PREFACE. 



Grateful for the favor with which this Treatise on the Hive 

 and Honey-Bee has been received, the Author respectfully submits 

 to the candid perusal of his Readers, a Revised Edition, illus- 

 trated by numerous beautiful wood-cuts, and containing the re- 

 sults of his latest discoveries and improvements. The information 

 here presented, is believed to constitute a decided advance, in some 

 important respects, on anything which has hitherto been furnished 

 to the Apiarian Public ; and while specially adapted to the wants 

 of those who use the Movable-Comb Hive, it aims to set forth the 

 true principles which lie at the foundation of all profitable Bee- 

 Keeping, with any hive or on any system of management. 



Debarred to a painful extent, by the state of his health, from 

 the more appropriate duties uf his Sacred OfBce, and compelled to 

 seek some employment calling him as much as possible into the 

 open air, the Author indulges the hope that the result of his labors 

 in an important department of Rural Economy, may prove ser- 

 viceable to the community as well as to himself Such has been 

 the satisfaction which he has taken in these researches, that he has 

 felt desirous of awakening a more general interest in a pursuit, 

 not merely profitable in its pecuniary results, but most admirably 

 adapted to instruct and delight all intelligent observers. Scientific 

 Bee-keeping is regarded, in Europe, as an Intellectual pursuit, and 

 no one who studies the wonderful habits of this useful Insect, need 

 apprehend that the materials for new observations will ever become 

 exhausted. The Creator has stamped the seal of his own Infinity, 

 on all his works, so that it is impossible even in his minutest pro- 



