WAX AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE. 229 



u The, principal supplies are derived from the Bal- 

 tic, the Levant, the Barbary coast, and North Amer- 

 ica. 



" Humboldt informs us that upwards of eighty thous- 

 and pounds' worth is annually imported from Cuba to 

 New Spain, and that the total export from that island 

 in 1803, was worth upwards of one hundred and thirty 

 thousand pounds. Upon this subject, an English 

 writer, after lamenting the increasing neglect of bee 

 culture in that country, says : < There is hardly bees- 

 wax enough produced in England to answer the de- 

 mand for lip salve alone ; but importations from Amer- 

 ica supply all our wants.' 



" The demand for bees-wax has been constantly in- 

 creasing, while the supply has been decreasing the 

 result is, that prices have advanced, with no prospect 

 that there will ever be an over supply of that article." 



