PREFACE. Vii. 
lished in England, America, and Germany, as well as the bee journals 
and technical periodicals of the same countries, extracting from each 
what appeared to me to be the most essential to be impressed upon 
the mind of the reader. In every case I have been careful not only to 
specify the sources from which such extracts have been taken, but 
also to give the quotations accurately in the words of the respective 
authors. I feel convinced that no reader of this volume can fall into 
the mistake of supposing that the quotations given from such writers 
as Huprr, DziERzoN, LANGSTROTH, QTINBy, Cook, Root, CHESHIRE, 
Luppock, Miitter, and many others are meant to supersede the 
necessity of studying the original works from which those quotations 
are taken ; on the contrary, they cannot fail to excite the desire to do 
so on the part of all who, after the general view here given, shall wish 
seriously to pursue the study. 
On all practical points of working detail I have given the practice 
followed by myself, and with special regard to the experience of 
myself and others in the peculiar circumstances of the Australasian 
colonies. On many of these points the beginners in these countries 
could find no reliable guide in any of the European or American works, 
for although there are in both of those continents some honey-pro- 
ducing districts similarly situated, at least in point of climate, to the 
semi-tropical parts of Australasia, yet it happens that all the standard 
works on apiculture have had their origin in places situate in com- 
paratively high latitudes, where the severe winters and the absence of 
an evergreen flora tend to place the practice of bee-keeping upon 
essentially different principles in many respects. Many subjects 
indirectly connected with practical apiculture are also introduced in 
this volume which I have not seen touched upon in any other work. 
Among these I would direct special attention to Chapter XIX. 
In order not to confuse the novice I have given, in all ordinary 
matters, full details of such methods as I have adopted and consider 
the best; but in special cases, where there is some divergence of 
opinion, I have also described the plans recommended by some of the 
leading apiarists of the day, and in every case I have sought to bring 
the accounts of improvements in the art down to the latest date. 
