22 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



culture which has excited so much interest in Germany ; 

 I desire also to have the testimony to the merits of my 

 hive, of Mr. Wagner, who is extensively known as an able 

 German scholar. He has taken all the numbers of the Bee- 

 Journal, which has been published monthly for more than 

 nineteen years, in Germany ; and he is undoubtedly more 

 familiar than any other man in this country with the state 

 of Apiarian culture abroad. 



I wish, also, to show that the importance which I attach 

 to my system of management, is amply justified by the 

 success of those who, by the same system, even with infe- 

 rior hives, have attained results which to common bee- 

 keepers seem almost incredible. Inventors^are prone to 

 form exaggerated estimates of the value of their labors ; 

 and the public has been so often deluded by patent hives 

 which have utterly failed to answer their professed objects, 

 that they can scarcely be blamed for rejecting every new 

 one as unworthy of confidence. 



An American Bee-Journal, properly conducted, would 

 have great influence in disseminating information, awaken- 

 ing enthusiasm, and guarding the public against the 

 miserable impositions to which it has so long been subject- 

 ed. Three such journals have been published monthly, in 

 Germany ; and their circulation has widely disseminated 

 those principles which must constitute the foundation ot 

 any enlightened and profitable system of bee-culture. 



While many of the principal facts in the physiology of 

 the honey-bee were long ago discovered, it has unfortu- 

 nately happened that some of the most important have 

 been the most widely discredited. In themselves, they 

 are so wonderful, and to those who have not witnessed 

 them, often so incredible, that it is not strange that they 

 have been rejected as fanciful conceits or bare-faced 

 inventions. 



