Oxford, Butler County, Ohio; and may heaven prosper you for so doing. R. BICKFORD. _Seneca Falls, N. Y._, Aug. 1, 1870. P. S.--I have written this without the consent or knowledge of Mr. Langstroth, or his family, simply because, knowing the circumstances, I felt it a duty and a privilege to speak--R. B. * * * * * The Egyptian beehives are made of coal dust and clay, which being well blended together, the mixture is formed into a hollow cylinder about a span in diameter and from four to six feet high. This is dried in the sun, and becomes so hard that it may be handled at pleasure.--_Domestic Encyclopædia._ * * * * * Whoever intends to erect an apiary should purchase colonies towards the close of the year, and only such as are full of combs and stocked with a sufficient number of bees should be chosen. To ascertain the age of the hives, it should be remarked that the combs of the last season are white, while those of former years are dark yellow. Where the combs are black, the hive should be rejected, as too old and liable to the attack of vermin.--DR. WILLICH. FOOTNOTES: [1] More probably _new_ ones.--A DEVONSHIRE BEE-KEEPER. [2] No, let us _not_ all _go west_, but rather let us have NOVICE _come east_--retaining his time-honored name the while. What was the average annual yield of honey, per hive, in Novice’s locality, when he began to keep bees? What were his surroundings _then_, as regards bee pasturage? and what are they now? If improved, are they so proportionately to the increased quantity of honey obtained? Would anybody _then_ have believed it possible, by any means that could be devised, to secure, in any apiary, 6,162 pounds of surplus in four weeks, or five times four, from the area of bee pasturage within the range of the bees’ flight, taking the town of his residence as the centre? Now, if we mistake not greatly, the locality in Pennsylvania, as described by Mr. T., furnishes quite as ample pasturage, _naturally_, as that visited by Novice’s bees. Probably an unprepossessed observer, noting appearances or indications in each, would give the Pennsylvania locality the preference; and, very likely, Novice himself, at the outset, had he been called on to choose, and been free to select, would have so decided. Whence then the difference in the present results? Let Novice come east, and we shall see. We do not propose that he shall emigrate hither _in propria personæ_; no, but that his beekeeping _spirit_ shall be imported. Let his mode of management be investigated, adopted, applied, and carried out in its spirit and to the letter. Then, if the result be not equally good, it will be early enough to attribute the shortcoming to some natural or climatic inferiority.--ED.