212 
CULTURE OF BEEs’-WAX IN RUSSIA. 
colonial dish called a “ steamer/’ which it furnishes, is well 
known. The flesh of the wombat, the bandicoot, and even 
of the opossum, may do for the bushman. The flesh of the 
emu is passably good; but this bird, the kangaroo, and 
the other native animals, are becoming rare as settlement 
advances, a war of extermination seeming to have been 
declared against them. 
It is satisfactory to find that a zoological society has been 
formed at Melbourne, which has received from the Govern¬ 
ment a valuable tract of land, and a grant of £3,000, for the 
introduction of new animals. 
Besides the broad question of interest and profit to be 
gained by individuals in this movement, we heartly concur 
in the desire “ to see the good things of the earth spread as 
rapidly as possible over every portion of its surface, and to 
find every reasonable effort made to multiply, as far as can be, 
the legitimate enjoyments of mankind.— Farmer’s Magazine, 
CULTURE OF BEES’-WAX IN RUSSIA. 
* 
The rearing of bees is extensively carried on in the several 
parts of European Russia, particularly in the central and 
southern governments, as well as in the Polish and in trans- 
Caucasian provinces. This insect acclimatizes up to a very 
high latitude, even in Siberia. It was long thought that the 
climate of the latter country was utterly unsuitable for the 
rearing of bees ; but experiments made at the commencement 
of the present century in the governments of Tomsk, Orusk, 
and Jemissiesk, have proved to the contrary. It has greatly 
suffered, however, in some provinces, from the destruction of 
the forests, for the bee prefers well-wooded districts, where it 
is protected from the wind. The honey procured from the 
linden tree {Tilla Europcea ) is only obtained at the little town 
of Kowno, on the river Niemen, in Lithuania, which is sur¬ 
rounded by an extensive forest of these trees, and where the 
rearing occupies the principal attention of the inhabitants. 
The Jews of Poland furnish a close imitation of this honey, 
by bleaching the common kinds in the open air during frosty 
weather. 
The total production of wax in Russia is estimated at 
5,412,000 pounds per annum; and as the usual calculation 
is three pounds of honey to one of wax, this supposes a pro¬ 
duction of 16.236,000 of honey, the whole being valued at 
2,250,000 dollars. , . 
