338 



Our Imports of Honey. 



dominions was, however, practically destroyed by fiscal 

 measures imposed during the reign of Peter the Great, and 

 although this restraint was abolished in 1775, the industry 

 has never recovered its former position. For some years 

 past Russia has found it necessary to import honey and wax 

 to meet the demands of her population. 



In Canada statistics are annually collected of the number 

 of colonies of bees in the Province of Ontario. In 1896 the 

 number enumerated was 160,076, valued at ^^171,000; and in 

 the previous year the number of stocks was 17:, 173, valued 

 at ^190,000. Apiculture has not made much progress m 

 British Columbia, owing, it is believed, partly to want of 

 knowledge, and partly to the scarcity, in the dry portions of 

 the province, of a regular supply of honey-producing 

 flowers. 



Efforts are being made by the Agricultural Departments of 

 several of the Australian Colonies to promote bee-culture^ 

 with the object of developing an export trade in honey. In 

 1895 a bonus of id. per pound was offered on honey exported 

 from Victoria, with the result that a shipment was made in 

 that year of 1,655 cwts., all of which came to the United 

 Kingdom ; but in the following season, when the bonus was 

 withdrawn, only 54 cwts. of honey left the colony. The 

 Government of South Australia endeavoured about the 

 same time to create a trade in this product by making trial 

 shipments, amounting in all to 824 cwts., during the season 

 of 1895, but in this case also the trade practically disappeared 

 in 1896, though there has since been some recovery. In New 

 South Wales honey farming is receiving a considerable 

 amount of attention. Hives are not only kept on many of 

 the farms devoted to general agriculture, but there are also a 

 certain number of establishments whose sole business is the 

 production of honey and beeswax. The number of produc- 

 tive hives in the colony in 1897 was 41,900, and the yield of 

 honey and wax was estimated at 1,378,000 lbs. and 31,800 

 lbs. respectively. In 1894 New South Wales exported to 

 the United Kingdom 13,241 lbs. of honey; in 1895, 12,504 lbs.; 

 and in 1896, only 2,640 lbs. Queensland sent nearly 

 ^5,ooo lbs. of honey to the mother country in 1892, but her 



