2 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
everywhere presents, and that upon the former we 
gaze perhaps as frequently to criticise as to admire, it 
is a consolation to remember that the studies through 
which we have passed, and the conclusions we have 
reached, will constantly recur, as forming part of 
the foundation of a truly scientific system of manage- 
ment ; and we shall not be long in discovering that 
our knowledge of the bee, as such, will act as a 
master key in unlocking and unravelling the main 
difficulties of the utilitarian side of the question, 
proving again that knowledge is not merely power, 
but frequently money also. None can have read 
with any care the recent journalistic literature of 
bee-keeping without some surprise, and, possibly, 
perplexity, at the marked divergence of opinion 
amongst those whose dictum would by most be 
regarded as authoritative. We find, not only diver- 
gence, but direct opposition, one denouncing as a 
blunder what another claims as an advance. It is 
true that many roads may lead to one goal, and that 
methods having very little in common may be 
equally successful ; while dissimilarity in purpose, 
purse, and taste, may induce even an antithesis of 
system, which may be, nevertheless, thoroughly justified. 
Quot homines tot sententise is not so much a charge 
against man’s judgment as a testimony to the infinite 
diversity of the circumstances which limit him ; but 
the extreme disagreement to which attention has just 
been called, and which the now fashionable “ selected 
questions ” have made prominent, cannot, in the 
Author’s judgment, even in the majority of cases, be 
explained by any or all of these suggestions, but 
