APIARIAN SOCIETIES.

The encouragement of any internal branch of industry, which will supersede the necessity for the employment of British capital in speculative adventures where no equivalent is returned, is in the mind of every patriot a subject worthy of consideration. And that the prosecution and encouragement of my system of Bee-management, undertaken by those who are qualified by their means, abilities, and powers of patronage, to set the example, and thereby influence others, will effect this to a considerable extent, as far as the production of honey and wax is concerned, will, I think, be sufficiently obvious to those who have witnessed, or who hereafter may witness, the successful results—the almost incredible quantity of these productions from my apiary alone; or, leaving my apiary entirely out of the account, I will venture modestly to assert, that from any one set of collateral-boxes, well-stocked and well-managed, the quantity and quality of honey that may be annually taken, without either destroying or impoverishing the Bees, must be seen to be believed; and being seen, will not be disputed. The exact amount annually paid to other countries for these two commodities—honey and wax—I have not the means of ascertaining with accuracy, but it is probable that it exceeds £350,000.—a sum lost to this country, because, not only have we in the vegetable world a profusion of these productions, that "waste their sweetness on the desert air," but we have, or might have, if we would but encourage them, the labourers necessary to collect them, and this too without the deterioration of any other department of rural economy. Were Bee-colonies multiplied to any thing like the number that the Bee-pasturage of this country would support; were there, for instance, but one set of well-stocked collateral-boxes on every square mile of England, Wales, and Scotland,—or, to compute moderately, on every square mile of every rural district of Great Britain, that is fertile in Bee-pasturage,—and were the price of the finest box-honey reduced to a shilling a pound, the annual surplus produce of these colonies would realize a sum far exceeding £350,000. which would be put into the pockets of, generally speaking, an industrious and deserving part of the community—the rural population, and a profitable remuneration given to them for their indulgence and perseverance in a most rational pursuit, requiring but trifling, and this only incidental attention. I know of no time more proper for throwing out these hints than the present, when the subject of rural allotments excites, and that justly, almost universal attention amongst those desirous of securing an industrious, prosperous, and virtuous peasantry.

I do not presume to imagine that, antiquated as are the practices hitherto so generally adopted, and so pertinaciously adhered to in Bee-management in this country, and characterized as are these practices by so many superstitious and irrational usages—I do not presume to imagine that my system will, at once, up-root prejudices, dispel superstitions, and be immediately and heartily adopted by the cottager. The generality of apiarians have yet to be taught that Bee-management is a system;—that it is something more than merely stocking a hive or box with a swarm of Bees, and then leaving it to chance alone to prosper or to perish; and, if to prosper, it is only until the time for its final doom—the reckless destruction of every Bee—arrives. They have yet to learn that the whole, or at least, the greater part of the contingencies, to which Bee-colonies are subject, may be averted; that the casualties of Bees are analogous to those of other descriptions of stock; and that, if they would ensure success, or expect to derive profit from them, it must be by attention to their domicils, to their protection from the variations of climate and atmosphere, and from external enemies,—in short, by proper management. If in many instances, the success of my hives has been so unqualified and extensive, it has been because the necessity for careful management has been impressed and adhered to, and because Bees, in whose welfare their owners had been previously uninterested, have been looked upon with some degree of attention, and their labours facilitated and requited by timely administering to their wants and comforts. In the same way, I believe, that by attention to the observations contained in these pages, the cottagers' labours may be more amply repaid, and that more honey may be obtained, even by their rough practices; whilst this will be preparing them for the adoption of my improved plans and gradually pave the way for its general introduction. For this I more particularly refer to the preceding chapter, and to that on Bee-feeding, i. e. chapters XIV. and XVII.

It has often been suggested to me, to point out how the culture of Honey-Bees might be more generally extended in this country, and rendered more advantageous to the cottager than it has been hitherto. As regards the extension of Bee-cultivation, I would observe, that if those gentlemen, especially those gentlemen resident in the country, who possess affluence, influence, and leisure, would undertake to promote it—would set the example and keep Bees, their example alone would go far to induce the cottager to keep them; and that, as other countries boast, and that so usefully, their apiarian societies, the formation of such a society, or societies, could not fail to be attended with beneficial effects. Some feeble attempts, it is true, to establish such a society have been made, but have proved abortive, whilst premiums on the subject have been offered by other societies,[M] injudiciously, as they have tended to perpetuate mistaken views, and to retard the progress of more correct ones. I am not insensible of the extreme benefit which has resulted to the different branches of industry, and to agriculture and horticulture in particular, by well-regulated scales of premiums, emulating to superiority and necessarily promoting a beneficial stimulus in the different branches with which they are connected. And, in my opinion, nothing would more easily tend to the inculcation of sounder views of practice, than, if gentlemen, pursuing my principles, would interest themselves in connecting with the objects of such associations more generally, graduated scales of prizes, regulated by the quantity of honey obtained from stocks, the prosperity of the hives afterwards, and the state of the apiary generally, &c. Were they also to countenance the plan of placing colonies under the care of labouring cottagers, giving them premiums as an inducement to careful management, they could not fail of conferring a benefit, by initiating them into the plans of the system, as well as by more advantageously dividing the pasture of the district among the different hives, and thereby rendering the labour of their collecting the stores considerably less to the Bees. This would, undoubtedly, effect much, but I know of no means so decidedly calculated to foster and encourage the culture of Honey-Bees among all classes, and more particularly among the population of rural districts, as apiarian societies, formed for the express purpose of extending and improving the cultivation and management of Honey-Bees.

[M] A premium was last year (1833) awarded by the Cambridgeshire Horticultural Society, to a Mr. Widnal, for his exhibition of a glass of honey. But whether the encouragement of Bee-culture be an object of that very respectable society,—or whether the reward given to Mr. Widnal on that occasion was a sort of bye-premium, bestowed for the gratification of seeing a curiosity, it did not appear.