PREFACE. 
Before the reader decides that an apology is ne- 
cessary for the introduction of another work on bees 
into the presence of those already before the public, 
it is hoped that he will have the patience to examine 
the contents of this. 
The writer of the following pages commenced bee- 
keeping in 1828 , without any knowledge of the busi- 
ness to assist him, save a few directions about hiving, 
smoking them with sulphur, &c. Nearly all the in- 
formation to be had was so mingled with erroneous 
whims and notions, that it required a long experience 
to separate essential and consistent points. It was 
impossible to procure a work that gave the information 
necessary for practice. From that time to the present, 
no sufficient guide for the inexperienced has appeared. 
European works, republished here, are of but little 
value. Weeks, Townley, Miner, and others, writers 
of this country, within a few years, have given us 
treatises, valuable to some extent, but have entirely 
neglected several chapters, very important and essen- 
tial to the beginner. Keeping bees has been, and is 
