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PREFACE
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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 Great
Britain, enveloped during the winter season in filthy 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 refined 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 object is to encourage country settlers to take 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 of bee-food
nearly all the year round.

We have made our instructions as plain and practical and in as few words as possible, telling the best and easiest way of accomplishing the several operations
connected with the craft.

Mr. Cotton treats the matter of hives lightly, and seems to think that almost anything will do, while in England, at the present day, this is considered of great importance, there having been much controversy, talking, and writing on the subject. What we consider the