Although all the different districts of our country are not equally favourable for producing honey, still we may affirm that, by paying great attention to the bees, a return three or four times as large as that generally obtained might be insured. The country contains a large amount of meadow-land, natural and artificial, and all kinds of fruit-trees; in addition to which, the forests and the undulating nature of the land, not to mention the mountains, furnish great resources for our winged insects. It is true that, in the plains or in the lowlying ground away from the mountains, the supply of honey might be considerably increased by moving the bees to the hills after haymaking, as by this means the bee-master would secure two gatherings of honey; but at the foot of the Jura, and the first slope of the Alps, this removal is not of the same importance, for the bees in these localities profit by the flora of the plain as well as of the mountains. Our country, far from supplying enough honey for its wants, is forced to procure it from elsewhere; and there is, perhaps, no country where there is a larger consumption of honey than in our own cantons. It would, no doubt, be desirable that the runhoney, which we get from some German cantons, should be free from all adulteration; and that in our hotels the landlords should no longer supply, as honey, a chemical production which is honey in appearance only. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to endeavour to better the condition of the apiaries, and to establish new ones in places which offer every security for their prosperity. It is with a view to this that we have published the following little treatise. May it receive at the hands of the public in our cantons, a reception equal to that which was accorded to our first edition. C. DE RIBEAUCOURT. Arzier, Canton de Vaud. |