PKEFACE. Vii 



employers. Now I have a small garden of my own, 

 in which bees are kept for profit. Such is a brief 

 outline of my history. The work before the reader, 

 then, is a practical one, and written by a practical 

 -man. Indeed the book is simply an exposition of a 

 system of management practised by my father for 

 forty years ; and profitably, for forty years since his 

 day, by myself and others. 



Dr M'Kenzie, in a small book on bees, says he 

 ■was induced to study the subject from the fact that 

 one of his two labouring men, having found a swarm 

 of bees in a hedge, and therewith commenced bee- 

 keeping, -was enabled to go without his wages tUl 

 they were earned. Previously, both labourers got 

 their wages in advance. The lift given to the one 

 man by the possession of this fugitive swarm was so 

 pleasing to the Doctor, that he commenced to read 

 works on bees, and study their management both in 

 this country and on the Continent. This little in- 

 cident shows what a swarm or two of bees may do 

 for a poor labourer. Indeed there are few things 

 more profitable to cottagers living in the country or 

 on the skirts of towns, than a few swarms of bees, or 

 more easUy managed. " Bees," says Cobbett, " are of 

 great use in a house, on account of the honey, the 

 wax, and the swarms they produce : they cost noth- 

 ing to keep, and want nothing but a little care." 



In bee-keeping I reckon the question of profit is 

 of first importance. Stings do not seem half so pain- 

 ful to the man whose annual proceeds of bee-keep- 

 ing amount to £10, or £20, or £50. It is my desire. 



