Report on Bees, Hives, and Honey at Kilhurn, 1879. 679 
Perry and Cider. 
The demand for these delightful drinks has fallen off im- 
mensely since the people have acquired a taste for beer, ale, 
and porter. I know certain districts in which orchard cultiva- 
tion has been neglected. In Canada and the United States the 
growth of apples has increased. We import from these countries 
large quantities of apples, for some of which we pay 2d. and Zd. 
a-piece in the retail shops. 
The Canadians and Americans bestow great care and attention 
on the rearing of good trees and on the production of good 
varieties. If we did the same thing, orchard cultivation would 
pay us ; and with every extension of our orchards there would 
arise, in all probability, an increase in the manufacture of cider. 
I append the Report of the Judges on these classes : — 
\\e the undersigned, being the Judges of Cider and Perry at the Eoyal 
Agricultural Society's Show at Kilbum in 1879, beg to report as follows : 
That the samples of perry exhibited were not of a character to call for any 
special Report, being in our opinion of a mediuna quality. 
That the samples of Devonshire and Herefordshire cider in cask were better 
represented, but were not of any particular merit, lacking the body and 
richness which good cider ought to possess. 
That the samples of Devonshire and Hereford cider in bottles, taken as a 
whole, were of superior merit to the general class of cider shown in casks. 
H. C. Beddoe. 
Thomas Mate. 
William Gaymer. 
XXVI. — Report on the Bees, Hives, Honey, and Manipulations 
with Bees, at the Kilburn Show, 1879. 
The prizes in this Department were offered by the British 
Bee-keepers' Association, which was established in the year 
1874, with the twofold object of advocating the more humane 
and intelligent treatment of the honey-bee, and of bettering the 
condition of agricultural labourers and other cottagers by the 
encouragement, improvement, and advancement of bee-culture. 
The Report of the Judges is as follows : — 
In making our Report on the Bees, Hives, Honey, and manipulations in 
connection with the Society's Show at Kilburn, we, the Judges, remarked the 
great popularity and undoubted success of this attempt to introduce to the 
notice of British agricultuinsts the improved methods of bee culture which 
now prevail both at home and on the great continents of Europe and 
America. 
That bees perform an important part in agriculture, the advantages of 
which cannot be over-estimated, in the production of seed, fruit, &c., is an 
undoubted fact. This was illustrated in our colony of New Zealand. Before 
the late Rev. W. C. Cotton introduced the honey-bee in 1842, the colonists 
