beyond the former range of their pasture
by four miles." And adds, "a travelling apiary of 80 or 100 hives will
exhaust the food within the area of a circle of four miles in about
a fortnight or three weeks."

"But certainly there is no reason to fear that any part of this country
will be overstocked with bees, for where one hive is now kept, fifty
might be kept without running any risk of overstocking the country; for
the average number of hives in the various apiaries does not exceed
five."

"It has been calculated" says another authority, "that the pastures of
Scotland could maintain as many bees as would produce 4,000,000 pints
of honey, and 1,000,000 lbs. of wax; and were these quantities tripled
for England and Ireland, the produce of the British empire would be
12,000,000 pints of honey, and 3,000,000 lbs. of wax per annum, worth
about five shillings per pint for the honey, and one shilling and
sixpence per lb. for the wax, making an annual produce in money of about
3,225,000_l._

But in consequence of the present neglect of this branch of rural
economy, we pay annually nearly 12,000_l._ for honey alone.

The imports and exports of wax bleached and unbleached were as follows:

Returned
Imported. Exported. for home the rate
Consumption. of Duty

1831. 1832. 1831. 1832. 1831. 1832.

Cwt. Cwt. Cwt. L s. d.
Unbleached 7,005 1,878 10,002 1 10 0
4,349 2,536 826
Bleached 195 504 94 3 0 0

Produce of Duty.

Unbleached L 10,262
Bleached 823

The price of wax varies (duty included) from 5_l._ to 10_l._ a cwt.

In 1831, 7,203 cwt. of wax were imported, of which 3,892 cwt. of it came
from Western Africa; 1,551, from Tripoli, Barbary, &c.; and 910 cwt.
from the United States.

In 1839, imports were 6,314 cwt., in 1841, 4,483 cwt. of wax; in 1838,
675 cwt. of honey; and in 1841, 3,761 cwt. valued at 12,000_l._ brought
principally from the West Indies, Germany, and Portugal.

The above statement proves the demand there is in this country for honey
and wax.

It is mentioned in Wildman's pamphlet