Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 3, 1911. BEE-KEEPING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10203, 3 April 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 3, 1911. BEE-KEEPING.

During recent years, considerable attention has been devoted in New Zealand to bee-keeping' as an industry. The immense quantities of j clover and other honey-producing I pastures which have been put down have provided abundance of food for the industrious winged gatherers, and scores of farmers have adopted bee-keeping as an adjunct to dairy- j ing and other rural pursuits. The result is that, at the present time, the output is far in excess of the demand for local consumption. For some inexplicable reason, honey, which is one of the cheapest and most nourishing of foods, does not occupy the place in the family larder that it should do. Its health-produc-ing qualities are so little appreciated that it is seldom found on the' table at the best hotels and boardinghouses, whilst in T>he majority of homes it is an unknown quantty. If combined effort were made by several medical men and heads of society households to popularise honey as an article of diet, there would speedily be a demand for this wholesome food. Meanwhile, those engaged in the industry of bee-keeping have a right to expect that the Government will assist them, in every way possible, to find a market for their output. ( fn the first placu, j something could be done by reducing I railway freights, so that honey might be carried to the centres at a nominal cost. Then there is the question of finding outside markets. The Agricultural Department has encouraged the exportation of apples by guaranteeing the exporters a certain price for their output. Why could not a similar experiment be tried in respect to honey? At the present time we have the anomaly of a well-paid expert of the Department touring the country and urging upon farmers the importance of bee-keeping as an industry, whilst %h"ose who have followed his advice have been unable to find a satisfactory market for their output. The Minister for Agriculture, who is essentially a business man, will at once see that it is impossible for such a state of things to continue.