Our Imports of Honey. 



337 



indicate a considerable falling-ofF in the French production 

 during the past thirty years. 



In Germany apiculture was formerly a popular occupation 

 -of the small farmers, but in recent years it appears to have 

 lost much of its attraction for the German peasantry, and the 

 paucity of the products of bee-keeping exhibited at local 

 agricultural shows is a subject of frequent complaint. The 

 reasons for this decline are said to be the unremunerative prices 

 obtained for honey and wax and the greater cost incurred in 

 iiiaintaining the bee stocks through a series of bad seasons. 

 -Nevertheless, bee-keeping is still followed with success in 

 vmany of the heath districts of Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria, 

 and efforts are being made by local societies to revive this 

 minor rural industry in localities where it formerly flourished. 

 In Bavaria there were 355 such associations in existence in 

 1896. Information is not forthcoming as to the production 

 of honey in Germany ; but for some years past the imports 

 into the Empire of this product have exceeded the exports. 

 In 1883 an official enquiry was made into the extent to which 

 bee-keeping was followed in Bavaria, and the number of 

 stocks of bees then enumerated was 231,374. 



Austria-Hungary is another country in which the keeping 

 of bees is regarded as an important branch of rural economy ; 

 but here also the production of honey is not sufficient to 

 meet the requirements of the population. In Hungary there 

 is an increasing manufacture of honey-wine, and of liqueurs 

 and vinegar from honey. 



An article on the position of bee-keeping in Russia was 

 published in an earlier number of this Journal (June, 1895). 

 It is estimated that the number of hives in that Empire is 

 not less than 2,000,000, and that the annual production of 

 honey is about 321,000 cwts. But, compared with its former 

 dimensions, bee-culture can no longer be regarded as an 

 -important occupation of the Russian people, although it is 

 -Still practised all over European Russia and in many parts 

 of Siberia. Up to the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 wax and honey were exported in large quantities from 

 Russia to Western Europe, the former product being sent 

 lyjr the most part to England. Apiculture in the Czar's 



X 



