50 BEE-CULTURE. 
any other is no slight commendation, especially to those who wish to 
be paid for their pains, or wish to combine interest with profit. Those 
who engage in Bee-culture with a view to understand it, must study 
and think much, and this is conducive to mental improvement. It 
is an enterprise in which it is scarcely possible to engage without 
discovering the wisdom of the Infinite One, and by those reflections 
which naturally arise in the mind of the attentive observer, the heart, 
almost as a matter of course, is made better. He finds 
‘Sermons in ‘ Bees,’ and ‘God’ in everything.” 
Bee-culture has claims upon the tntelligent and scientific. Profes- 
sional men should study the instincts and wonderful economy of the 
Honey-Bee, that they may be able to throw light upon their operations, 
and thus aid their less intelligent neighbors. It has claims upon the 
sturdy yeoman asa kind of pastime, by means of which he can reap ample 
profits with very little expenditure of time and capital. It has claims 
upon the young as a means of extending their knowledge of natural 
history, and cultivating within them the love of natural objects. It has 
claims upon the aged, who, as they retire from the ‘active and busy 
scenes of life, need just such objects of contemplation to occupy their 
minds. It has claims also upon the attention of females. Mrs. B : 
of New Jersey, by her careful observations and economical manage- 
ment, and valuable writings relative to the operations of the Honey- 
Bee, secured to herself a livelihood, an education to her children, 
and gained much celebrity as a scientific writer. Females are among 
our very best apiarians. When the principle of domestication, which 
is found to exist in the Honey-Bee, is properly understood, they will be 
kept on a much larger scale than at present. ; 
» 
CHAPTER XVII. 
RECAPITULATION. 
Tue author of this volume has not advanced the many Utopian 
schemes which have been advocated within the last twenty years, rela- 
tive to Bee-culture. He believes that very many of them which have 
already proved abortive, have done much to retard progress in this most 
