§ Captain P. Macdonaldasked the Minister of Agriculture whether he is aware of the serious effect on bee-keeping of the use of arsenic when spraying fruit trees, since honey is thereby lost; and whether either the spray can be mixed with some article repellant to bees, or advice given to beekeepers to ensure that bees are kept away from the vicinity of orchards?
Mr. HudsonI am aware of the danger to bees through the use of arsenical sprays on fruit trees, and advice both to beekeepers and to fruit growers as to the precautions which they should adopt is issued by my Department as widely as possible at the appropriate time each year. Experiments are in progress with a view to ascertaining the possibility of incorporating in arsenical sprays a repellant to bees.