income, the uneducated classes would become interested in an 

 elevating and instructive pursuit. 



It is curious to observe that honey, whether regarded as a 

 manufactured article or as an agricultural product, is obtained 

 under economical conditions of exceptional advantage. If regarded 

 as a manufactured article, we notice that there is no outlay required 

 for " labour," nor any expense for " raw material." The industrious 

 labourers are eager to utilize all their strength : they never 

 "combine" except for the benefit of their master, they never 

 " strike " for wages, and they provide their own subsistence. All 

 that the master manufacturer of honey has to do financially, is to 

 make a little outlay for " fixed capital " in the needful " plant " of 

 hives and utensils — no " floating capital " is needed. Then, on the 

 other hand, if we regard honey as an agricultural product, it 

 presents as such a stiU more striking contrast to the economists' 

 theory of what are the " requisites of production." Not only is 

 there no outlay needed for wages and none for raw material, but 

 there is nothing to be paid for " use of a natural agent." Every 

 square yard of land in the United Kingdom may come to be 

 cultivated, as in China, but no proprietor will ever be able to claim 

 "rent" for those "waste products" of the flowers and leaves, which 

 none but the winged workers of the hive can ever utilize. 



The recent domestication in England of the Ligurian or 

 " Italian Alp " bee adds a new and additional source of interest 

 to bee-culture. We have, therefore, gone pretty fully into this 

 part of the subject ; and believe that what is here published with 

 regard to their introduction embodies the most recent and reliable 

 information respecting them that is possessed by English apiarians.* 



* Some of our apiarian friends may be inclined to be discouraged from 

 cultivating the Ligurian bees in consequence of tlie liability to their becoming 

 hybridised when located in proximity to the black bees. We can dispel these 

 fears by stating that we have not unfrequently found that hybrid queens 

 possess the surprising fecundity of the genuine Italian ones, -whilst the English 

 stocks in course of time become strengthened by the infusion of foreign blood. 



