BEE KEEPINIMG IN A SMALL WAY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 10236, 2 July 1883, Page 2

BEE KEEPINIMG IN A SMALL WAY.

Bee Keeping in a Binall way is a simple enough oraft. But if the apiarian proposes to make a fortune, be must bestow both care and skill on the feeding, housing, and general culture of bis bees, or be will find that a bee ranob no more pays then a hen farm, if ordinary industry is not expended on it. The American apiarian sends his honey to market; in neat glass-fronted boxes, in which be has trained the bees to build their combs and deposit their flower gleanings.' .< The best honey is very delicate in flavour, and easily spoilt by any rough handling Heacc it happens that much of what is imported into this country is of the poorest quabty. It has been prepared by peasants ignorant of the principles of apiarian art, and is often collected from combs stored by wild bees in hollow trees, rocks, and similar localities, -while the fine urouia bas been dis.ipated by the use of heat, or replaced by the taste , of the dead insects, bitter bread, brood combs, larva and other impurities which [ have been stewed along with the melting . wax. The scientific apiarian sedulously [ avoids any such rude treatment of' (his ins jct3, and is careful to pasture them on I the beat flowers. Hence has arisen the business of firming out swarms, juat as 3 stock-rearers send their sheep to graze s in a part of the country where the 1 herbage is better than in their own j district. It is estimated that one acre a will support about twenty-five swarms ; and such is the magnitude of the business in some parts of America, that a" . j single firm keeps two steam saws oonj stantly employed in cutting up ' the t timber used in constructing the boxes for holding the combhoney. 'Thougbr 3 most flowers yield some food for bees, yet much skillis required in the selection t of a grazing district. A skilled honeytaster will at once detect the source whence any particular sample has been bought. The honey of Hymettus, for instance, is as redolent now of the plains of Attica as it was when Homer Bang its praises. The rosemary honey of Narbonue differs in scent and taste from that garnered on the flowery slopes of Mount f Ida, while the " mellifluous nectar "of . Karysto " fills tha mouth with an aroma i of rosas." The honey of Guiana is red : t chat of Madagasoar greenish. Much i. jf the South African honey is poisonous a from the bse feeding on a species of t jpurge; and the honey of Trebizonde r sauses intoxication to-day just as it did when it made the heads of the ten i thousand reel with the subtle virus of the i .Jonticazalea. The modern bea-sb.6pb.erd r Jiust transport his charges from flowery f laad to flowery land, in the same way s chat the old Greek bie-naasters puwued y cue blossoms from Achaia to Attica, and l( from EubiDi to the sunny meads of , 3 -Jcyru.3. For at least twenty centuries t die Sicilians tuvd boeu in the habit of 3 carrying their hives to Hybla, just as a, ohe Scottish Lowlnnders send them in c die autumn to the blooming Highland y Jioors. In like manner, the Italiana r who live on the banks of the Po float a their hives up and down the river, and r the Egyptians follow the same practioe i m the Nile, so that the insects which i have begun to starvi at home may f luxuriate among th? gardens and fields ■ vhich they pass on their inland voyage. v —Standard, c - — ' 1 Bctrns, Scalds, and their Tkeat--1 MSOT. — Mix couvmn kitchen whiting ? ivith sweet oil, or, if sweet oil is not at c hand, with water. Plaster the whole of ij she bui'n aud some inches beyond it all * round with the above, after mixing it 1 o the consistency of common paste, and c ay it on an eighth, or rather more, of c in inch in thickness. It acts life ft c jharm ; the most agonizing pain is in a few minutes stilled. Take care to keep the mixture moist by the application from time to tiuia of i'resh oil or fresh water, and at night wrap the whole part ■liFeoted in gutta-percha or iimnel, to keep the moisture from evaporating. s The patient will in nil probability, unless ? tha flesh be much injured and the burn a very bad one, sleep soundly. ■ , a .Recreation is intended to the miad c is whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen c the edge of it, therefore, who spends us 3 whole tims in recreation is ever wh ts uig, never mowing; his grass ru y , grow aud his staed sta-vj ; as, certainlr, j. he that al ways toils, an J never recreated, t is always moA'iu^, never whetting, labouring much to little purpose. As, well have no scythe as no edge. Then j d 033 the work go easily forward when j the scythe is so seasonably and advaii^ . tageously whetted that it may cut, and j so cut, thit it may hive the help of , shirpsning. — Bishop Hall. ! Canary and CoRiiXDEa Sued. — Ciiuary seed requires a strong, rich soil. 1 Tae seed should be c'rilled at the en lof . August or beginning of September, I upun a clean, well-tilled seedbed, at j the rate of twj packs per acre, the rows being about 12 inches apart. Hoeing • should be attended to during tho early : stages of the plant's growth. It ia , rather late in coming to harvest aud i ripens somewhat irregularly, but does not readily shed, so should be left standing unti! at any rate the greater part is ripe. It may be cut ia the ordinary way, tied in small sheaves, and ' set up in sui.ill stooks. A little rain while in stook does good by rendering jit more easy to thresh. From thirty- to j fifty buih'il? per aer-' may ba taker, as i tho :\\iv.-iv^ yield Tlv; price ii'-ictuatcs, I ii'id Ins been known t" mm <in as high [ us £U" per quarter for several years m 1 succession.