In The Spot Where I Am Now Writing
There Are Numerous Mulberries In A Profusion Of Rich Foliage Sufficient
For The Production Of Two Pounds Of Silk By Each Tree; But They Are
Entirely Neglected, And The Same Depression In The Silk Cultivation May
Be Remarked Throughout The Island.
The numerous wild-flowers, together with the blossoms of oranges and
lemons, are highly favourable to bees, of which there are several
varieties; but there is no export of wax, which is used within the
island for the manufacture of candles and tapers for the various
churches.
The Cyprian bee-hive is a contrivance which is extremely
simple, at the same time that it possesses the great advantage of
sparing the bees when the comb is to be saved. I see no reason why this
primitive arrangement should not succeed in England, and thereby save
countless swarms from destruction.
The hive is an earthenware cylinder about three feet six inches or four
feet in length, by ten or twelve inches in diameter; this might be
represented by a common chimney-pot. One end is securely stopped by a
wad of straw, neatly made in a similar manner to the back of an archery
target. This is smeared on the outside with clay so as to exclude the
air. A similar wad is inserted at the other extremity, but this is
provided with a small aperture or entrance for the bees. In a large
apiary twenty or thirty of these rude pipes or cylinders are piled one
upon the other in the same manner that draining tiles are heaped in
England, and they are protected from the sun and rain by a shed, open
only to the front.
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