PREFACE. 
In presenting to the community this brief treatise on the manage- 
ment of the Honey Bee, and the construction of Bee-Hives, the au- 
thor is not vain enough to suppose that it will meet the views of 
every Bee-keeper in all respects, for he is well aware that there is 
scarcely any subject on which such a diversity of opinion exists, as 
on the form and size of bee-hives, and the general management of 
bees. But from the universal satisfaction the Ohio Combination Bee- 
Hive has given, during the last four or five seasons, in several hun- 
dred instances, where it has had a thorough trial, and the high com- 
mendations it has received from a large number of the best practical 
bee-keepers in the State of Ohio, where its merits are known, the 
author is led to believe that when this hive is once brought before 
the public and its advantages made known, it will supersede all 
others, and render the culture of the Honey Bee far more sure and 
profitable than it has formerly been, and divest it of much that has 
been perplexing and difficult to understand, and overcome; and, at 
the same time, much more pleasant and interesting, to every one that 
has a taste or desire to engage in the culture of this most wonderful 
and interesting little insect, which has attracted the attention of phi- 
losophers and naturalists, and called forth the admiration of wise men 
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