106 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
raise the greatest number of chickens, and sell the largest 
number of eggs. 
Worse than all, it cannot furnish the many advantages 
enumerated, and yet be made in as little time, or quite as 
cheaply, as a hive which, in the end, proves to be a very 
dear bargain! 
In the progress of my invention, while undoubtedly 
attaching undue importance to some points, I have 
steadily endeavored to avoid constructing a hive in accord¬ 
ance with crude theories, or mere conjectures. Having 
carefully studied the nature of the honey-bee, for many 
years, and compared my observations with those of writers 
and cultivators who have spent their lives in extending 
tbe sphere of Apiarian knowledge, I have endeavored to 
rbmedy the many difficulties with which bee-culture is 
beset, by adapting my invention to the actual habits and 
wants of the insect. I have also tested the merits of this 
hive by long continued experiments, made on a large scale, 
so that I might not, by deceiving both myself and others, 
add another to the useless contrivances which have 
deluded and disgusted a too credulous public. I would, 
however, utterly repudiate all claims to having devised even 
a perfect bee-hive. Perfection belongs only to the works 
ot Him, to whose omniscient eye were present all causes and 
effects, with all their relations, when he spake, and from 
nothing formed the Universe. For man to stamp the 
label of perfection upon any work of his own, is to show 
both his folly and presumption. 
The culture of bees is confessedly at a low ebb in this 
country, when thousands can be induced to purchase hives 
which are in glaring opposition to the plainest dictates of 
common sense, as well as the simplest principles of Apiarian 
knowledge Such have been the losses of deluded pur¬ 
chasers, that it is no wonder they turn from everything 
