PATENT AND NON-PATENT HIVES, ETC. 37 



discussion, with a view to bring out facts and fig- 

 ures to guide the inexperienced bee-lieeper in his 

 labors, is suppressed. Tlie bee journals should be 

 the disseminators of useful knowledge among bee 

 keepers, I am sorry to find the reverse true with 

 many of them. After a thorough investigation, I 

 feel it my duty to advise bee keepers, and those con- 

 templating bee keeping, not to take all for granted 

 that you read in the bee journals, for if you do, you 

 will be very likely to soon find yourself robbed of 

 your money, and your bees ruined. 



Very many who write for the bee journals with 

 high sounding words, claiming to be adepts in bee 

 culture, have really no fractical knowledge of 

 the nature and habits of bees. We have supported 

 a host of speculators in our business, for a long time ; 

 the object of this class has ever been, how best to 

 secure our hard earnings, and with no desire or 

 effort to aid in rendering bee keeping more profit- 

 able and desirable. The country is full of this 

 class, and they always combine to crush out real 

 merit in anything pertaining to bee culture, brought 

 before the public by individual bee keepers, who are 

 laboring to advance the cause by giving their expe- 

 riences, gained from hard every-day labor among 

 bees. 



For many years I have written articles on bee 

 culture, for the leading agricultural journals and 

 newspapers. I have thus given much of my ex- 

 perience in detail, with no thought of further re- 

 ward than the satisfaction of having contributed to 

 aid bee keepers in raising bees with greater profit, 



