PREFACE.
[Transcriber Note: the original owner of the book, Francis Darwin, decided to paste a very large bookplate covering the first three paragraphs of the Preface. A thorough search of the Internet did not reveal any other copy of this volume.]
As that kind of bee inhabits, at present, but a small strip of country, they are very rare, and a bee-cultivator who is in possession of such a hive can turn it into a real gold mine. The interest in the Yellow Alp-bee is on the increase, for it has not the less value for science generally, because by breeding such bees one obtains an insight into their manners of life, and many things are made clear and brought to light of which it has not been possible to obtain a knowledge before. Only by breeding bees of this kind one can become a bee cultivator in the full sense of the word.
To assist the breeder to change his own black or common bees into Italian bees in the shortest and safest way, and to keep the race pure, for the purpose of a lucrative income, is the object of this little work, and I shall be glad if the contents prove a source of profit to very many friends of the bee.
THE AUTHOR.