PREFACE. 



Let them give a fair trial to the modern appliances for 

 the humane and depriving system of bee-keeping, ai^d 

 they will find offered to them an entirely new field of 

 interest and observation. At present, our continental 

 neighbours far surpass us as bee-masters ; but we trust 

 that the following season, if the summer be fine, will 

 prove a turning point in the course of English bee- 

 keeping. There is little doubt that a greater number of 

 intelligent and influential persons in this country will 

 become bee-keepers than has ever been the case before. 

 Our task would have lost half its interest, did we not 

 hope that it would result in something beyond the en- 

 couragement of a refined and interesting amusement 

 for the leisurely classes. The social importance of bee- 

 keeping, as a source of pecuniary profit for small farmers 

 and agricultural labourers, has never been appreciated 

 as it deserves. Yet these persons will not, of them- 

 selves, lay aside the bungling and wasteful plan of 

 destroying the bees, or learn without being taught the 

 only proper method, that of deprivation. Their edu- 

 cated neighbours, when once interested in bee-keeping, 

 will be the persons to introduce the more profitable 

 system of humane bee-keeping. The clergy especially, 

 as permanent residents in the countiy, may have great 



