MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 19 



AID FROM CONVENTIONS. 



Attend conventions whenever distance and means render 

 this possible. Here you will not only be made better by social 

 intercourse with those whose occupation and study make them 

 sympathetic and congenial, but you will find a real conserva- 

 tory of scientific truths, valuable hints, and improved instru- 

 ments and methods. And the apt attention — rendered 

 possible by your own experience — ^which you will give to 

 essays, discussions and private conversations, will so enrich 

 your mind, that you will return to your home encouraged, and 

 able to do better work, and to achieve higher success. I have 

 attended nearly all the meetings of the Michigan Convention, 

 and never yet when I was not well paid for all trouble and 

 expense by the many, often very valuable, suggestions which 

 1 received. These I would carry home, and test as com- 

 manded by the Apostle : " Prove all things and hold fast that 

 which is good." 



AID FROM BEE PUBLICATIONS. 



Every apiarist, too, should take and read at least one of the 

 three excellent bee publications that are issued in our coun- 

 try. It has been suggested that Francis Huber's blindness 

 was an advantage to him, as he thus had the assistance of two 

 pairs of eyes, his wife's and servant's, instead of one. So, 

 too, of the apiarist who reads the bee publications. He has 

 the aid of the eyes, and the brains, too, of hundreds of intel- 

 ligent and observing bee-keepers. Who is it that squanders 

 his money on worse than useless patents and fixtures ? He 

 who " cannot afford " to take a bee-journal. 



It would be invidious and uncalled for to recommend any 

 one of these valuable papers to the exclusion of the others. 

 Each has its peculiar excellences, and all who can, may well 

 secure all of them to. aid and direct their ways. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



This, the oldest bee publication, is not only peculiar for its 

 age, but for the ability with which it has been managed, with 

 scarce any exception, even from its first appearance. Samuel 

 Wagner, its founder and long its editor, had few superiors in 

 breadth of culture, strength of judgment, and practical and 



