THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



justed. Mr. Alley may be seen in 

 the foreground at the right, his son 

 at the bee-house door, and your 

 "humble servant" standing near. 



Most of the full colonies are out 

 of range and could not be shown. 

 Mr. Allej' has several other mating 

 yards away from home, and now 

 has from two hundred to three 

 hundred nuclei in operation. 



Mr. Alley is a plain, practical 

 every-day sort of man, a true and 

 and devoted friend, hospitable and 



him has been a long and pleas- 

 ant one, including a period of 

 over fourteen years, during which 

 time he was to me both a teacher 

 and friend. 



Sitting at his feet I learned my 

 first lessons in beekeeping, and I 

 have always found him ready and 

 willing to impart to me any infor- 

 mation which would help me to 

 realize my life object of mastering 

 practical apiculture in all its vari- 

 ous branches. True, I have gleaned 



tV, -WKNIIAM, i'\lASS. 



kind ; and is most justly and fit- 

 tingly styled, by one of our promi- 

 nent apiarists, master of queen- 

 rearing. Any beekeeper who may 

 he so fortunate as to visit him will 

 long renicmbcr the i)leasant and 

 profitable bee cliat tliat he ma}' 

 liave had witli him. 



In experimenting with the bees 

 in his apiary lie is thorough and 

 practical, seldom giving to the pub- 

 lic anything until it has proven 

 with him a success. 



My personal acquaintance with 



much information from bee litera- 

 ture, associations, conventions and 

 othersources ; ])ut, notwithstanding 

 this, I consider it a duty and a 

 privilege to state that I am more 

 indebted to him than to any other 

 Ibr a systematic knowledge of a 

 study so dear to me. 



The method of queen-rearing as 

 taught l)y hi in in his '' Handy 

 Book" is, as yet, conq)aratively 

 unknown, and has cost him twenty- 

 live years of hard study alid a vast 

 deal of careful experimenting ; and 



