2 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



sought in vain for the tract whose instructions generally my own 

 experience would justify me in recommending to their notice. It was 

 about this time I formed tfee design of myself attempting to supply 

 this desideratum in apiarian literature ; but after spoiling much good 

 paper, and wasting not a 'little valuable time, I was fain to give it up 

 in the end, not from any doubt as to the matter or instructions which 

 I designed to give being good and useful, but from a sense of the dif- 

 ficulty I should find in successfully handling the subject, so as to bring 

 it down to the understanding of the poor. From the debris of this 

 tract, however, arose the conception and outline of the present work, 

 which by degrees assumed its actual form — less modest and unpre- 

 tending it may be than the parent from whose ashes it proceeded, but, 

 I would fain hope, not the less calculated to please and to be useful. 



My first object, however, remains unaltered. I wish to induce all 

 residents in the country, who have leisure and opportunity, to en- 

 courage bee keeping among their poorer neighbors — and not with a 

 view to their pecuniary advantage only, for the study of bees is capa- 

 ble of ministering to a much higher end. There is scarcely a more in- 

 teresting branch of natural history to be mentioned, and none certain- 

 ly more instructive. To quote the words of Dr. Bevan : " In common 

 with the other branches of natural history, it leads to a salutary exer- 

 cise of the mental faculties ; it induces a habit of observation and re- 

 flection ; no pleasure is more easily attainable, nor less alloyed by any 

 debasing mixture; it tends to enlarge and harmonise the mind, and to 

 elevate it to worthy conceptions of nature and its Author.'' Every 

 word of this is true. The rustic bee keeper, if he have only a soul to 

 appreciate the works of Grod, and an intelligence of an inquisitive or- 

 der—and intelligence is sure to expand with the attentive study of 

 any branch of natural history — cannot fail to become deeply interested 

 in observing the wonderful instincts, (instincts akin to reason,) of these 

 admirable creatures ; at the same time that he will learn many lessons 

 of practical wisdom from their example. Having acquired a knowl- 

 edge of their habits, not a bee will buzz in his ear without recalling to 

 him some of these lessons, and helping to make him a wiser and a 

 better man. It is certain that in all my experience I never yet met 

 with a keeper of bees who was not a respectable, well-conducted 

 member of society, and a moral, if not a religious, man. It is evident, 

 on reflection, that this pursuit, if well attended to, must occupy some 



