Bees.- Milton (John) The Practical Bee-keeper; or, Concise and plain instructions for the management of bees and hives, first edition, half-title, wood-engraved frontispiece and title vignette of apiaries, wood-engraved illustrations of hives and apparatus in text, 4pp. publisher's advertisements at end, a few instances of pencil marginalia, finger-marking, some spotting or staining, 20th century small ink ownership stamp of P.B. Garless, Cambs. to front free endpaper, original green blind-stamped and gilt cloth, small word 'Bee' within two horizontal rules in ink to spine, faded, a few ink spots, stained, [British Bee Books 248; Walker p.48], John W. Parker, 1843; and a 1851 'new edition' of the same in original cloth, small 8vo (2)*** Both editions rare in commerce. The first mentioned includes 'A Chronological list of books and writers upon the bee'. 'Milton sold hives and honey at his Apiarian Repository, 175, Strand. He gives an interesting account of several foreign honeys. When Cotton went to New Zealand he appears to have left some notes with Milton, who used them in the 1843 edition of The Practical Bee-Keeper. There was probably a row when Cotton returned, as the notes were omitted from the 1851 edition. Perhaps the row was partly caused by Milton's reference on p. 137 to 'the direful effects of the use of the fungus puff ball'.' (British Bee Books).