A GREAT HONEY FACTORY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5599, 4 February 1879, Page 7

A GREAT HONEY FACTORY.

“A curious experiment in bee-keeping has been tried during the past summer (the London Globe sajs) by an American honeydealer, who constructed a vessel for the purpose of containing 2000 hires, which he moved gradually up the Biver Mississippi from Louisiana to Minnesota during the spring and summer months, and back again as the autumn advanced, thus keeping pace with ' tiie blossoming of the flowers, and securing a succession of blossoms at the height of the season all along the course. The

longest stay was made in the neighbourhood of St Louis. Skilled attendants accompanied the vessel, and the honey was periodically extracted from the hives in the manner now largely adopted in America—by centrifugal force. The actual yield of this gigantic apiary has not been stated, but it is said to have been enormous, some hives producing as much as 2owt honey. Of .course there is no country that can compete with North America in affording ah unbroken inland water rente, extending 15deg, or over 1000 miles in a direct lino from north to south; but the idea might be adopted in the case of some of the Woit Indian Islands, where a honey vessel, cruising about from island to island, might open up fresh fields, at intervals of a few days, to the enterprise of her busy passengers. Such an establishment would not have the advantage, like the Mississippi floating hive, of continuous flowering prairies on each side ; but it would be the means of bringing the honey collectors into districts otherwise beyond their reach at little cost and with little difficulty. Many of the West India Islands are admirably suited for the production of honey and large quantities used formerly to be exported, before the consumption of sugar became so general as to take the place of this sweetening agent. The honey, however, was generally that produced by a species of bees, or meliphones, whose quality is much inferior to that yielded by the hive-bee. The two varieties do not seem to live together in peace and unity, and the idea of keeping the superior insect to itself in a floating apiary is one which might be followed by very good results in the increased production of a better kind of honey.”