wax in this kingdom [Ireland], greater than its produce, is undeniable, because confiderable quantities of it are imported; and that it is more for our advantage to produce than to import it, will fcarcely be denied: the encouragement of apiaries therefore, with a view to the wax only, must be allowed to be a measure directly tending to the public benefit. I may, perhaps, be faid, that the principal confumption of wax being in candles, one of the laft refinements of a luxurious age, it would be more eligible to prevent than to provide for its gratifica tion: but without fhewing the folly of indifcriminately declaiming against luxury, or fhewing, what would be eafy to fhew, that without the gratification, and even multiplication, of artificial wants, no nation, in the prefent conftitution of things, could long fupport itfelf in a ftate of plenty and independence; it will be fufficient to obferve, that no reafon can be given why wax candles fhould not be fubftituted for tallow, by thofe who can afford it, which will not equally prove that tallow candles fhould not have been fubftituted for the lamps of rancid and fœtid oil ufed by our ancestors.

In a commercial view the great confumption of wax in candles, if we could produce a fufficient quantity at home, would be a national benefit; becaufe it greatly increases our exports of tallow, from which a very confiderable profit

accrues*.

It may also be observed here, that there is great probability of the government's increafing the confumption of wax in candles ftill farther, by directing wax candles to be burnt on board the navy. A propofal for this purpose has already been laid before the admi, ralty in England, in fupport of which it is alledged, that the burning tallow between decks, where candles of fome fort must always be used, greatly increases the noxious and putrefcent vapours which thofe clofe places render fo fatal to lives, which it is of the ut moft importance to preferve; that the great heat of thofe places caufes the tallow to melt, fo as to occafion a great wafte; that tallow candles become fo foft as frequent. ly to bend, and at length fall down, by which fires have often happened, and are perpetually liable to happen; and, in one word, that they are the caufe of great filth, danger, and fickness. These reafons, which will probably weigh with the ftate, did actually determine one of our admirals, feveral years ago, to burn wax on board his own fhip, at his own expence, which he declared was attended with fuch advantages, that he would have continued it if the charge had been ten times as much as he found it; for, he faid, the difference between wax and tallow for the year did not amount to more than ten pounds t.

Under thefe circumftances, the encouragement of apiaries becomes the more a national concern; for

if

if we can not only fupply our increased home confumption of wax, but export it, we fhall turn the balance of commerce, in a very confiderable article, in our favour, which is now against us, and muft be more fo, if, upon the increafed confumption of wax, we must increase our imports in that article.

Befides the use of wax in candles, which is of all modern luxuries the most falutary and agreeable, it is an article abfolutely neceflary in many manufactures and trades, and in the public offices; it is alfo of great medicinal virtue.

:

As to honey, it is certainly a neceffary of life, the want of which can be fupplied only by fugar: in proportion as honey, a home produce, can be made cheap, fugar, a foreign commodity, will be lefs bought, and confequently lefs will be imported. Of honey we make mead, a moft pleafing and falutary liquor of honey is alfo made a kind of mum, called old ale, which in fome families in Ireland is in great eftimation. If honey is made cheap, it will greatly leffen the confumption of made wines, the principal ingredient of which is fugar; and the good effect will be, not only the fubftitution of a home for a foreign commodity, but of a wholesome for a pernicious liquor. But honey is ftill of more importance for medicinal than alimentary purposes; no phyfical writer, from Hippocrates to Huxham, has mentioned it without the highest encomium: it is penetrating and deterging, and is therefore good in obftructions of all kinds, efpecially thofe arifing from vifcid humours. It is alfo a fo

vereign remedy in the torfumes, a difeafe peculiar to this country. arifing from its great moisture, which produces infarctions of the breaft, with difficult perspiration, and other morbid fymptoms. The inhabitants of Ireland in general have cold conftitutions, the natural effect of their food and manner of life. This conftitution renders them liable to phlegmatic dif orders, for which honey is a most excellent remedy, and from which it is a certain prefervative. Honey therefore fhould be brought within the reach of the poor; for the life and health of the poor are of infinitely more importance to the ftate, than the life and health of the rich.

The bee therefore feems to have a claim to the attention of the public in general, and in particular to the liberality of this fociety, with refpect to both the commodities which he fabricates, honey and wax. This country is extremely well adapted, by circumftances and fituation, both to its nature and trade, the climate being temperate, the fpring early, the verdure perpetual, and the herbage abundant. This may ap pear, from honey and wax being mentioned, as articles of commerce and exportation, in all the old books of geography. The following propofal is therefore offered to the confideration of the fociety.

I. That one hundred pounds fhall be allotted for the encourage ment of apiaries, to be diftributed on the third of October, 1765, in the proportions, upon the conditions, and under the regulations following:

To the perfon having the great

est

eft weight of honey and wax, above fix hundred weight, including the hive and the bees, 301. To the perfon having the next greatest above five hundred weight, 251.

To the perfon having the next greateft quantity, above four hundred weight, 201.

To the perfon having the next greateft quantity, above three hundred weight, 15 1.

To the perfon having the next greatest quantity, above two hundred weight, rol.

II. That the hives fhall be weighed in the grofs, the bees being alive, which is known by experience not in the leaft to prejudice them, by a proper perfon, in the prefence of the minifter or curate of the parish, or any juftice of the peace in the neighbourhood, or any other perfon of a reputable character, known to a member of the fociety, and a perfon appointed by the proprietor of the bees*.

III. That a certificate of fuch weight, and the number of hives, fhall be figned by fuch minifter, or curate, or juftice of peace, or reputable perfon.

IV. That the perfon weighing the hives fhall make an affidavit of their numbers and grofs weight; that they are of the ufual fize and thickness; and that, to the best of his knowledge, no fraud has

been practifed to increase their weightt.

V. That the proprietor of the bees fhall alfo make an affidavit that the number of old hives fo weighed, attefted, and certified, have been all his property fix months before; and that all the new hives fo weighed, attested, and certified, are fwarms from the old hives; and that, to the best of his knowledge, none of thofe hives were above fix Irish miles from his dwelling-houfe when weighed and certified, or for fix months before.

VI. That fuch certificate and affidavits fhall be produced by the claimants of the premiums, as the condition upon which alone they can receive it.

To this propofal the author can think of no objection, except the premiums that have already been given for honey. But as thefe premiums have been very fmall, and very much confined in the application, few perfons in the kingdom, on that account, have increafed their flock of bees; it is therefore hoped, that this prefent propofal does not stand precluded: the general utility of a premium for thefe articles being acknow. ledged, even by the very measure that has proved ineffectual for the purpose. The previous offer of premiums on thefe articles, there

:

fore,

fore, rather fupports than fubverts the measure now propofed.

By this meafure, it is hoped, bees will be greatly increafed in a fhort time; for as the proprietors could not keep fuch numbers of bees without employing the poor, to the extent of fix miles round them, to take care of them, which they would gladly do for a small gratuity, it is reafonable to fuppofe, that, perceiving the advantages derived to the owners from the bees they look after, they would be in duced to fet up hives, and keep bees for themselves. From this fingle object, however inconfiderable, a habit of attention might be acquired by thofe who are now total ly idle hope of advantage might be awaked in the breafts of thofe whofe industry is now depreffed by defpondency, and the advantages would be ftill more important and extenfive than any that have been yet fuggefted, which are furely more than fufficient to juftify an experiment, which may be made at fo fmall an expence as one hundred pounds.

It is to be obferved, that this country, in many parts, abounds with heath and furze, which bloffom in September, and are excellent pafturage for bees.

ungenerous practice of deftroying thefe animals not only unneceffary but pernicious, prefented a beehive of this conftruction to the London fociety for the ragement of arts, &c. who readily purchafed another of his hives filled with honey, &c. that they might be infpected by the curious, and brought into univerfal ufe. Nor did the fociety flop here: perfuaded that the invention would prove of the greateft advantage to this country, they published a premium of two hundred pounds, in order to introduce either Mr. Thorley's, or fome other method of a fimilar kind, whereby much larger quantities of honey and wax might be procured, and, at the fame time, the lives of these laborious and useful infects preferved.

The bottom part of this beehive is an octangular box, made of deal boards, about an inch in thickness, the cover of which is externally feventeen inches in diameter, but internally only 15, and its height 10 inches. In the middle of the cover of this octangular box is a hole, which may be opened or fhut at pleasure, by means of a flider. In one of the pannels is a pane of glafs covered with a wooden door. The beehole at the bottom of the box is

about 3 inches broad, and half an inch high. Two flips of deal, about half an inch fquare, crofs

each other in the centre of the box, and are faftened to the pannels by means of fmall fcrews. To thefe flips the bees faften their combs.

In this octangular box the bees are hived, after fwarming in the ufual manner, and there fuffered M

to

to continue till they have built their combs, and filled them with honey, which may be known by opening the door, and viewing their works through the glafs pane, or by the weight of the hive. When the bee-mafter finds his laborious infects have filled their habitation, he is to place a common bee-hive of ftraw, made either flat at the tops, or in the common form, on the octangular box, and draw out the flider, by which a communication will be opened between the box and the ftraw-hive; the confequence of which will be, that those laborious infects will fill this hive alfo with the product of their labours. When the beemafter finds the ftraw hive is well filled, he may push in the flider, and take it away, placing another immediately in its room, and then drawing out the flider. Thefe indefatigable creatures will then fill the new hive in the fame manner. By proceeding in this method, Mr. Thorley affured the fociety, that he had taken three fucceffive hives, filled with honey and wax, from one fingle hive, during the fame fummer; and that, after he had laid his infects under fo large a contribution, the food ftill remaining in the octangular box was abundantly fufficient for their fupport during the winter. He added, that if this method was pursued in every part of the kingdom, inftead of that cruel method of putting the creatures to death, he was perfuaded, from long experience, that wax would be collected in fuch plenty, that candles made with it might be fold as cheap as thofe of tallow are at prefent.

Mr. Thorley has alfo added an

other part to his bee-hive, which cannot fail of affording the highest entertainment to a curious and inquifitive mind. It confifts of a glafs receiver 18 inches in height, 8 inches in diameter at the bottom, and in the greatest part 13. This receiver has a hole at the top, about an inch in diameter, through which a fquare piece of deal is extended to nearly the bottom of the veffel, having two cross bars, to which the bees faften their combs. Into the other end of this fquare piece is fcrewed a piece of brafs, which ferves for a handle to the receiver, or glafs hive. When the bees have filled their ftraw hive (which must have a hole in the centre, covered with a piece of tin), Mr. Thorley places the glafs receiver upon the top of the ftraw hive, and draws out the piece of tin.

The bees now, finding their habitation enlarged, purfue their labours with fuch alacrity, that they fill this glafs hive likewife with their ftores. And, as this receptacle is wholly tranfparent, the curious obferver may entertain himself with viewing the whole progrefs of their works. One of the hives now depofited at the fociety's rooms in the Strand, is filled with the produce of the labours of those infects; and the glass hive is fuppofed to contain near thirty pounds of honey.