118 miner's amekican 



bled the bee-keeping community pretty freely. There 

 seems to be a greater cloud of darkness hanging over 

 the management of bees, than over any other branch of 

 rural economy. Every new-fangled "patent" hive that 

 is brought along, is represented as the ne plus ultra of 

 improvement, and the very acme of perfection ; and the 

 lesson that is so glibly recited by their venders, of the 

 wonderful and astonishing merits of their inventions, 

 often causes one to become duped again and again, 

 until he gives up in despair, and returns to his first love 

 — the simple hox and brimstone management of ages 

 past. 



I have an instance of the deplorable effects of confid- 

 ing too freely in the pretentions of a patent hive vender, 

 in the case of a neighbor, who went to a great expense 

 in building bee-houses, which he filled with hives from 

 an apiarian of the city of New York, at an enormous 

 cost, and now where are they ? From six hives pro- 

 cured several years ago, he has only one now remaining, 

 and when I last saw that one, " solitary and alone," 

 throwing out an occasional pale, sickly bee, in quest of 

 food, while the air of my premises was literally " vocal 

 with music," and the furious dashing whiz that resound- 

 ed about my ears as I approached them, giving indica- 

 tions of power, vigor and prosperity : — I say, when I 

 saw this great difference, in positions only a few rods . 

 distant, I was grieved that darkness should yet hover 

 over the apiaries of thousands who seem indifferent to 

 their success, or rather consider success as a matter of 

 chance rather than of science. 



