HONEY CROP PROSPECTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2357, 13 January 1915, Page 8

HONEY CROP PROSPECTS

, . ONLY A MODERATE OUTLOOK. The Director of, the Orchards, Gardens, and Apiaries Division of the Department of Agriculture has received from-apiary instructors the; following reports concerning the honey crop pros,pects:— "'. .-.-■, . | Auckland.—Honey crop prospects in Auckland province -are poor owing- to; ' she dry weather, which still continues, jfhe Great Barrier Island reports heavy (josses of bees during late winter and Spring, Wellington.—The weather will have to improve considerably before a good strop can be expected in the southern 4alf of the North Island. Bees are, (however, in good order generally, and : given an opportunity, should produce • good results. • . Christchurch.—The season has "been \a very trying one, and up to the end iof very little had been f.stored in the supers. Merchants are 'doing a fair trade at steady prices. ■.There do not appear to he any large .tots offering; still the supply up ito the present is the demand. There is very little of this season's honey on the market yet. So far the season's ..prospects in Canterbury generally are 'rather below the average. i Dunedin.—Hot north-west winds had a ■ damaging effect on the clover pastures in South Canterbury and North Otago during the early part of the jnonth, but latterly a few showers have improved conditions generally. In Southland a spell of fine weather has been experienced, and • consequently prospects are much brighter. It-is yet j early to anticipate the result of the j season's orop. In some districts ex- •. tracting has commenced, but only where bush flora is plentiful. Taken altogether the outlook is promising. Market conditions are unchanged.