There are so many items of interest which should serve as an introduction to these papers that we hardly know where to stop and must be necessarily brief and even leave many of them until we write again. In purchasing bees it is best if you want but from one to five colonies to purchase them of some reliable dealer and always select a standard frame, and it will pay you well to look into the merits of the various frames before making your purchase. While for some reasons we prefer a frame about 10 × 15, yet as the “Langstroth Standard” is now so largely in use and is no objection as regards wintering the bees, we deem it best to adopt it in our own apiaries. Circumstances must in a great measure control these matters, but whatever style is adopted it should be adhered to, else much trouble and expense will result. We deem the tenement hive the best for all purposes. True, the first cost is somewhat greater, but in the end it pays. The hives should be constructed in as simple a manner as possible, and while if one wants but a few he can make them after obtaining his colony of bees and estimating the size of the brood chamber; yet it is much better if he wants five or more hives to purchase them in the flat. While we prefer for working bees a cross between the Italian and Holylands (from Syria), yet as a rule we would recommend the Italian as the _best_ for the average beekeeper. Experience will teach one which is the best race. We shall endeavor to give illustrations of different styles of hives in our next paper but have been too busy to attend to it this month. Our first advice is “Make haste slowly,” but “stick to it” until you have either mastered the business or found that you were better adapted to some other vocation. _NEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BEES._ BY FRANCIS HUBER. (Continued from p. 95, Vol III.) Solicitous to learn its origin, and conjecturing that it might be masculine matter, he began to watch the motions of every drone in the hive, on purpose to seize the moment when it should be received by the eggs. He assures us, that he saw several drones insinuate the posterior part of the body into the cells for that purpose. After frequent repetition of the first he entered on a long series of other experiments. There was something very specious in this explanation: the experiments on which it was founded seemed correct; and it afforded a satisfactory reason for the prodigious number of males in a hive. At the same time the author had neglected to obviate one strong objection: larvæ appear when there are no drones. From the month of September until April, hives are generally destitute of males; yet, notwithstanding their absence, the queen then lays fertile eggs. Thus the prolific matter cannot be required for their impregnation, unless we shall suppose that it is necessary at a certain time of the year, while at every other season it is useless.