222 Reviews and Extracts. — JYatnral History. 
moderate price of 5s. per pint, would amount to £3,000,000 sterling ; and the 
wax, at ls.6d. per Ife, would produce £225,000 sterling, affording in round 
numbers, a total of £3,225,000 annually. 
The rearing of Bees, must therefore appear to be an object worthy of the 
consideration of all who feel an interest in the welfare of their country. As 
there are few concerns more profitable than Bees, in favourable seasons, con- 
sidering the small expense that attends them, I humbly beg leave to lay before 
my readers the following estimate: — Suppose a person to commence with only 
two hives, which may cost £3 lOs. sterling; and allowing each hive, on an 
average, only to double theirnumber annually, they would increase as follows, 
in a period of ten years : — 
First year, 2 hives. 
Second ditto, 4 — — 
Third ditto, 8 
Fourth ditto, 16 
Fifth ditto, 32 
Sixth ditto, 64 
Seventh ditto, 128 
Eighth ditto, 256 
Ninth ditto, 512 
Tenth ditto, 1024 
At this rate two hives would produce one thousand and twenty-four swarms 
in the period often years, which, at a very moderate calculation, would be 
worth £1. 13s. sterling each; so that there would be a clear profit of £1792 
sterling, for a little attention to the rearing and proper management of the 
Bees, allowing the second and third swarms to pay for the hives, stools, la- 
bour, and incidental losses. 
It may be supposed by the above estimate, that the seasons are favourable; 
but allowing fifty hives to fail, from various causes, there would still remain 
£1704 10s. sterling, of clear profit. The years 1824 and 1825 were very fa- 
vourable for Bees : the latter was remarkably so. Almost every hive that year 
swarmed once, many of them twice, and a few even three times: when the store 
was collected, they weighed from 25 to 45 lbs each hive. Notwithstanding, I 
read in the public papers, that honey, to the value of £240,000 sterling, had 
been imported into Great Britain in the course of the same year, 1825 — a most 
extraordinary sum,and one which, in my humble opinion, might have been 
easily saved to the nation, if a stricter attention had been paid to the proper 
encouragement of our own Bees. 
3. — Knowledge for the People, or the plain Why and Be- 
cause. (Zoological Series.) By J. Timbs, Editor of " Laconics," 
"Arcana of Science and Art," &c., 12nio., 4s. 
This little work includes Quadrupeds, Birds, Amphibia, Fishes, Worms, and In- 
sects. The questions are such as would very naturally arise in the mind of a 
Young Naturalist. The answers are plain and satisfactory, and show the research 
and ability of the Editor. The habits and structure of all are clearly pointed out, 
and shown to be best adapted to fill the offices^ and fully answer the ends designed, 
both as it regards usefulness to man, and to each other. -We certainly would re- 
commend it to every person who is commencing the study of Natural History. 
