234 TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



produce, when, probably, 100 swarms of bees are boarded with 

 each. At regular periods trained servants go round and remove 

 all saturated combs, clean in and about the hives, and destroy all 

 obnoxious or useless insects. Thus the farmer or gardener has 

 very little responsibility ; and as each suitable acre is capable of 

 maintaining twenty-five swarms, and the insects on four acres 

 can be attended to by one man, the pecuniary result at the end 

 of favourable seasons is very satisfactory. Indeed, no more need 

 be urged to show the remunerative nature of the industry than 

 to mention that in America the seven years ending with 1879 

 exhibited an average annual harvest of 90 lbs. of honey per 

 hive, which realised about tenpence per pound, or, exclusive of 

 the value of the wax, a gross return of £93 per acre. Every 

 attention has, of course, been paid to the selection of the finest 

 queen bees for the improvement of the indigenous species, and 

 with this object specimens have been drawn from the most cele- 

 brated honey-producing districts of Europe. Some specially fine 

 individuals among these, only a few years ago, sold readily in 

 !N"8w York for as much as £10 each ; but owing to subsequent 

 success in rearing the royal insects, the price has dropped, and 

 queens of long pedigree and other attractions may now be pur- 

 chased there at from one to five dollars apiece. But our 

 American cousins have not been contented merely to improve 

 the breed ; they have also sought wdth success to economise the 

 time of their meliorated species through . ""le adoption of a modi- 

 fied German idea. It has been calculatecl that about two-thirds 

 of the working lives of bees are expendcu in comb building, so 

 in order to leave them more leisure to collect honey, perforated 

 walls of wax are set up in the hive, which the insects eagerly 

 take possession of and complete. A very remarkable phase of 

 the industry, as w^ell as an apt illustration of this and another 

 plan for saving time, is that branch of apiculture which is con- 

 ducted afloat. During early spring a suitably fitted steamer 

 loads a certain number of hives occupied by swarms, probably 

 at ]N"ew Orleans. Slowly steaming against the current of the 

 Mississippi, the ship with its humming freight reaches and 

 leisurely passes through Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Ten- 

 nessee, and Kentucky ; during w^hich period the glories of the 

 Indian summer appear, and are in full splendour when the 

 gorgeous flower-carpeted prairies of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin 

 are reached. Eor a short time the steamer probably remains at 

 Minnesota, or until the captain is admonished to commence his 

 homeward voyage by the deepening tints of autumn, when he 

 lingeringiy drifts and steams through apparently boundless 

 plains glowing wdth floral opulence and grace, and so wdth the 

 waning year reaches his destination ere the icy breath of winter 

 has commenced. Thus the bees, by an eminently practical 



