X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



We need say little here as to the interest that attaches 

 to the apiary as a source of perennial pleasure for the 

 amateur naturalist. Many of the hives and methods of 

 management are described with a direct reference to 

 this class of bee-keepers, so that, besides plain and 

 simple directions suitable for cottagers with their ordinary 

 hives, this work will be found to include instructions 

 useful for the scientific apiarian, or at least valuable 

 for those who desire to gain a much wider acquaintance 

 with the secrets of bee-keeping than is now usually pos- 

 sessed. We would lay stress on the term "acquaint- 

 ance," for there is nothing in the management of the 

 various bar-and-frame hives which is at all difficult when 

 frequent practice has rendered the bee-keeper familiar 

 with them. Such explicit directions are herein given as 

 to how the right operations may be performed at the 

 right times, that a novice may at once commence to use 

 the modern hives. The word " new-fangled " has done 

 good service for the indolent and prejudiced, but we 

 trust that our readers will be of a very different class. 

 Let them give a fair trial to the modern appliances for 

 the humane and depriving system of bee-keeping, and 

 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 



