22 AUSTRALASIAN 
gaining some little experience procure either an Italian queen 
or a nucleus colony of Italian bees, and Italianise the black 
stocks, according to directions given in another chapter. By 
adopting this plan much expense and risk will be saved at the 
commencement. The beginner should of course adopt all the 
latest improvements in bee-culture, and, if possible, visit an 
apiary where the modern system of management has been 
introduced. Let me also impress on him the necessity and 
advantage of only having one kind and size of hive throughout 
the apiary. The reason of this is so obvious that it needs no 
further comment. Let him also remember that “ practice 
makes perfect ;” that no matter how fully any book may enter 
on a given subject, yet without experience the reader, practi- 
cally, will be like a ship without a rudder, for itis only by 
practical experience that we gain lasting knowledge and success. 
He should become a member of the nearest bee-keepers’ asso- 
ciation and a subscriber to a local bee journal, which will keep 
him posted up in everything relating to the progress of the 
industry in these colonies, and serve as a means of communi- 
cation between him and his fellow bee-keepers. He should follow 
the simple instructions given in this Manual, and avoid trying 
new experiments until he feels that he is master of the rudi- 
ments of the art; he may afterwards with advantage study all 
that has been written on the subject of apiculture, and form 
his own judgment on points (not a few) where he finds that 
“the doctors differ.” 
STATE AID TO APICULTURE. 
Germany and other continental states have long felt it to be 
one of the duties of a paternal government to promote the 
diffusion of a knowledge of the principles of bee-culture by 
means of suitable publications and by placing at the disposal 
of agricultural societies an annual contribution in aid of their 
objects. The United Sates of America have, at their Acricul- 
tural Colleges, professors of entomology and of bee-culture, who 
give both theoretical and practical instruction to the students - 
and in England a movement has been for some time in progress, 
which has now received the sanction of the Education Depart. 
ment, to place among the “ extra subjects,” the optional study 
of which is provided for by the Education Act, the branch 
