Enthusiasm, or an ardent love of its duties is very desirable, if not an absolute requisite, to successful apiculture. To be sure, this is a quality whose growth, with even slight opportunity, is almost sure. It only demands perseverance. The beginner, without either experience or knowledge, may meet with discouragements--unquestionably will. Swarms will be lost, colonies will fail to winter, the young apiarist will become nervous, which fact will be noted by the bees with great disfavor, and if opportunity permits, will meet reproof more sharp than pleasant. Yet, with PERSISTENCE, all these difficulties quickly vanish. Every contingency will be foreseen and provided against, and the myriad of little workers will become as manageable and may be fondled as safely as a pet dog or cat, and the apiarist will minister to their needs with the same fearlessness and self-possession that he does to his gentlest cow or favorite horse. _Persistence in the face of all those discouragements which are so sure to confront inexperience, will surely triumph._ In-sooth, he who appreciates the beautiful and marvelous, will soon grow to love his companions of the hive, and the labor attendant upon their care and management. Nor will this love abate till it has kindled into enthusiasm. True, there may be successful apiarists who are impelled by no warmth of feeling, whose superior intelligence, system and promptitude, stand in lieu of and make amends for absence of enthusiasm. Yet I believe such are rare, and certainly they work at great disadvantage. PART FIRST. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. CHAPTER I. THE BEE'S PLACE IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. It is estimated by Heer and other eminent naturalists, that there are more than 250,000 species of living animals. It will be both interesting and profitable to look in upon this vast host, that we may know the position and relationship of the bee to all this mighty concourse of life. BRANCH OF THE HONEY-BEE. The great French naturalist, Cuvier, a friend of Napoleon I., grouped all animals which exhibit a ring structure into one branch, appropriately named Articulates, as this term indicates the jointed or articulated structure which so obviously characterizes most of the members of this group.