IntroductioUc 



L^ pv^HIS book is intended for the professional bee-keeper; hence it 

 is taken for granted that the reader is fairly well acquainted 

 - with bees and their management. 



No space is devoted to the natural history, anatomy and 

 physiolog-y of the bee, because my experience has been along com- 

 mercial, instead of scientific, lines. 



The history of this book, how and why it came to be written 

 and published, would read something as follows: Twenty or more 

 years ago, while making my living in the apiary, I learned that, with 

 my management, it was more profitable to use starters, only, in the 

 brood-nest when hiving swarms. My experiments and methods 

 were described in print; others tried my plans; discussions followed; 

 and, finally, it became apparent that the system was really more 

 complex than it appeared on the surface; also, that short articles 

 scattered through different bee journals did not present the subject 

 in the best possible manner, and, as a result, 1 published a little 

 book in which I described, in detail, my method of comb honey 

 pi-oduction. 



One of the criticisms brought against the little book was its 

 small size; and I was repeatedly urged to write a larger book, giving 

 my experience and views more in detail, and upon other points. 

 Flattering as all of this may have been, I doubt if I should have 

 yielded to these entreaties had it not been that by the time the last 

 copy of the little book was sold, I had been editor of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review for nearly four years, and had the benefit of reading, 

 and studying over, special discussions, by the most practical men, 

 of the most important questions connected with our pursuit. As it 

 was, I went to work and classified, arranged and condensed, and 

 gave what I considered the cream of the special topic discussions 



