experienced Apiarians, from
attempting at the furthest, to do more than to triple their stocks in
one year. In order to furnish directions for very rapid multiplication,
sufficiently full and explicit to be of any value to the inexperienced,
I should have to write a book on this one topic; and even then, the most
of those who should undertake it, would be sure at first to fail.

I have no doubt that with ten strong stocks of bees in a good location,
in one favorable season, I could so increase them as to have, on the
approach of Winter, one hundred good colonies: but I should expect to
feed hundreds of pounds of honey, to devote nearly all my time to their
management, and to bring to the work, the experience of many years, and
the wisdom acquired by numerous failures. After all, what we most need,
in order to be successful in the cultivation of bees, is a _certain_,
rather than a _rapid_ multiplication of stocks. It would require but a
very few years to stock our whole country with bees, if colonies could
only be doubled annually; and an increase of even one third, would
before long, give us bees enough. This rate of increase I should always
encourage in the swarming season, even if, in the Fall, I reduced my
stocks (see Union of Stocks) to the Spring number. In the long run, it
will keep the colonies in a much more prosperous condition, and secure
from them the largest yield of honey.

I have never myself hesitated to sacrifice one or more colonies, in
order to ascertain a single fact, and it would require a separate volume
quite as large as this, to detail the various experiments which I have
made on the subject of Artificial Swarming. The practical bee-keeper,
however, should never, for a moment, lose sight of the important
distinction between an Apiary managed principally for the purposes of
experiment and discovery, and one conducted almost exclusively with
reference to pecuniary profit. Any bee-keeper can easily experiment with
my hives: but I would recommend him to do so, at first, on a small
scale, and if profit is his object, to follow the directions furnished
in this treatise, until he is _sure_ that he has discovered others which
are preferable. These cautions are given to prevent persons from
incurring serious losses and disappointments, if they use hives which,
if they are not on their guard, may tempt them into rash and
unprofitable courses, by allowing so easily of all manner of
experiments. Let the pra