PREFACE. 



The following treatise has been written to fill a 

 vacuum in this country, that has long existed. How it 

 has happened that the management of the honey-bee 

 should have been so neglected by writers in the United 

 States, I am at a loss to comprehend ; but so it is, and 

 we cannot boast, up to the present time, a single volume 

 on this subject, worthy of being called a full, practical 

 treatise on the culture of this insect. 



Such small essays as have appeared from the pens of 

 American authors, have given little, or no information 

 of practical utility ; the most of them, not even present- 

 ing a single engraving, as an illustration. In this work, 

 the expense of the embellishments alone, will equal the 

 entire cost of publishing any of the works of American 

 origin, that have preceded it ; and it has been my pride 

 and aim, to render it a production, that will not only com- 

 pare with, but even exceed the most popular European 

 treatises on the same subject, especially in all matters of 

 a practical nature. 



The great difficulty in the way of producing a truly 

 popular work on the honey-bee, has hitherto been, the 

 imaginary dryness of the subject, operating as a great 

 discouragement to practical apiarians to write thereon ; 



