BEE CULTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2884, 30 June 1909, Page 10

BEE CULTURE.

AN EXPERTS REMARKS. (From Our Own Correspondent) CHRTSTCHURCH, June 23. Mr -J. Hopkins. Government Apiarist, «aye a Lytidton Times reporter some interesting information yesterday in regard to the beekeeping iixlustiy of the Dominion. When the la^t census was taken he said, the returns compiled from it showed that the total amount of honey oroducsd during the previous season was about 450 tons. That season, however, was one of the worst for many years, and the following seap-on was as good as it had been bad. That year there was a production of between 800 and 900 tons. The greatest obstacle with which the beekeeper is confronted is the disease usually known as " foul brood." Asked what results had been achieved in the direction of combating the dis-sase. Mr Hopkins said that during the four and a-half years he had been connected with the department the progress made had been most satisfactory. It was, in fact, extraordinary. The Apiaries Act, with the terms of which the beekeepers had to comply, was generally considered the most satisfactory in the world, especially Uecause it had made direct pio\ision for the discontinuance of the use of box hivos. and the substitution | of frame hives, which enabled the comb ' to be examined from time to time and any foul brood eradicated before it had pro-gre^s-sd far. In many countries the New Zealand act was attracting a good deal of attention, and he had received inquiries from the Queensland Beekeepers' Association and the Stawell Association in Victoria regarding its operations, and at the annual meeting of the Victorian Apiarios Association, which was to have been held that _ day, the matter was to come up for cor..=ideiation, with a view to the enactment of similar regulations. In addition to the form of foul -brood known to New Zealand apiari-sts, there was a more viru.entjorm of the di.ease, generally known ?>"• " black brood," which was rife iv America and Europe, but so fjir as the department had been able to ascertain bis pp«t had not made its appearance in New Zealand. If it should bj any mis'hance be introduced, the injury resulting would be very great. The InvercargiU *i«sociation proposed to ask the other associations to support a request, that the Agricultural Department should supervise iL] apiaries with a view to preventing the ntrodur.tion of disease. As soon as black brood appeared in an apiary it would

spread, since, in addition to the fact that ' it, was highly infectious, as soon as a colony became weakened by h« ravages, it was robbed by the stronger bees, and they were thus inoculated.