OVERSTOCKING. 863 



der proper management, one year with another, about lert 

 dollars worth of honey may be obtained for every two 

 stocks ^wintered over. The worth of the new colonies, I 

 set off as an equivalent for labor of superintendence, and 

 interest on the money invested in bees, hives, fixtures, &c. 



A careful, prudent man who will enter into bee-keeping 

 moderately at first, and extend his operations only as his skill 

 and experience increase, will, by the use of my hives, find 

 that the preceding estimate is not too large. Even on the 

 ordinary mode of bee-keeping, there are many who will con- 

 sider it rather below than above the mark. If thoroughly 

 careless persons are determined to " try their luck," as they 

 call it, with bees, I advise them by all means, in mercy to 

 the bees, to adopt the non-swarming plan. Improved 

 methods of management with such persons will be of little 

 or no use, unless you could improve their habits first, and 

 very often their brains too ! Every dollar that such persons 

 spend upon bees, unless with the slightest possible departure 

 from the old-fashioned plans,, is a dollar worse than thrown 

 away. In those parts of Europe where bee-keeping is car- 

 ried on upon the largest scale, the mass adhere to the old 

 system ; this they understand, and by this they secure a cer- 

 tainty, whereas in our country, thousands have been induced 

 to enter upon the wildest schemes, or at least to use hives 

 which could not furnish them the very information need- 

 ed for their successful management. A simple box furnish- 

 ed with my frames, will enable the masses, without de- 

 parting materially from the common system, to increase 

 largely the yield from their bees. 



In addition to the information given in the Introduction, re- 

 specting the success of Dzierzon's system of management, 

 I have recently ascertained that one of its ablest opponents 

 in Germany, has become thoroughly convinced of its sups- 



