ESSEX SOCIETY. 89 



winter, causes the destruction of so many stocks. With such a 

 hive, the apiarian may permit or prevent swarming, just as he 

 pleases. 



We will now give the description and dimensions of a hive, 

 constructed with the above principles in view. Such a hive 

 was successfully used by the writer for very many years, in the 

 city of Salem. It is not patented, and no hive ever should 

 be, and the committee are glad to know that the granting of 

 patents on hives will meet very little encouragement at the 

 Patent Office in Washington. It is not wholly an original hive, 

 but its several points have been made up by careful examina- 

 tion of the descriptions of the best hives known here and in 

 England, by actual practice with a great variety of hives, and 

 by diligent study of what appeared to be capable of meeting 

 the wants and suiting the habits of the dwellers and workers 

 in hives. Any hive is a good one which is constructed on the 

 principle of humanity to th« honey-bee, and your committee 

 speak of this, not with the intention of saying, that it is " the 

 best that was ever made," to use a common phrase, but simply 

 to say that it is a good one, and will answer a satisfactory pur- 

 pose ; that it is not complicated nor costly and can be easily 

 managed. They say to the bee-keepers of the county, " save 

 your bees, by using such hives as will enable you to do so, and 

 at the satne time, give you a fair percentage of their labor. ^^ 



Many such hives are in use in our county. Perley King, of 

 Danvers. Mr. Bodwell, of liawrence. Rev. G. B. Perry, of 

 Groveland, and very many others, whose names do not occur 

 to us, use such hives, and we wish their use was universal. 



The hive we propose to describe consists of four parts, viz : 

 a bottom board, a centre hive, and two collateral boxes. These 

 will be described separately. The stuff of which all the parts 

 are made, is to be of the best stock, well seasoned and free 

 from knots and from shakes. The thickness of the stock men- 

 tioned, is in all cases, what it is after being planed down and 

 smoothed off and ready for use, and the other dimensions are 

 all inside measure. We may as well mention here, that it is 

 intended that these hives should be placed under some con- 

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