114 



A systematic arrangement of rotation may be easily carried out by making 

 a plan of the garden, dividing it into plots as follows :— 

 (1.) Potatoes, Onions, Leeks and Celery. 



(2.) Beans, Peas, and other quick-growing crops, followed by Cabbage 

 and Turnips. 



(3.) Beet, Carrots, and Parsnips, or other tap-rooted plants. 



(4.) Asparagus, Seakale, Rhubarb, &c. 



(5.) Melon frames, Cucumber frames, and herb beds. 



This shows how the garden is cropped the first year. In the following year 

 No. 1 is cropped as Mo. 2 ; No. 2 as No. 3 ; No. 3 as No. 1 ; and so on, year by year, 

 each crop being located in a different plot annually. 



BEEKEEPING IN CEYLON. 



Sir,— Since I read my paper on Beekeeping before the Board of Agriculture, 

 much interest has been aroused in the subject both up-country and in and about 

 Colombo, and I can count more than a dozen new recruits to the ranks of local 

 apiarists. The time is, I think, therefore ripe for the Society to take some definite 

 action Avith a view to encouraging this very important branch— for it is really a 

 branch- of Agriculture, and helping those who have so long helped themselves. 



In Colombo we have one gentleman who has expended quite a large sum on 

 his own account, and even he, with a fairly extensive experience, feels that if any 

 appreciable progress is to be looked for in the near future, we must have expert 

 advice and assistance. 



As to the advantages of establishing this industry in Ceylon there should 

 be no two opinions, but unfortunately this is not the case, and the majority 

 of members of the Board have not yet come to understand the advantage of 

 bees either to the agriculturist or of beekeeping to the apiarist. Not long ago the 

 Board appointed a Bee Committee to report on the possibilities of developing apicul- 

 ture in Ceylon. This Committee recommended the introduction of foreign strains of 

 bees (as it was not thought worth while making further efforts to improve 

 our common indigenous honey bee A pin indica), and also that the services of 

 an expert should be engaged for a time to start beekeeping on modern lines. 



I do not exactly know the fate of this report, Avhich I believe was 

 referred to the Finance Committee, but it is to be presumed that the recom- 

 mendations were not approved of, owing possibly to the estimated cost of 

 carrying them out being considered too high. In the meantime, one amateur 

 beekeeper in Colombo, and another up-country, have imported bees. The former 

 spared himself no expense, and now has quite a small apiary of foreign bees, 

 chiefly Italians. He is so far very pleased with the results of his enterprise, and 

 co-operating as I have done with him, 1 share his preference for the trained 

 bees of the West, and his hopes of establishing them here as successfully as has 

 been done in the West Indies. What is now wanted is the practical advice 

 and assistance of a working apiarist (not a lecture or interview with a passing 

 authority on the subject)— a man who can give a few months of his time not 

 only to the study of our indigenous bees, but to instructing amateurs in the handling 

 of bees and in the 101 details, small but essential, with which a successful beekeeper 

 should be familiar. 



In the course of correspondence it was found that such a man was available 

 at what may be considered as the minimum cost, owing to the circumstance that he 

 himself is anxious to study the bees of the East. The opportunity is one not to be 



