The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-01 00:00:00

A NEGLECTED INDUSTRY.

The !ollowing communication, which has been sent to the
Standard for publication, suggests to many of our readers a
very profitable "Neglected Industry ":

Sir,—ln this age of utilisation, when no product can
properly be called "waste," I would bring to the
notice of the public, more particularly to those happy
dwellers in our rural districts, a harvest of great value,
which is absolutely lost by simple apathy. I allude,
Sir, to "honey," of which the little that is gathered
is but as a drop in the ocean compared to that which
is lost. We spend many thousand pounds *annually
on inferior imported honey and wax' while the
finer products of our native flowers are allowed "to
waste their sweetness on the desert air.' The
researches of Darwin, Lubbock, Muller, and many
other naturalists, have thrown brilliant light on the in--
estimable value of insects, amongst which stand pre-
eminent the honey bee in the fertilisation of flowers. To
them may be truly traced the very existence of many.
of our most valuable crops, and our horticulturists,
thanks to the spread of education, are now almost
universally acknowledging their indebtedness to the
insect world, although among the myriad species there.
are no doubt some apparently great enemies. The
farmers and cottagers in England, compared with
other lands, keep few bees; where one hive is found
there might be a thousand; where one pound of honey,
is gathered there are thousands wasted, for that which
the flowers secrete to-day must be to-day gathered—
to-morrow it is gone, dissipated in the air and lost.
The Americans and our continental neighbours are
more alive to this than ourselves. Few people'
here have any idea of the magnitude and importance
of bee-keeping as carried on in the United States,
where, as a distinct trade, it-as followed by great num-
bers of persons. The last year's harvest of one bee.
farmer, Mr. Harbison, of San Diego, California, is
stated in an American paper (the National Agriculturist) •
to have been 150,0001b.' or 67 tons of honey of excel-
lent quality, sold for 30,000 dols., the prQduct of
2,000 stocks of bees, managed by the owner with
the aid of eight apprentices. In Russia and Hungary
apiaries of 2,000 and 3,000 stocks, are not uncom-
mon, while in Great Britain I do not suppose there is
a single owner of 100 stocks, although our flowers
would bear comparison, at any rate, with those of
Russia and Hungary. A large profitable result, such
as that of Mr. Harbison's bee-farm, is only attainable
by the exercise of skill and capital, but ordinary
farms cannot be highly cultivated without such aids
either, and no Agriculturists in England has made the
most of his crops ; he has allowed the sweet, luscious
honey to be wasted, not one acre of land, from John
o'Groats to the Land's-end, being fully stocked with bees,
although the busy insects would store up Nature's rich
gifts for their owner's benefit, and in doing so make the
plants more fertile, and increase the seed crops, only
asking for their reward fair treatment, imutiwity from
murder, and a small portion of the stores they have
gathered. Now, Sir, I point out a harvest viaiting.to
be garnered. The nobleman with his miles of heather,
the squire with his park and woods, the farmer with
his clover and bean-fields, the cottay,er with his garden
or allotment, all can share in this. Bees are free
roamers, never .trespasSing,., welconae everywhere
under the broad canopy of heaven. The science of
modern bee-keeping is not formidable—what a Russ or
a Yankee can do surely can an Englishman.
JOHN HUNTER, Hon. Sec. to the British
Bee-keepers' Association.

I Eaton-rise, Ealing.

retina irr,