In undertaking this work, as I originally did, at the pressing solicitations of several of those Noblemen and Gentlemen, whose names graced the list of the subscribers for the first edition, I had two main objects in view; of which a full and particular explanation of the mode of managing Honey-Bees, in my boxes and upon my principles, was one,--and the other, which I do ardently hope will result from the adoption and encouragement of my long-tried plan, is--the prospective improvement, not only of the culture and condition of those ingenious, admired, and most interesting little creatures, but also of honey and wax--the two valuable articles which Bees, and Bees alone, afford us. To prepare the way for the accomplishment of the latter of these objects, I have exerted my best endeavours--I have spared neither pains nor expense, to give minute, and, I trust, intelligible descriptions of all my boxes and hives, of my Bee-machinery, and of every thing thereto pertaining; which descriptions have been accompanied with such practical directions and relations of experiments, as will, _if duly attended to_, enable my Bee-friends to put their apiaries upon my _humane and profitable system of management_. Therefore I do not think it is incumbent upon me to proceed farther at present. I might easily double the size of my book, by entering into and giving lengthy details of several matters relative to Bees, which are not here so much as hinted at; such, for instance, as the distance that they sometimes fly from their hives in quest of honey, and the experiments that have been made to determine that distance;--the nature of honey-dew, and how it is occasioned,--why it abounds on some trees and plants, whilst others are entirely destitute of it,--whether it be a natural exudation of the plants that afford it,--or whether it be produced by the leaf-lice, called aphides;--why, if the impregnation of a Virgin-Queen be retarded beyond a certain number of days after her coming into existence, all the eggs she lays during her whole life, should invariably produce _drones;_--the language of Bees, for Bees, it has been held, have their peculiar language, though I profess not to understand it, nor even to have studied it, my business being with their _habits;_--the various diseases or maladies with which skilful men assure us they are occasionally affected;--their senses, their anatomy, and their instinct;--their affinity to the wasp;--exotic Bees from those of Lapland to those of China; and from those of Siberia to those of the Cape of Good Hope;--the stingless Bees of South America, mentioned by Dr. Hancock, that from the luxuriant ever-blooming, tropical plants and flowers, produce black wax;[N] what Aristotle hath remarked on one subject,--what Pliny hath said on another,--what classic Virgil hath so delightfully sung of the nature, economy, and management of Bees in Italy,--what Gelieu in modest prose hath said of Bees in