4 PEEFACE. 



science than other farming operations? It must be 

 attributed to the fact, that among the thousands who 

 are engaged in, and have studied agriculture, perhaps 

 not more than one has given his energies to the nature 

 and habits of bees. If knowledge is elicited in the 

 same ratio, we ought to have a thousand times more 

 light on one subject than the other, and still there are 

 some things, even in agriculture, that may yet be 

 learned. 



It is supposed, by many, that we already have all 

 the knowledge that the subject of bees affords. This 

 is not surprising; a person that was never furnished 

 with a full treatise, might arrive at such conclusions. 

 Unless his own experience goes deeper, he can have 

 no means of judging what is yet behind. 



In conversation relative to this work, with a person 

 of considerable scientific attainments, he remarked, 

 "You do not want to give the natural history of bees 

 at all ; that is already sufficiently understood." And 

 how is it understood ; as Huber gives it, or in accord- 

 ance with some of our own writers ? If we take Huber 

 as a guide, we find many points recently contradicted. 

 If we compare authors of our day, we find them con- 

 tradicting each other. One recommends a peculiarly 

 constructed hive, as just the thing adapted to their 

 nature and instincts. If a single point is in accordance 

 with -their nature, he labors to twist all the others to 

 his purpose, although it may involve a fundamental 

 principle impossible to reconcile. Some one else suc- 

 ceeds in another point, and proceeds to recommend 

 something altogether different. False and contradic* 



