18 AUSTRALASIAN 
NATIVE FLORA. 
This is a matter to be dealt with more fully in the chapter 
on bee forage; it is only necessary to mention here, in 
elucidation of this part of our subject, that the indigenous trees 
are nearly all honey bearers. ‘This is abundantly proved by 
the amount of honey sometimes taken from colonies wild in 
the bush. It is quite a frequent occurrence to take from 100 
to 200 Ibs. and very often more from these hives. This honey 
could not, in many cases, have been gathered from any other 
source than the bush, for as the colonies are sometimes found 
eight or ten miles from any cultivation, and as the bee does 
not usually exceed from one mile and a half to two miles’ radius 
in its flight, it follows that honey obtained from the hives 
mentioned must have come exclusively from the indigenous 
flora. If further proof be required, may we not find it in the 
fact that the bee has so quickly and universally spread over 
New Zealand and other parts of Australasia from a few 
colonies ? 
The apiarist has not only the benefit of a splendid native 
flora, but the climate being so well adapted for the growth of 
all honey-producing plants of the old world, he is especially 
favoured in this country. 
In Australia the native acacias and eucalypti are especially 
valuable for bee forage, varying as they do in their times of 
blossoming, so that some of them are available at almost any 
season of the year. These trees also grow rapidly and thrive 
well when introduced into New Zealand. 
IMPORTANCE OF APICULTURE AS AN INDUSTRY. 
The degree to which the production of honey may be de- 
veloped in a comparatively short time will be best illustrated 
by the case of the United States of America. Professor Cook 
in the last edition of his Manual of the Apiary, gives the 
following picture of the present state of the industry :—“ An 
excellent authority places the number of colonies of bees in the 
United States in 1881 at 3,000,000, and the honey production 
of the year at more than 200,000,000lbs ; the production for 
that year was not up to the average, and yet the cash value of the 
year’s honey crop exceeds thirty millions of dollars.” @, W 
Mead and Co., of San Francisco, in their annual review issued 
