As with other branches of business, so with bee-culture; it has its proficients, amateurs, novices, and pretenders. Generally, it is with the two last-mentioned classes that worthless hives and various humbugs originate. The novice is often suddenly attacked with that disease known as “bee on the brain,” and ignorantly but innocently fancies he has mastered the whole science of bee-culture, and is therefore prepared to astonish the world by producing a bee hive that will supplant all its predecessors. Now, with many, to think is to act. Hence, yearly, there are introduced to the public several “best hives in the world,” which, however, prove to be either bungling attempts at an imitation of some good hive, or a worthless throwing together of timber, embracing in its construction not one scientific principle, but often many features directly opposed to the nature and wants of the bees. Their fanciful shape, novel construction, and the many advantages they are said to possess, often cause a number of them to be sold to unsuspecting bee-keepers, who are not educated in the science of bee-culture. The country is full of such worthless trash, and parties often pay more than they would require to do for really good hives, the reputation of which has been established for years--hives constructed by those well acquainted with bee-culture, and who are hence qualified to construct a hive adapted in every feature to the wants of the bee. The other class, whom I have styled pretenders, are generally unscrupulous persons, who do not hesitate at anything by which they can bring the “dimes” to their pockets. It is with this class that “bee humbugs” generally originate. Having a slight smattering of knowledge, they make great pretensions, and tell wonderful stories about bees--what strange things they have known bees to do; how one swarm went away, because the owner quarrelled with his wife; another because a child was buried, and the owner failed to whisper it in the hive; while a third was so particular, that it would not stay in the hive, because there was a rusty nail in sight! In this way they arouse the curiosity of the uneducated bee-keeper, who is soon ready to swallow all they have to say. They then come forward with their pretensions to superior knowledge. They can do this or that with bees. They have some wonderful secrets, and for a “V” (five dollars) they can tell you how to take the bees out of a box-hive, take their honey, put them back again, and they shall be all right “in the spring.” They have also got a curious compound, a peculiar drug, with which they can charm the bees so that they will not sting, price “only fifty cents a bottle;” and the recipe to make it only another “V.” Thus the honest and unsuspecting bee-keeper is victimized, while the swindling pretender “feathers his nest.” The following extract from a letter of inquiry, has called forth these remarks: