HONEY. 



HONEY. 



In the United States, the capacity to produce 

 honey seems only limited by the ravages of 

 that great pest, the bee-moth. Over this, how- 

 ever, it is to be hoped ingenuity will finally 

 triumph, if it has not done so already. See 

 BEKS and BEE-MOTH. 



RUSSIAN SYSTEM OF MANARINO BEKS AXD 



CONSTRUCTING HlVES^ 



In Russia and other northern parts of Eu- 

 rope, honey and wax constitute great sources 

 of private wealth and general trade. A large 

 amount of this honey is obtained from trees in 

 the wild forests, which, when not hollowed by 

 nature, are scooped out by man for the accom- 

 modation of swarms, nails being driven into 

 the body, to prevent the bears from climbing 

 up and getting at the honey. This primitive 

 plan may be called the Forest system, to distin- 

 guish it from another, consisting of large as- 

 semblages of hives, entitling it to the appella- 

 tion of the Camp system. These bee-camps are 

 often removed from place to place, according 

 to the abundance or scarcity of flowers. A 

 new system of managing bees has been lately 

 introduced into Russia, which has acquired 

 immense celebrity, not only in that country, but 

 in other parts of continental Europe, to the 

 northern portion of which it may perhaps be 

 more specially adapted. It is, however, at pre- 

 sent receiving great encouragement in France, 

 where the most active efforts are making to 

 promote its extension. Although we believe 

 that the most essential objects obtained by the 

 Russian mode are gained through some of the 

 almost innumerable contrivances worked out 

 by American ingenuity, still we think it proper 

 to make the citizens of the United States ac- 

 quainted with what is deemed of so much in- 

 dividual and national importance abroad. 



The Russian system owes its origin and es- 

 tablishment to M. Prokopovitsh, an individual 

 who has devoted more than half his life to the 

 subject. His reputation as an apiarian is at 

 present so high as to have enabled him to esta- 

 blish an extensive school for teaching the art 

 of managing bees. His school and dwelling- 

 houses are situated in the midst of a vast gar- 

 den, in which are found no less than twenty-eight 

 hundred hives. The number of his pupils is 

 never under eighty, which come from all parts 

 of Russia, and remain two years. His terms 

 are very moderate. 



In studying the nature and characteristics 

 of the queen, he made the discovery that she 

 always keeps upon the honeycomb, and never 

 creeps upon any part of the hive. This obser- 

 vation he has turned to advantage, so as to 

 make the bees assort and dispose their honey 

 in whatever manner he desires it to be depo- 

 sited. 



By discovering a plant pre-eminently rich 

 in honey, he has rendered another service to 

 his country, not less important than that just 

 referred to. This is the ECHIUM VULGARE, 

 called in Russia Ciniak. It has long been 

 known to abound in the materials of honey, 

 but had always been left in a wild state until 

 this intelligent Russian took it into regular 

 cultivation for the use of his bees. In doing 

 this, says a French writer, he has rendered a 



service to Europe similar to that conferred by 

 Parmentier, who placed the potato among the 

 number of plants indispensable to the purposes 

 of domestic economy. Many of the Russian 

 provinces possess only a very few plants rich 

 in honey; or, rather, owing to the rigours of 

 the climate, the plants furnish honey during a 

 very short period. The Echium is therefore 

 the more valuable from the fact that it is so 

 little sensible to the effects of both heal and 

 cold, neither of which cause it to part with its 

 mellifluous qualities. Even after the setting 

 in of white frosts, which ordinarily commence 

 about the end of September or first of October, 

 it still continues to flower. 



It is proper to observe that the plant which 

 has thus acquired such great celebrity bears 

 the same name with a common and very beau- 

 tiful English wild plant, belonging to the Bo- 

 rage family, and that, in his Flora Cestrica, 

 Dr. Darlington describes the common Echium 

 as a foreign weed, extremely troublesome in 

 some portions of the United States, though as 

 yet rare in Chester coqMy, Pennsylvania. A 

 species called }'tl>-t Knmnn is cultivated in 

 some flower-gardens in the United States, but 

 no American species has yet been pointed out 

 by botanists. The French call the common 

 Echium Viperine, and Herbe aux Viperes; the 

 Germans, JFiWe Ochsenzunge, and Der Natterkopf. 

 The popular names in the United States are 

 /;/f II V, ( /, Wit,- Da'ilt, and Viper's Hughs*. It is 

 highly probable that the plant so much prized 

 in Russia is a variety of Borage differing con- 

 siderably from the weed denounced by Dr. Dar- 

 lington. His caution, however, ought by no 

 means to be forgotten by persons who intro- 

 duce the Echium for the benefit of their bees, 

 as it is a biennial, furnished with a very thick 

 and hard tap-root, which must be very difficult 

 to get out of ground when it has once gained 

 possession. It should therefore be sown and 

 kept in places where it may be restrained 

 within bounds. It may be popularly described 

 as a plant with long and rather narrow leaves, 

 coming to a point, which leaves, with the stalks, 

 are covered with a profusion of hairs. It puts 

 out numerous spikes bearing one or two bell- 

 shaped flowers, of a purple-blue colour, having 

 five petals, which are pubescent or hairy. It 

 produces small, rough, and brownish oval- 

 shaped nuts, which are angular on the inner 

 side. (See Fig. 6, on the Plate representing 

 the Russian Bee-hive, etc.) 



Description of the Russian Bee-hive. 



Fig. 1 represents the hive in perspective, 

 supported upon a floor of brick or stone, car- 

 ried beyond the sides of the hive, so as to 

 secure a solid foundation. The usual size of 

 this hive is three feet six inches in height, 

 fourteen, twenty, and even as much as tAventy- 

 two inches in width, and from twelve to sixteen 

 inches in depth. The box or case is made of 

 five boards, either nailed, or, what is better, 

 dovetailed together. The pieces represented 

 at a, a, a, are three doors of equal size, which 

 are fixed into mortices or grooves and fastened 

 by the pegs b, b. c, c, are two movable pieces, 

 an inch wide, upon which the movable doors 

 3 o 2 629 



