284 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



both the wax and honey are better taken at this season; 

 and in the second place, you have an opportunity of in- 

 specting the combs, to see whether the bee-moth has infest- 

 ed them, and to prevent this it is better to give the bees a 

 new hive. If, on the other hand, the deprivation is effected 

 in October or November, two thirds of the wax and honey 

 must be left to the bees for their winter provisions ; and 

 hence it becomes necessary to ascertain the weight of the 

 full hive before the operation takes place, in order to calcu- 

 late the quantity of honey-comb which may be extracted. 



It is surprising that, with the large profits which api- 

 culture realizes from a very little capital and labor, so lit- 

 tle attention has been paid to it of late years, and in this 

 country particularly. It would seem that every country- 

 man who possesses only a few acres, or even an ordinary 

 garden, would have at least one bee-hive from which to 

 raise honey for his own domestic purposes. 



In some countries, it is true, this culture has the prefer- 

 ence before all other agronomical occupations. It is said 

 "that when the Romans became masters of the island of 

 Corsica, they imposed on the inhabitants a tribute of wax 

 which amounted to 200,000 pounds per annum. Suppos- 

 ing, therefore, that the island retained the same quantity 

 for its own use, we have 400,000 pounds of wax made by 

 these wonderful little insects on one island. It is well 

 known that the proportion of wax to honey is about one to 

 fifteen or twenty; multiplying, therefore, these 400,000 

 pounds by fifteen or twenty, we have six or eight millions 

 of pounds of honey. What a source of riches for the island 

 of Corsica, if the culture of the bee was carried on as for- 

 merly, especially since the price of honey and wax is so 

 much higher now than it was then." 



Apiculture is nourishing in Turkey, Wallachia, and Mol- 

 davia, from which places an immense quantity of wax is 

 exported. In the small kingdom of Hanover, in Germany, 



