We need say little here as to the interest that attaches to the apiary as a source of perennial pleasure for the amateur naturalist. Many of the hives and methods of management are described with a direct reference to this class of bee-keepers, so that, besides plain and simple directions suitable for cottagers with their ordinary hives, this work will be found to include instructions useful for the scientific apiarian, or, at least, valuable, for those who desire to gain a much wider acquaintance with the secrets of bee-keeping than is now usually possessed. We would lay stress on the term "acquaintance," for there is nothing in the management of the various bar-and-frame hives which is at all difficult when frequent practice has rendered the bee-keeper familiar with them. Such explicit directions are herein given as to how the right operations may be performed at the right times, that a novice may at once commence to use the modern hives. The word "new-fangled" has done good service for the indolent and prejudiced, but we trust that our readers will be of a very different class. Let them give a fair trial to the modern appliances for the humane and depriving system of bee-keeping, and they will find offered to them an entirely new field of interest and observation. At present, our continental neighbours far surpass us as bee-masters; but we trust that the following season, if the summer be fine, will prove a turning point in the course of English bee-keeping. There is little doubt that a greater number of intelligent and influential persons in this country will become bee-keepers than has ever been the case before. Our task would have lost half its interest, did we not hope that it would result in something beyond the encouragement of a refined and interesting amusement for the leisurely classes. The social importance of bee-keeping, as a source of pecuniary profit for small farmers and agricultural labourers, has never been appreciated as it deserves. Yet these persons will not, of themselves, lay aside the bungling and wasteful plan of destroying the bees, or learn without being taught the only proper method, that of deprivation. Their educated neighbours, when once interested in bee-keeping, will be the persons to introduce the more profitable system of humane bee-keeping. The clergy especially, as permanent residents in the country, may have great influence in this respect. There is not a rural or suburban parish in the kingdom in which bee-keeping might not be largely extended, and the well-being of all but the very poorest inhabitants would be greatly promoted. Not only would the general practice of bee-keeping add largely to the national resources, but that addition would chiefly fall to the share of those classes to whom it would be of most value. Moreover, in the course of thus adding to their income, the uneducated classes would become interested in an elevating and instructive pursuit.