THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



115 



associations and bee periodicals 

 slioiild use ever}^ means to detect 

 and expose tliem. We are with 

 you and will willingl}^ publish any 

 authentic facts regarding this mat- 

 ter.— Ed.] 



BOOK NOTICES AND 

 REVIEWS. 



Mr. Henry Alley of Wenham, 

 Mass., autlior of "The Bee Keep- 

 er's Handy Book," has kindly pre- 

 sented me with a cop,y, which I 

 have carefully read, and now pro- 

 pose to give in brief my views of it. 



His book, while it treats gene- 

 rally on the subject of beekeeping, 

 is more particularly devoted to a 

 plain and concise description of 

 the author's new and original 

 method of rearing queens. It is 

 printed in clear type, on fine paper, 

 and so handsomely bound as to be 

 an ornament to any library. The 

 author makes no pretensions to 

 literary style, but writes in a forc- 

 ible, vigorous manner, and in 

 language that all can easily com- 

 prehend and understand. As is 

 usual, from description, some of 

 the operations used by Mr. A. in 

 working his system, might seem 

 difficult and laborious ; but when 

 they are put into practice, they 

 will be found simple and easy. 

 The great trouble in queen-rearing 

 heretofore has been in getting 

 queens reared from the egg, and 

 the cells built in such shape, that 

 all could be saved. Any one who 

 has attempted cell building well 

 knows that larvae three or four 

 days old are often used ; that cells 

 are built indiscriminately through- 

 out the hive, and many of them so 

 close together, that quite a loss en- 

 sues in transplanting them. The 

 beauty of Mr. A's new system' con- 

 sists in forcing; the bees to build 



cells just where it is desired to have 

 them placed ; so regularly spaced 

 apart that none need be lost in 

 transplanting, and what is best of 

 all, the egg must in every instance 

 be used. I have gone through 

 with the method as described in 

 the book, and find there is no 

 chance of failure, if the directions 

 are closely followed, and the work 

 is far less than by any other 

 method I have used. If the 

 book contained nothing but a de- 

 scription of the queen-rearing sys- 

 tem, it would be cheap at the price, 

 and of great value to apiarists gen- 

 erally ; but containing, as it does, 

 not only many valuable hints from 

 the author in regard to bee culture, 

 the result of more than twenty 

 years' experience ; an able essay by 

 one of our most eminent apiarists, 

 Mr. House, on comb honey ; and a 

 description by Mr. S. M. Locke, 

 editor of the Apiculturist, of the 

 new races of bees, than whom no 

 one is better qualified to give it, 

 render it doubly valuable, and a 

 grand addition to apicultural liter- 

 ature. In fact, no one who is en- 

 gaged in beekeeping, on no matter 

 how small a scale, can afford to be 

 without it ; and no apicultural li- 

 brary can be said to be complete 

 that does not contain it. Bee- 

 keepers as a rule are wedded to 

 their idols, and it is difficult to 

 induce them to travel out of their 

 own beaten paths. I find some 

 points stated in the boolv on which 

 the author and myself might diflfer ; 

 they are more in matters of manip- 

 ulation, than of practical manage- 

 ment, and probably I should like 

 his methods as well as my own, 

 when accustomed to them. Taken 

 as a whole the work is very meri- 

 torious, and any one who intends 

 to keep up with the times must 

 purchase and read it and follow its 

 teachings. — J. E. Pond, jr. 



Foxboro, Mass., Aug. 9, 1883. 



