16 
HIVES. 
praised by our committees and officers as improvements 
in bee-culture. These men ma} r be capable, intelligent, 
and well fitted for their sphere, but in bee matters, 
about as capable of judging, as the Hottentot would 
be of the merits of an intricate steam-engine. Know- 
ledge and experience are the only qualifications com- 
petent to decide. 
OPPOSITION TO SIMPLICITV. 
I am aware that among the thousands whose direct 
interest is opposed to my simple, plain manner of get- 
ting along, many will be ready to contend with me 
for every departure from their patent, improved or pre- 
mium hives, as the case may be. 
• BY GAINING ONE POINT, PRODUCE ANOTHER EVIL. 
I think it will be an easy matter to show that every 
departure from simplicity to gain one point, is attend- 
ed in another by a correspondent evil, that often ex- 
ceeds the advantage gained. That we have made 
vast improvements in art and science, and in every de- 
partment of human affairs, no one will deny ; conse- 
quently, it is assumed we must correspondingly im- 
prove in a bee-hive ; forgetting that nature has fixed 
limits to the instinct of the bee, beyond which she 
will not go 1 
It will be necessary to point out the advantages 
and objections to these pretended improvements, and 
then we will see if we cannot avoid the objections, 
and retain the advantages, without the expense , by a sim- 
ple addition to the common hive ■; because if we ex- 
