INTRODUCTION. 



appliances in a surprising and somewhat bewildering 

 fashion. The endeavour to increase profits, and 

 make a market for honey, by saving the labour of 

 the bees and their owners, and by tempting the 

 purchasers of the results of the efforts of both, has 

 put before us a miscellany of articles, which our 

 ancestors would have regarded as fearfully and 

 wonderfully made, but which they never could have 

 supposed to have any relation to bee-keeping. It 

 will be our desire to do full justice to these, both by 

 explanation and illustration ; but, at the same time, 

 by carefully elucidating principles, to so guide the 

 bee-keeper, that he may be well able to so select 

 both hives and appliances, that all his requirements 

 will be met by the smallest possible collection of 

 bee paraphernalia. 



The increased attention which apiculture has 

 received during recent years, not only in our own 

 country, but on the Continents of Europe and America, 

 is due to a variety of causes. With us, some of these 

 are personal; and first in the roll of honour amongst 

 those who have with philanthropic ends attracted 

 attention to apiculture, must stand the name of the 

 Rev. Herbert R. Peel, whose very recent death all 

 must deplore, especially such as knew him so 

 intimately as the author. But the causes mainly are 

 of a more permanent kind than can be those that are 

 associated with the proverbial uncertainty of human 

 life. ; e.g., honey is a wholesome delicacy, which sugar 

 has supplanted, but not replaced; so that this product 

 of the apiary is winning for itself anew a position 

 in our diet tables, and we are also beginning to re- 



