' The third class of honey is the Stepowey, or the honey from the plains, where there is an abundance of perennial plants, and hardly any wood. The province of Ukraine produces the very best, and also the very best wax. In that province the peasants pay particular attention to this branch of economy, as it is the only resource they have to enable them to defray the taxes levied in Kussia; and they consider the produce of bees equal to ready money: wheat, and other species of corn, being so very fluctuating in price, some years it being of so little value that it is not worth the peasant's trouble to gather it in. This has happened in the Ukraine four times in twelve years. But for honey and wax there is always a great demand all over Europe, and even in Turkey. Some of the peasants have from four to five hundred Ule, or logs of wood, in their bee gardens, which are called Pasieka, or bee-hives; these logs are about six feet high, commonly of birch wood (the bees prefer the birch to any other wood), hollowed out in the middle for about five feet, several lamina of thin boards are nailed before the aperture, and but a small hole left in the middle of one of these for the entrance of the bees. As the bees are often capricious at the beginning of their work, frequently commencing it at the front rather than the back, the peasants cover the aperture with a number of these thin boards, instead of one entire board, for fear of disturbing them, should they have begun their work at the front. It may appear extraordinary, but it is nevertheless true, that in some favourable seasons this aperture of five feet in length, and a foot wide, is full before August, and the peasants are obliged to take the produce long before the usual time, with the view of giving room to the bees to continue their work, so favourable is the harvest some years.
' The bee-gardens are chosen in the plains where the perennial plants are most abundant, that the bees may have but little way to carry home the produce of their labour; they are of a circular form, about 150 yards in diameter, enclosed with a fence of reeds or brush-wood, and a thatching over them of about five feet for protection, and to keep out the rain and snow; this is supported by poles from the inside, and a bank of earth is also thrown up to keep the snow from penetrating there in the winter, In the middle a few fruit trees are planted to break the wind, as also hawthorns, and other underwood, round the enclosure, with the same view. The hives are planted under cover, in the inside, round the fence, and in the winter they are well secured with straw from the frost. The plants for which the bees have a preference are the Thymus serpyllum, Hyssopus officinalis, Cerinthe maculata, and the Pollygonum fagopyrnm.
' The process of brewing mead in Poland is very simple: the proportion is three parts of water to one of honey, and 50 Ib. of mild hops to 160 gallons, which is called a Waar, or a brewing. When the water is boiling, both the honey and hops are thrown into it, and it is kept stirring until it becomes milk warm; it is then put into a large cask, and allowed to ferment for a few days; it is then
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