e 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 essential to the beginner. Keeping bees _has_ been,
and is now, by the majority, deemed a hazardous enterprise. The ravages
of the moth had been so great, and loss so frequent, that but little
attention was given to the subject for a long time. Mr. Weeks lost his
entire stock three times in fifteen years. But soon after the discovery
was promulgated, that honey could be taken from a stock without
destroying the bees, an additional attention was manifest, increasing
to a rage in many places. It seems to be easily understood, that
_profit_ must attend success, in this branch of the farmer's stock;
inasmuch as the "bees work for nothing and find themselves." This
interest in bees should be encouraged to continue till enough are kept
to collect all the honey now wasted; which, compared with the present
collections, would be more than a thousand pounds to one. But to
succeed, that is the difficulty. Some eighteen years since, after a
propitious season, an aged and esteemed friend said to me, "It is not
to be expected that you will have such luck always; you must expect
they will run out after a time. I have always noticed, when people have
first-rate luck for a time, that the bees generally take a turn, and
are gone in a few years."

I am not sure but, to the above remarks, may be traced the cause of my
subsequent success. It stimulated me to observation and inquiry. I soon
found that good seasons were the "lucky" ones, and that many lost in an
adverse season, all they had before gained. Also, that strong families
were the only ones on which I could depend for protection against the
moth. This induced the effort to ascertain causes tending to diminish
the size of families, and the application of remedies. Whether success
has attended my efforts or not, the reader can judge, after a perusal
of the work.

It is time that the word "_luck_," as applied to beekeeping, was
discarded. The prevailing opinion, that bees will prosper for one
person more than another, under the same circumstances, is fallacious.
As well might it be applied to the mechanic and farmer. The careless,
ignorant farmer, might occasionally succeed in raising a crop with a
poor f