PEEF ACE. 
The author of the “Bee-keepers’ Manual” says that 
he was disgusted with the few miserable straw hives or 
skeps which are to be seen in every part of area 
Britain, enveloped during the winter season m hlthy 
rags, or covered with turf, or shut up in a little wooden 
hovel, which have more the appearance of pestilential 
prison-houses than the comfortable abodes of a refine 
and busy population. This awakened his sympathy for 
the poor bee, and it at once occurred to him to write a 
treatise on their management. Our reasons for compiling 
this work are of quite a different character. 
As a branch of colonial industry, requiring not much 
capital, and but very little time and attention, our 
obiect is to encourage country settlers to take to bee¬ 
keeping as a matter of profit, for the country seems 
peculiarly well adapted for it, the native trees, shrubs 
and flowers, giving a constant succession o ee oo 
nearly all the year round. 
We have made our instructions as plain an prac ica 
and in as few words as possible, telling the est an 
easiest way of accomplishing the several operations con¬ 
nected with the craft. 
Mr. Cotton treats the matter of hives ig J, a . 
seems to think that almost anything trill do while in 
England, at the present day, this is considered of great 
importance, there having been much controversy, talk¬ 
ing, and writing on the subject. What wo consider the 
