I 
ON THE THRESHOLD OF 
THE HIVE 
I 
IT is not my intention to write a treatise 
on apiculture, or on practical bee-keeping. 
Excellent works of the kind abound in all 
civilised countries, and it were useless to 
attempt another. France has those of 
Dadant, Georges de Layens and Bonnier, 
Bertrand, Hamet, Weber, Clement, the 
Abbé Collin, &c. English-speaking coun- 
tries have Langstroth, Bevan, Cook, Che- 
shire, Cowan, Root, &c. Germany has 
Dzierzon, Von Berlepsch, Pollmann, Vogel, 
and many others. 
Nor is this book to be a scientific mono- 
graph on Apis Mellifica, Ligustica, Fasciata, 
Dorsata, &c., or a collection of new obser- 
vations and studies. I shall say scarcely 
anything that those will not know who are 
3 
