AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 57 



he visits them again, carries the June and July work 

 away with him, which is the Lipiec, and leaves only that 

 part for their food which was gathered by them before, 

 and after the flowering of the lime-tree. I have not the 

 least doubt, that if this species of the lime-tree were 

 introduced, and attention paid to them, honey 

 equally excellent and valuable might be produced in this 

 country. The mead made from this honey is excellent, it 

 is sold at Kovno, Grodno, and Vilna, at the rate of 8 

 the dozen. 



' The next class of honey, which is inferior in a great 

 degree to the Lipiec, being only used for the common mead, 

 is that of the pine forests, the inhabitants of which make 

 apertures in the pine-trees similar to those near Kovno, 

 and pay the same attention in regard to the security of 

 the bees, and their maintenance. The wax also is much 

 inferior in quality ; it requires more trouble in the 

 bleaching, and is only made use of in the churches. 



' The third class of honey is the Stepowey, or the honey 

 from the plains, where there is an abundance of perennial 

 plants, and hardly any wood. The province of Ukraine 

 produces the very best, and also the very best wax. In 

 that province the peasants pay particular attention to this 

 branch of economy, as it is the only resource they have to 

 enable them to defray the taxes levied in Russia ; and 

 they consider the produce of bees equal to ready money : 

 wheat, and other species of corn, being so very fluctuating 

 in price, some years it being of so little value that it is 

 not worth the peasant's trouble to gather it in. This has 

 happened in the Ukraine four times in twelve years. But 

 for honey and wax there is always a great demand all over 

 Europe, and even in Turkey. Some of the peasants have 

 from four to five hundred Ule, or logs of wood, in their bee 

 gardens, which are called Pasieka, or bee-hives; these 

 logs are about six feet high, commonly of birch wood (the 

 bees prefer the birch to any other wood), hollowed out in 

 the middle for about five feet, several lamina of thin 

 boards are nailed before the aperture, and but a small 



