IMPORTANCE OF BEES TO FARMERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 25 June 1945, Page 3

IMPORTANCE OF BEES TO FARMERS

ADDRESS TO NELSON APIARISTS The Nelson branch of the Nelson. Beekeepers’ Association, at its monthly meeting, heard an address on current problems of the industry by Mr W. B.' Bray, president of the Canterbury branch. Mr Bray referred to the importance of beekeeping, not only for the production of honey and beeswax but also in the part the bees play in the fertilisation of fruit and seeds. He mentioned also the increased attention being paid by farmers to the restoration of soil fertility and the recognition of the bees’ part in maintaining the clover content of the pastures, thus helping to restore nitrogen to the soil. He predicted that the time would come when it would be universally recognised that the land needed bees even where it would not pay to install them, and farmers would be ready to recompense the beekeeper for maintaining his bees in such areas. Mr Bray outlined ways in which local producers should concentrate their efforts so that the best honeys could be marketed locally, the less marketable grades used for winter stores, and bees pi'oduced to supply the demand from other provinces for bees to establish new apiaries. Beekeeping was making such progress that apiarists in ' the colder parts where the season was shorter preferred to buy bees rather than sacrifice part of the crop by dividing their hives. Mr Bray then gave a brief account of the history of the developments of the pi'esent marketing system. Nelson will be represented at the forthcoming conference at Christchurch. Mr T. Cropp having been appointed.