One of the forest products of Poland, which at one time was in great demand, is honey. Of Polish honey there are three varieties. In regard to these the following information was supplied by Mr Hove to Sir John Sinclair: —
' Honey, another rural production, respecting which you are anxious to procure information, is in Poland divided into three classes, namely Lipiec, Leszny, and Stepowey prasznymird,
'Lipiec is gathered by the bees from the lime-tree alone, and is considered on the Continent most valuable, not only for the superiority of its flavour, but also for the estimation in which it is held as an arcanum, in pulmonary complaints, containing very little wax, and being consequently less heating in its nature; it is as white as milk, and is only to be met with in the lime forests in the neighbourhood of the town of Kovno, in Lithuana. The great demand for this honey occasions it to bear a high price, in so much that I have known a small barrel, containing hardly one pound weight, sell for two ducats on the spot. This species of the lime-tree is peculiar to the province of Lithuania; it is quite different from all the rest of the genus Tila that I met with in my researches in Poland, and is called Kamienna Lipa, or stonelime. It is a stately tree, and grows in the shape of a pyramid; the leaves are very small, and the twigs uncommonly slender; it flowers in the months of June and July; the flowers are very minute, but more abun-
* An estate belonging to Count Palatine de Cetner.
dant than in any other species. In the Polish language, the month of June, which is also called Lipiec, derives its name from the flowering of this tree, as the month of July derives its name from the Cocus polonicus, called by the Poles Czerwiee, in which month the ova are gathered. The inhabitants have no regular bee-hives about Kovno; every peasant who is desirous of rearing bees goes into a forest in a district belonging to his master, without even his leave, makes a longitudinal hollow aperture or apertures in the trunk of a tree, or in the collateral branches, about three feet in length, one foot broad, and about a foot deep, where he deposits his bees, leaves them some food, but pays very little further attention to them until late in the autumn; when, after cutting out some of their honey, and leaving some for their maintenance, he secures the aperture properly with clay and straw against the frost and inclemency of the approaching season; these tenements (if they may be so called), with their inhabitants, and the produce of their labour, have then become his indisputable property; he may sell them, transfer them; in short, he may do whatever he pleases with them; and never is it heard that any depredation is committed on them (that by the bear excepted.) In Poland the laws are particularly severe against robbers or destroyers of this property, punishing the offender, when detected, by cutting out the navel, and drawing out his intestines round and round the very tree which he has robbed. Such thefts have happened, but not in my memory.
* The following spring the proprietor goes again to the forest, examines the bees, and ascertains whether there is sufficient food left till they are able to maintain themselves; should there not be a sufficient quantity he deposits with them as much as he judges necessary till the spring-blossom appears. If he observes that his stock has not decreased by mortality he makes more of these apertures in the lateral branches, or in the trunk of the tree, that in case the bees should swarm in his absence they may have a ready asylum. In the autumn
AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 57
he visits them again, carries the June and July work away with him, which is the Lipiec, and leaves only that part for their food which was gathered by them before, and after the flowering of the lime-tree. I have not the least doubt, that if this species of the lime-tree were introduced, and attention paid to them, honey equally excellent and valuable might be produced in this country. The mead made from this honey is excellent, it is sold at Kovno, Grodno, and Vilna, at the rate of £8 the dozen.
' The next class of honey, which is inferior in a great degree to the Lipiec, being only used for the common mead, is that of the pine forests, the inhabitants of which make apertures in the pine-trees similar to those near Kovno, and pay the same attention in regard to the security of the bees, and their maintenance. The wax also is much inferior in quality; it requires more trouble in the bleaching, and is only made use of in the churches.