INTRODUCTION. 



No apology nor elaborate explanation need be made for the 

 publication of a practical guide to bee-keeping in Australasia; 

 so far the industry has been but little catered for. lii this 

 volume an attempt has been made — I think very successfully — 

 to provide a concise, explicit, and ieminently practical guide- 

 book covering the elementary as well as the more advanced 

 phases of practical Apiculture. 



Australasian conditions are in many ways peculiar, so that 

 works applicable to other lands are often ineffective here and 

 involve a great deal of sifting — and, may-be, oostly experiments 

 — to determine whether such instructions are profitable or 

 otherwise. This book therefore fills a great want, and I have 

 much pleasure in commending it whilst predicting a ready sale, 

 and that it will thus find its way into the libraries of all 

 progressive apiarists and nature students. 



The author has given us the result of his years of interesting 

 experience under the "Southern Cross," and has proved in his 

 own apiaries all he has written to be practical — not only from 

 an experimental but also from a financial point of view — having 

 made Apiculture a successful and profitable business. By 

 following in the ways of the successful, others can obtain success ; 

 so this volume will prove valuable to everyone who takes up 

 bee-keeping as a business or as a hobby. 



It is extremely practical from beginning to end, while every 

 operation is lucidly described, from the nailing and setting up 

 of the hive parts to the extra delicate operations entailed by the 

 modern system of rearing queen-bees : nor is the marketing of 

 the honey and wax crop neglected in any detail. Sufficient of 

 the natural history and physiology of the honey-bee has been 

 given to whet one's appetite, and to incline the reader towards 

 a closer study of insect anatomy so that he may better appreciate 

 the marvels of its physical organisation. 



Notable in this volume is the section devoted to the 

 honey and pollen producing indigenous flora. The author 



