4 
PREFACE. 
science than other farming operations? It must be 
attributed to the fact, that among the thousands who 
are engaged in, and have studied agriculture, perhaps 
not more than one has given his energies to the nature 
and habits of bees. If knowledge is elicited in the 
same ratio, wc ought to have a thousand times more 
light on one subject than the other, and still there are 
some things, even in agriculture, that may yet be 
learned. 
It is supposed, by many, that we already have all 
the knowledge that the subject of bees affords. This 
is not surprising; a "person that was never furnished 
with a. full treatise, might arrive at such conclusions. 
Unless his own experience goes deeper, he can have 
no means of judging what is yet behind. 
In conversation relative to this work, with a person 
of considerable scientific attainments, he remarked, 
“You do not want to give the natural history of bees 
at all ; that is already sufficiently understood.” And 
how is it understood; as Huber gives it, or in accord- 
ance with some of our own writers ? If wc take Huber 
as a guide, we find many points recently contradicted. 
If we compare authors of our day, we find them con- 
tradicting each other. One recommends a peculiarly 
constructed hive, as just the thing adapted to their 
nature and instincts. If a single point is in accordance 
with their nature, lie labors to twist all the others to 
his purpose, although it may involve a fundamental 
principle impossible to reconcile. Some one else suc- 
ceeds in another point, and proceeds to recommend 
something altogether different. False and contradic- 
