7 
“ novice’s ” GI-EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE' 
BOOKS OF AMERICA DEVOTED 
TO BEE CULTURE. 
|jP VERY bee keeper should road 
■Ell Lang stroth and Quinby. No mat- 
ter who. or where, or what your pro- 
ficiency, read them for it will afford 
you a rare pleasure that you cannot 
afford to lose. 
For something for ready reference, 
condensed and alphabetically ar- ! 
ranged, we know of nothing better 1 
than Mr. King’s Text Book. It : 
served us well and we almost [learn- 
ed it by heart, (and we must add the 
American hive along with it, which 
we could have far bettor dispensed 
with, and hope Mr. King will too, 
when he ceases to be a patent right 
man,; and have given it to many be- 
ginners to save answering their in- 
numerable questions. It is true that 
no mention is as yet made of the 1 
extractor in any of its frequent ;j 
revisions ; nor have we any work, so 
far as we know, that even docs it j 
any kind of justice. Perhaps our 
many periodicals are full}' compe- 1 
tent for this work. Price of Text 
Book 40c, and it is well worth the ! 
money after tearing out all about i 
the “American hive,” “Instructions ! 
to agents,” etc. 
Bee Keeper's Guide, by E. Kretch- I 
mer, Coburg, Iowa. Price 50 els., 
has just been sent us for an opinion. 
As our opinion has been asked, we 
can afford to be quite candid. The 
whole appearance of the book struck 
lisas something strangely familiar, 
and on reading different parts of it, 
we were still more puzzled until we !J 
placed King's Text Book by its 
side, and found that the same ideas 
followed in almost the same succes- 
sion even to whole pages and chap- 
ters; and extracts were in the same 
words : even “American Hives,” 
too, (under a different name.) “In 
st ructions to agents, etc.” lias Mr. 
Kretch mer stolen this from King, 
or has King sold him the right to, — 
to copy him, imperfections and all ? 
As the book is larger than King's 
there must be something new, and 
we find the Extractor mentioned 
favorably, bit tit isso unimportant an 
implement that we presume more 
than one page devoted to it would 
he a waste of time. 
Han't some one who makes a busi- | 
ness of selling only Bees and Honey 
write a Text Book, with no other 
end in view than to teach us to pro- 
duce honey cheaply. 
‘■Bees, Their Management, and Cul- 
ture,” by Mrs. E. S. Tupper, we can 
heartily recommend. It advocates 
movable comb hives, only in the 
abstract and not any particular one. 
The work is too brief to go into de- 
tails, but many valuable facts are 
given. As Mrs. Tupper devotes a 
page or two to box honey, and not 
quite five lines to the Extractor, we 
shall have to think that she is un- 
acquainted with developments made 
in bee culture in that direction, or 
hesitates to recommend it to begin- 
ners. The assertion on page 12 that 
“The most valuable invention since 
movable combs, is that of the new 
swarming attachment," of Mrs. 
Farnham’s, we think very doubtful, 
for very many large Apiaries are 
now managed with the aid of the 
Extractor, so that swarming is al 
most, if not quite, done away with, 
and such an arrangement, would be 
worse than useless for that purpose. 
As no mention is made of the 
malady that has carried off large 
Apiaries during the past winter, we 
must conclude she has no advice to 
offer on the subject, or that “ven- 
tilation," “plenty of food,” and 
“numbers” lurnish the remedy. We 
leave the question to be answered by 
those who have suffered. 
Some of the circulars that we re- 
ceive from enterprising Apiarians, 
are almost a Text Book in them- 
selves. Qtiinby’s circular and price 
list we always look for with pleas- 
ure, as we do many others. 
Queen-Rearing is really getting to 
be one of the fine arts, and we know 
of no more honorable occupation 
tor man or woman. The same can 
be said of the manufacture and sale;)! 
hives and all implement* of value 
in apiculture, where the eurso of 
patent right speculation and false 
representation is not connected 
therewith. 
Recollect that you must keep the 
animal heat concentrated in a com- 
pass small enough to suit the quan- 
tity of bees, and you are all right, 
if you hurry too much you spoil the 
whole. — Gallup. 
