BEE-KEEPING IN IRELAND. 385 
congested districts since the Board first lent its aid to the 
industry, in 1893 ; but the returns published by the Registrar- 
General for each county (including the congested districts) 
indicate that great advance was made between 1893 and 
1898, the total produce in the counties of Cork, Donegal, 
Galway, and Kerry, having been 29,332 lbs. in 1893, and 
89,101 lbs. in 1898. 
There are now 14 local bee associations in the congested 
districts of Ireland. The Board supplies instructors and 
experts, facilities for purchasing appliances at moderate 
prices, and a supply of bee-keeping journals. 
The Board's arrangements for the sale of honey enabled 
the bee-keepers to receive 7d. for each full-weight section of 
first-class honey ; but not more than 43d. for short weight, 
or second class sections which were injured in transit. It is 
intended in future to purchase and classify the honey accord- 
ing to quality and not by weight, inasmuch as beekeepers do 
not take sufficient care to pack their honey properly so as to 
prevent the sections from being broken, along the capping of 
the cells, by rough usage on the railways. The prices rea- 
lised in 1899 were, consequently, much lower than they other- 
wise would have been. The quantity of honey purchased from 
beekeepers was 12} tons in 1899 at a cost of £694. The total 
expenditure amounted to £780 and the receipts were £831, 
yielding a profit of over £50. 7 
Strong measures were taken in 1896, 1897, and 1898 to 
check ‘“‘foul brood.’ In Donegal (Ardara), and in Mayo, 
Kerry, and West Cork, where the disease had occurred in 
those years, and remedies were adopted, it reappeared in 
1899, but only in one case out of every ten dealt with, and it 
then showed itself in so mild a form that it was stopped with- 
out killing the bees, and the important lesson was learnt that 
wherever an affected apiary is left for twelve months withont 
any stocks of bees the disease does not return. In all cases 
where a bee-keeper allowed the Board’s expert to destroy a 
diseased stock, another was supplied without charge; but 
where in a few cases permission was refused the disease 
spread further from these centres. 

