A Practical Treatise on the Management of Bees

Boston: Marsh & Capen, 1829. First edition (162, appendix, postscript, contents, errata, adverts). Includes as appendix and postscript a twenty page extract from Mary Griffith’s article on bee-keeping from the North American Review, October, 1828. (See our book No. 731, [Griffith, Mary]. Our Neighbourhood, or Letters on Horticulture and Natural Phenomena: Interspersed with Opinions on Domestic and Moral Economy. New York: Bliss, 1831.). In tan quarter cloth and paper-covered boards, title in black on spine label. Lightly foxed and damp-stained throughout, as is common enough. James Thacher, M.D., (1754- 1844) was a surgeon during the Revolution and later published a number of medical works, both technical (an unsuccessful treatment for hydrophobia) and historical (biographical sketches in Memoirs of Eminent American Doctors). Thacher’s suggested methods for managing the bee moth problem include a sugar and vinegar trap (He suggests the drunken moths can be fed to the chickens), beating them with a broom, and a specially designed hive. An early American work on apiculture, it relies on Huber, Bonner, et al., in so far as their work seemed applicable in the newly minted eastern states. See also Janson (Pomona’s Harvest).