When a paper subject to be chosen by myself is assigned to me it must be the expectation that those present at your meeting are not experts, or that the discussion which follows may bring out information of value to members present and others who read the reports of the convention in the bee papers. In my experience, and the experience of the Germans in particular, shade and ventilation form no mean factor in securing a good honey crop. At the present time where the price of a colony in spring is no more than the price of the hive, its combs, and the number of pounds of stores required to winter a colony, to winter successfully and sell is no gain, and to lose a colony is a loss of the value of the stores given for winter purposes. Therefore every pound of honey we lose through increase beyond what is absolutely necessary is mismanagement. What we most aim at is to manage our apiary in such a way that increase will be prevented by employing methods which will not diminish the honey yield. Now there are methods recommended, and particularly so amongst beginners, which I hold all a positive waste of time and an injury to the colony. To break down queen cells to prevent swarming is such a waste, to use perforated metal for this purpose is also a waste of time and material ; and I incline to the opinion that to resort to any method to prevent swarming after the bees have received the impulse is also worthless, but would not be positive about the latter and leave the question with the convention. What must we then aim at to prevent swarming, and how does it influence our honey yield? Prevent the very first step, namely, the impulse. How shall we do this? By shade and ventilation. I have at present trees of such a hight and trained that the morning and late afternoon sun can strike the hive, and but little if any of the hot midday sun. I have ventilators in some of the bottom boards, and the lids of the hives are raised at the back to permit a current of air passing over the quilt which lies upon the combs. I want a shade board upon every hive, which shall be used with discretion. The ground is covered with grass, carefully kept from growing sufficiently long to prevent ventilation at the entrance ; earth and sand cause more radiation, especially the latter, and are very trying on man and bee. All things considered--and I have had several years' experience with it--I want no high board fence to exclude every current of air from the yard. Then I find if a colony is left beyond a certain stage without supers to store honey and receives, even though not yet indicated, the swarming impulse, giving of room will generally not check this impulse, but they will swarm before filling such a super, and this must be carefully avoided. Give room as required. This can be done more easily whilst working for extracted honey than comb. I use the eight-frame Langstroh and with good colonies, and during a good flow use two full supers, allowing honey always to ripen or be capped. The first super is raised and the second put between it and the brood chamber. I use perforated metal ; care should be taken to have a bee space on both sides of the board. Colonies not so good extract four combs out of the super, leaving the remainder until ready, when they are extracted, leaving the first four and so on. In this way I have had very good success in preventing much increase and securing a larger yield per colony than my neighbors. Last summer my strongest colony gave me 270 pounds of honey with no attempt. I have thus far handled 25,000 pounds and know what a vast difference there is in honey properly and improperly taken. **Catalogues Received.**