INTRODUCTION. 



ideas could be expressed on the subject. Let it also 

 be considered, that it is a subject on which the female 

 pen has been engaged, even to the most minute in- 

 vestigation of the anatomy of the insect, and surely 

 that which was permissible in a female writer, may be 

 allowed in one of the opposite sex. 



In regard to the work now offered to the public, 

 our aim has been chiefly to expose the fallacies and 

 contradictions of the Huberian system, to simplify the 

 mechanical operations of the apiary, and thereby to 

 stimulate those who are already engaged in the cul- 

 ture of the bee to greater exertions, and induce others 

 to undertake it, from a full exposition of the great 

 advantages to be derived from it, not only in an in- 

 dividual, but in a national point of view, and finally, 

 to render this country independent of all foreign supplv 

 of the produce of the bee. ** 



