25 AUGUST 1917, Page 12

BEEKEEPING AND BREWING.

• [To THE Duren% or rne "Snr.ursroa."l Stag-Sugar is a raw material of the small as of the large industry. It is used, not as is vulgarly supposed, "to make into honey," hut as food for bees at certain times of the year. Now, observe how differently we beekeepers are treated in the matter of sugar eapply. The Board of Agriculture has granted a monopoly to

a well-known London' firm to sell candy' specially. coloured and medicated with- bacterol, ono of the numerous drugs supposed to counteract Isle of Wight disease.. Many of us object to-the bacterol, and all must object to the price, 4s. Yd. for five pounds post free, or Is. Old. per single pound. In spite of the con- tinued existence of the disease, there is atilt enough chance of success to warrant the present " boom" in beekeeping. (A June swarm here has already made thirty-six pounds of marketable honey.) The State urges " produce more food." Honey is food and a good substitute for sugar. The production of honey helps that of fruit. Never before was it so important to keep our bees alive. Beekeepers and the public beim a right to know why the Govern- ment has confined to one firm the distribution of bee food in the form of drugged candy at nearly twice the market pricy of sugar.—