* BEE-FARMING. 



system is adopted. If the hives in the Alps, with very 

 little summer to labour in, can turn out a good honey 

 harvest, vs'hat may not an English labourer expect ? 



To show the yield by good management in the British 

 islands we quote the following from Pettigrew's work : 



" Robert Read, of Carluke, states that from one hive, 

 with its swarms, he obtained, in 1864, 328 lbs. as follows: 



Mother hive (old stock) . . 92 lbs. 



First swarm . . . . 160 „ 



Second swarm , . . . 1^ 11 



Total . 328 lbs." 



In 1866 he had a hive of 148 lbs. 



In 1869 he took 400 lbs. from ten stocks. 



Our experience has scarcely given so high a yield of 

 honey as the above, partly because our stocks are kept in 

 the neighbourhood of large chemical works, where vege- 

 tation is not nearly so vigorous as in more favoured 

 localities. 



!We live in a practical age. Proposals of all sorts are 

 weighed against gold. " How much will it bring? Can I 

 turn an honest penny by this business ?" We do not 

 pretend to say bee-farmers are rich men, or that the way 

 to a fortune is through a bee-hive, but we do assert that 

 a poor curate, vicar, or cottager working all day on the 

 neighbouring farm, may add to their present small income 

 some 100/. annually from Bee-farming. The fact is 

 here ; the honey taken from the combs by the Italian ex- 

 tractor is so limpid and clean that it is easy to obtain 

 eighteen pence per pound for it; each hive in a dry 

 summer will yield at a very low computation 80 lbs., 

 thus 6/. is earned ; and, as very little more labour is re- 

 quired to look after twenty hives than one, an income 



