288 MEAD FRENCH HONEY PRICES. 



or inclination for the pursuit. I am informed by a 

 labouring man in Surry, who has a property in two 

 or three closes of grass, that in 1827 he (the only 

 one in his parish or vicinity who kept bees) had a 

 few hives, but finding a difficulty in disposing of the 

 honey, he converted it into mead, which he sold 

 more readily, at eighteenpence the bottle. He ex- 

 perienced much inconvenience and loss from the 

 attacks and depredations of wasps ; but much greater 

 from those of distressed, but barbarous and vindic- 

 tive wretches, unemployed and let loose upon the 

 country. They beat down and took away his hives, 

 out of mere wantonness and malice, leaving them, 

 with their inmates, spread about the highways. 

 He has since kept no bees. He found a difficulty 

 in supplying the bees with winter food ; and no 

 hucksters, or dealers in honey, ever attended that 

 part of the country, as is usual in some, but at 

 present, few other parts. 



The following information I have derived from 

 Mr. Hagger, a considerable oilman in Lamb's Con- 

 duit-street, London. The previous neglect of the 

 bee culture, and the bad season of 1829, have so 

 reduced our stock of native honey, that a still 

 greater reduction must be expected. Foreign im- 

 port has been gradually increasing during past 

 years. Of all the honey imported from the Conti- 

 nent, the French is the most pure, far more so than 

 our own ; which, however, in quality, and for medi- 

 cinal use, is found equal to any foreign. Price per 

 Ib. of the best foreign, eighteen-pence to two 

 shillings upwards of English, eight-pence to 



