There is in my opinion no pursuit which offers greater inducements than bee keeping, especially to women. There are _very many_ who are confined indoors nearly the whole time, excluded from the air and sunshine, to the great injury of their health; and after this great sacrifice they barely succeed in obtaining a livelihood. To such, bee keeping offers great inducements, such as improved health, and a handsome recompense for all labor performed. I am acquainted with many who have commenced bee keeping on my plan, who are meeting with complete success. A lady bought a swarm of Italian bees of me in 1874, and she writes me that from that _one_ she increased her stock to over twenty swarms the third season; besides she got over one hundred pounds of _nice_ honey from the swarm I sent her the _first season_. Here I wish to be clearly understood; I do not wish to hold out inducements which will never be realized, for the purpose of causing any one to commence bee-keeping; yet I believe bee keeping on correct principles should be encouraged, until bees enough are kept to collect all the honey now allowed to go to waste, and which if collected by bees and stored in nice glass boxes, would add millions of dollars to the wealth of the country. Since the day I introduced my Controllable Hive and new system of bee management to the notice of the public, the worthless bee hive swindlers and their tools have been boiling over with wrath against me, lying and slandering me through the public journals, and especially through the Bee Journals, and all because, that I, a woman, had succeeded in inventing a bee hive and new system of bee management superior to anything yet produced, and which was fast coming into use on its merits among bee keepers; consequently the sale of other hives was _decreasing_ in the same proportion. I first perfected the hive and system of management for my own use, with no thought of making it public, but through the kindness of my personal friends, and others who have visited me to enquire into the new system, it has become known from Maine to Oregon, and adopted by many of the most intelligent bee keepers in the United States. And in compliance with that command in the good book which reads--"_Let your light shine_," I am determined to spread the truth, regardless of all opposition from the ignorant and selfish crowd which is constantly attacking me. Without egotism I claim a thorough knowledge of the habits and instincts of bees. Consequently I claim a thorough knowledge of the requisites of a hive, and all fixtures pertaining to it, as well as a knowledge required to make bee keeping successful and profitable; and all this has been acquired in the school of _experience_ and _practice_.