170 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



CHARACTERISTIC SITES FOR AN APIARY. 



There is no country in the world better adapted for bee-keeping' 

 than New South Wales, especially in the districts where the whole 

 year through the warmth is sufficient for out-door bee life. Along 

 our coastal districts, especially northwards from Sydney, the 

 winters are better adapted for the bee-keeper than are the^central 

 and northerly countries of the old world. After the excessive heat 

 of the summer is over, the remaining seasons of autumn and spring 

 merge one into the other as to exclude almost any signs of Old 

 Father Winter's appearance. And so away on the mountain 

 slopes towards the Western Plains. Along the base of the Great 

 Dividing Range, both towards the coastal districts and where they 

 abut on the Great Plains, in some of our deep valleys running far 

 into the mountains, and on the banks of our mountain rivers and 

 creeks, are bee-farm sites adaptable to the requirements of the 

 industry in every respect. On page 173 is an ideal picture of a 

 bee-farm so realistic of Australian scenery that one or more of our 

 settlers, and one or two of our bee-keepers, may be excused for 

 claiming it as a photograph of their homestead, with bee-hivq^ 

 added, or as their bee-farm as it now stands. No site is better 

 suited for an apiary than is there depicted. 



Nestling at the foot of a mountain gorge; protected from the 

 prevailing cold winds by surrounding hills, that are thickly clad 

 with eucalypti, etc., which in seasons are dropping wealth that 

 was lost till the bee-keeper went amongst them, stands the little 

 peninsula taken possession of by the apiarist. The creek, as 

 necessary an adjunct to a bee-farm as to a homestead, both for 

 domestic purposes and also for the wants of the bees — for these, 

 like other animals, always require to be more or less supplied with 

 water — surrounds three-fourths of the tongue of land. Along 

 its banks are alluvial patches, rich in plant-food, well suited for a 

 garden for the cultivation of culinary vegetables. Fruit-trees can 

 be dotted here and there, and patches for the cultivation of 

 pumpkins and maize. The site on which the hives are arranged 

 makes an excellent poultry run, being somewhat sandy, such 

 soil being good alike both for poultry and bees. On such a penin- 



