Try to consider, in the arrangement of the hives, not only convenience but beauty. If a board fence is necessary, train vines to cover its bare ugliness; a fringe of low shrubs will help make it beautiful. As your apiary grows, experience will teach you how to group the hives to get the best results. Twenty hives grouped in fives under the north side of four big, spreading apple trees would be the ideal I would set for myself if the orchard was ready for occupancy. If I began at the age of fourteen years, I could easily reach this ideal in six years and keep my other duties up, too. By that time I should know whether I wanted to be a bee-keeper or not. A great many people find that the chicken business combines well with some other business or profession. It is surprising that more people do not consider bee-keeping in the same way. Barring accidents, bees are far easier to handle, cleaner, and they board themselves. You can leave them over Sunday without any qualms of conscience and without arranging with somebody to feed and water them. The bees will not get out and scratch up your garden or your neighbour's, but they will do work in the garden that is too fine for your hands to tackle, and your crops will be bigger because of their visits. Chicken owners always sleep with one ear open, expecting night prowlers to appear and carry off their best stock. But who ever heard of a burglar alarm on a beehive? There are honey thieves, but they are not common. Beehives look best on a carpet of grass, but if you have to be away during much of the summer wide rough boards should be placed in front of the entrance to the hives to keep the grass down. A bee is likely to come home heavily laden and pretty well fagged out with a long flight. If she should settle in a tangle of grass she would be likely to give up the struggle and fail to answer to roll call the next morning. Keep the grass short in front of the hives, then, if you have to cut it with shears, which is not as dangerous as it sounds, once you get used to it. This is best done on cold or wet days when few bees are going in and out. Salt, ashes, or gravel may be sprinkled close up to the hives to kill the grass. BUYING BEES