FRENCH HONEY PRICES. 



equal to any foreign. Present price per Ib. of the best 

 foreign, eighteen-pence to two shillings of English, 

 nearly the same. Our honey is chiefly collected by 

 the London and country dealers, from the labourers 

 in husbandry, by whom the culture of it has long 

 since been so much neglected, that not half the 

 quantity formerly gathered can now be obtained, and 

 even that quantity has been annually decreasing. 

 Very few farmers trouble themselves with it. In Mr. 

 Hagger's opinion, it might be of great use and bene- 

 fit to the labourers, were they in a state to attend to it, 

 as in former times, when five guineas per annum has 

 been so acquired by a cottager. Surrey, Bucks, Herts, 

 and Essex, perhaps, furnish the metropolis with the 

 most considerable quantities of honey. In past years, 

 Mr. Hagger has collected as much as half a ton in a 

 season from Herts, where lately it has not been pos- 

 sible to obtain half that quantity. 



The chief customers for honey are the druggists 

 and considerable families ; the labouring classes seem 

 entirely to neglect it. Scarcely any demand remains 

 for the purpose of mead, that liquor being nearly out 

 of vogue. Bees-wax is imported chiefly from Africa 

 and from Russia. The English wax is esteemed the 

 best, price from eighteen-pence to half-a-crown per 

 Ib. The opinion seems to prevail generally, that the 

 old custom of destroying the bees is the most advan- 

 tageous. Preserving them may succeed in a plentiful 

 year of honey, otherwise the winter stock of bee food 

 must be defective, and the hives most distressed will 

 attack and rob their neighbours ; or it may happen, 

 that bees with a short supply will abandon their hives, 

 carrying the stock of honey away with them. 



