuable collection 

 of breeding stock, the result of 

 twenty-three years careful selec- 

 tion and breeding. 



We have also been very fortu- 

 nate in securing Mr. Alley's val- 



uable services as superintendent 

 of our queen-breeding department 

 and while hereafter we shall make 

 a specialty of the production and 

 sale of the best bees for honey 

 producing, yet we propose to con- 

 fine our advertisements to the ad- 

 vertising department, giving our 

 subscribers full benefit of our read- 

 ing columns. 



It is our purpose to test the 

 value of all the various honey pro- 

 ducing plants, and in order that 

 we may do so, we have purchased 

 in Wenham a fine estate of eight 

 acres which we shall devote to this 

 purpose. 



We are now putting up a build- 

 ing which we shall use as an office, 

 bee house and factory, and as soon 

 as it is completed and the grounds 

 are laid out, we shall give our 

 readers an illustrated description 

 of it. We propose in the future, 

 to devote more time to our journal 

 and to conducting, with Mr. Alley's 

 assistance, various experiments in 

 every branch of beekeeping, trust- 

 ing that we shall be enabled there- 

 by to solve many of the vexing 

 problems over which there is at 

 present so much discussion, and if 

 our readers will send us careful 

 descriptions of any experiments 

 that they wish tested, we shall be 

 most happy to make such tests, 

 and report the results in our 

 journal. 



The Apiculturist in the future, 

 as in the past, will be published 

 as an impartial and independent 

 journal, so far as freedom of 

 thought and expression of opinions 

 are concerned. 



