OBJECTS OF THE APIARIAN CULTURE. 281 



the radical cause of the neglect of bees in Britain 

 and Ireland, of which our enthusiastic apiarians 

 have been in the constant habit of complaining. The 

 importation of the foreign article cannot properly be 

 adduced as an impediment or rival to the growth of 

 honey in this country, on the consideration of its 

 constant superior price, since our native produce, if 

 not generally preferred, is fully equal in quality to 

 all purposes, domestic or medicinal, and since it is 

 obvious that the home culture, if adequately pursued, 

 would soon not only prove sufficient for the national 

 use, but would require the aid of an export trade. 

 So far as I have considered the subject, in the course 

 of a great number of years, such must be the inva- 

 riable result ; thence there can be no temptation to 

 push the bee culture in England to any great extent 

 beyond its accustomed limits. 



An export trade in honey seems altogether out of 

 question, even absurd. The southern nations would 

 always excel us in the fine, if not the solid quality 

 of the commodity: and all nations in cheapness of 

 production. In truth, the culture of this article to 

 any commercial extent, is the object rather of coun- 

 tries abounding in forests and waste lands, the labour- 

 ing classes of which are glad of any occupation to 

 engage their spare time, and to make an addition to 

 their scanty earnings; which is as much as to say, such 

 a concern can never interest, in any material or ex- 

 tensive degree, the attention of a great agricultural 

 and manufacturing nation. 



On this side of the QUESTION also, it has been 

 urged that " if the country were stocked with bees, 

 to the utmost possible extent, it might be question- 



