PRBFACB. 



much expense that I am forced, though very reluctantly, to increase the 

 price ol the work. 



As our bee-keepers know, I have permitted wide use of the illustra- 

 tions prepared expressly for this work, believing heartily in the motto, 

 " greatest good to the greatest number;" sol have drawn widely from 

 others. I am greatly indebted to all these, and have given credit with 

 the illustration. 



Since the above was penned three editions have appeared, the last, 

 sixteenth, in 1899. Each has been revised. Both the science and prac- 

 tice have so advanced that I now recast entirely this, the seventeenth 

 edition. 



I wish again to express my thanks and gratitude to our wide-awake 

 American apiarists, without whose aid it would have oeen impossible to 

 have written this work. I am under special obligation to Messrs. Cowan, 

 York and Root, and to my students who have aided me, both in the 

 apiary and laboratory. 



As I stated in the preface to the eighth edition, it is my^desiie and 

 determination that this work shall continue to be the exponent of the 

 most improved apiculture ; and no pains will be spared, that each suc- 

 ceeding edition may embody the latest improvements and discoveries 

 wrought out by the practical man and the scientist, as gleaned from the 

 excellent home and foreign apiarian and scientific periodicals. 



The above was prefaced to the Eighteenth one thousand published 

 in 1900. This Nineteenth one thousand has been wholly revised, about 80 

 pages and 75 engravings added. We believe it is now at the front in 

 bee-keeping science and practice. A. J. COOK. 



Pomona College, Claremont, California, 1902. 



