TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 233 



might dispute the place of cereals on portions of the corapany's 

 spare land. One of the witnesses examined last year by the 

 New Zealand Industries Commission stated that an ordinary 

 crop of small fruit would be about six tons per acre. At the 

 nominal price of three-halfpence per pound for preserving pur- 

 poses, such a crop would yield a net return of £50 per acre. He 

 likewise remarked that were fruit-preserving factories established, 

 one man attending to three acres of small fruit — which he could 

 easily accomplish — would be better remunerated than the farmer 

 of fifty acres in grass or under the ordinary crops. At present, 

 for lack of such factories, immense quantities of the finest 

 cherries, peaches, currants, brambles, and other fruits in favour 

 for preserving, annually rot on the trees and bushes ; and whilst 

 the New Zealand public are paying over £90,000 a year in the 

 home and Australian markets for similar tinned and bottled 

 luxuries, these could be produced at a vast saving at their own 

 doors. In the growth and preservation of small fruit, therefore, 

 or in giving encouragement to persons to settle on their land and 

 pursue this profitable occupation, the company might eventually 

 see a favourable opening for the employment of many of their, 

 less well-informed female applicants. 



Bee-farming in New Zealand may be reckoned in its infancy 

 as compared with the achievements of apiculture in the United 

 States. Even in our inclement north bees managed upon the 

 humane " non-swarming " system, by which the objectionable 

 practice of stifling is rendered unnecessary, sometimes yield as 

 much as 79 lbs. of honey per hive per season. The motto in 

 this case is — " Give your bees plenty of room at the right time, 

 then plunder them at your leisure." In the Ukraine (Polish 

 Kussia), it is by no means an uncommon circumstance for the 

 peasants to own as many as five hundred hives apiece, and even 

 to boast occasionally that they realise more profit from their 

 bees than the farmers do from their crops. At Mount Ida in 

 the island of Crete, Narbonne in France, and Chamouni in 

 Switzerland, apiculture has long been extensively prosecuted, 

 the value and fame of their honey being recognised all over 

 Europe. It is in America, liowever, that this interesting and 

 lucrative industry is to be seen at its best. From an article in 

 the Tiines of January 14, 1879, we learn tliat bee-keeping is 

 conducted in the United States by means of large capital, many 

 firms owning from 2300 to 5000 swarms of bees, and in the case 

 of Messrs. Thurber, of New York, 12,000 swarms. These api- 

 culturists, indeed, in 1878 forwarded to Great l^)ritain 300,000 lbs. 

 of honey, being part of a product all over the States that year of 

 35,000,000 lbs. Their method of administration is curious. 

 Propriet^jrs of orchards and farmers at three or four miles interval 

 are bargained with, either at a fixed rent or for a share of the 



