PREFACE. 
3 
tending to diminish the size of families, and the appli- 
cation of remedies. Whether success has attended my 
efforts or not, the reader can judge, after a perusal of 
the work. 
It is time that the word “luck," as applied to bee- 
keeping, was discarded. The prevailing opinion, that 
bees will prosper for one person more than another, 
under the same circumstances, is fallacious. As well 
might it be applied to the mechanic and farmer. The 
careless, ignorant farmer, might occasionally succeed 
in raising a crop with a poor fence; but would be lia- 
ble, at any time, to lose it by trespassing cattle. Ho 
might have suitable soil in the beginning, but without 
knowledge, for the proper application of manures, it 
might foil to produce ; unless a chance application hap- 
pened to be right. 
But with the intelligent farmer the case is different : 
fences in order, manures judiciously applied, and with 
propitious seasons, he makes a sure thing of it. Call 
him “lucky" if you please; it is his knowledge, and 
care, that render him so. So with bee-keeping, the 
careful man is the “lucky” one. There can be no 
effect without a preceding cause. If you lose a stock 
of bees, there is a cause or causes producing it, just as 
certain as the failure of a crop with the unthrifty farm- 
er, can be traced to a poor fence, or unfruitful soil. 
You may rest assured, that a rail is off your fence of 
management somewhere, or the proper applications 
have not been made. In relation to bees, these things 
may not be quite so apparent, yet nevertheless true. 
Why is there so much more uncertainty in apiarian 
