NOTE.--The time has hardly come when the attention of any of our State authorities can be attracted to the importance of bee-culture. It is only of late that they have seemed to manifest any peculiar interest in promoting the advancement of agricultural pursuits. A Department of Agriculture ought to have been established, years ago, by the National Government at Washington. Let us hope that the Administration now in power, will establish a lasting claim to the gratitude of posterity, by taking wise and efficient steps to advance the agricultural interests of the country. A National Society to promote these interests has recently been established, and much may be hoped from its wisdom and energy. Until some disinterested tribunal can be established, before which all inventions and discoveries can be fairly tested, honest men will suffer, and ignorance and imposture will continue to flourish. Lying advertisements and the plausible misrepresentations of brazen-faced impostors, will still drain the purses of the credulous, while thousands, disgusted with the horde of impositions which are palmed off upon the community, will settle down into a dogged determination to try nothing new. A society before which every thing, claiming to be an improvement in rural economy, could be fairly tested, would undoubtedly be shunned by ignorant and unprincipled men, who now find it an easy task to procure any number of certificates, but who dread nothing so much as honest and intelligent investigation. The reports of such a society after the most thorough trials and examinations, would inspire confidence, save the community from severe losses, and encourage the ablest minds to devote their best energies to the improvement of agricultural implements. CHAPTER XVII. THE ANGER OF BEES. REMEDY FOR THEIR STING. BEE-DRESS. INSTINCTS OF BEES.