Writing about England, Weston states:
Our Honey is the best; in the world, and Wax a staple commodity. That cold country Muscovy, not comparable to ours, has far greater quantity than we have. It’s incredible what quantity is found in the woods, if the story of the man be true, who fell up to the ears in honey, and had there perished, had not a bear, on which he caught hold, pulled him out. I have enquir’d, how it comes to pass that there is so great store of honey in Muscovy, considering the winters are extream cold, and also very long ; and I am credibly inform’d, first, the spring when it begins, comes extraordinary fast, that the days are very long, and the summer far dryer than ours in England, so that the Bees are not hindered by continual showers, as they are some years in this isle : and lastly, that the country abounds much with Firs and Pine-trees, which the inhabitants usually cut, that the gum, rosinous, or turpentine substance may sweat forth, to which places the Bees come, and presently fill themselves, and return laden. And perhaps for these very reasons Bees thrive very much in New England.
– RICHARD WESTON, (1742). A Treatise Concerning the Husbandry and Natural History of England.
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