232 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[September i, 1882, 



with a stick cut away the bees as they haug and 

 they all fall down in a mass, when by pulling the tape 

 of the pyjamas the top is closed and there you have 

 them a buzzing seething hot mass of life. Having 

 reached the bungalow they were let out of captivity 

 into the hive by one of the legs, when they all settled 

 in a mass on one of the frames. 



The barabara are very handsome, with a golden 

 body, and are much larger than tlie British bee. 

 But it seems impossible to domesticate them : they 

 object to a box, strongly (ireftrriug to bang from a big 

 roek, generally a cliff under a liglit shade of hang- 

 ing vegetation or from the branch of a big tree. * 

 At least I found it so with the five different swarms 

 I took. Some I kept quiet for a week, feeding them with 

 honey, which they always ate too much of, making them- 

 selves very drunk, from the effects of which most of them 

 died. Others were fed in the same manner that English 

 bees are fed in winter, but with no other result than 

 that whilst the dull weather lasted they would fly in 

 and out of the hive as if they meant to remain, but with 

 the first bright sunny day they one and all cleared 

 out in about five minutes. 



Failing to get honey by domestication Iselto«ork 

 to procure it from the cUfl's : an easy matter when you 

 know how. It is done in this way: — Collect a small 

 bundle of dried sticks and bind these together 

 with jungle creeper and then eurround the bundle 

 with small green branches ; set fire to tho sticks ; 

 when the branches give out a dense smoke wave 

 this under the bees ; when they fly away from the 

 emoke this movement should be hastened with the 

 hand by brushing off those that are lazy, and when they 

 are all gone cut away the combwith-a knife and make 

 "tracks.'' It is as well to have some one at hand to 

 help when the knife is wanted, and to hold a dish or 

 pail for the honey when taktn. The bees buzz around 

 the smoke but won't come within it. 



The larger the swarm, the bigger the comb. The 

 average comb is about 1 foot to ih foot broad x li foot 

 to 2 feet deep, banging down in a half-moon shape. 

 At the top, where the comb fixes on to the support, 

 the cells are as deep as a Bryant & Slay match is long, 

 and full of very tasty honey. The honey cells 

 occupy the top part of comb for about a space 

 of 6 to 8 inches, the cells gradually taper- 

 ing down from the above dimensions to the smaller 

 size of ^ an inch, when they reach tlie hone}' limit of S 

 inches : then the cells for the young bees appear to the 

 length of another 10 inches. There lieing 16 cells to 

 the square inch, and two rows of cells each side of the 

 midrib of a comb, I calculate that there would be 

 about 0,000 young bees within, and about the same 

 number of old ones without. 



In .all the combs that were taken no queen bee's ceil 

 was found, and I have never seen a bambara queen bee 

 amongst the swarms that were taken, although I have 

 found three and four queen bee cells in one comb of 

 the apis iiidka. Can it be that the bambara have no 

 queen bee ? 



The Sinhalese have an idea that bambara bees gather 

 the honey when there is no moon at niglit, and eat it at 

 the period of the month when the moon is full. This 

 idea must have been taken from Dr, Watts' rhyme : — 

 "How doth" &c. ! 



The nilu being finished there was not a bambara 

 to be found: they all iiew away to the north or north- 

 east, but to where could it be, to India? Many Sinha- 

 lese keep aph r/idica in chatties over their huts. 

 They are iilso found inside hollow trees and clefts of 

 rocks but they are a very mild bee compared with the 

 bambara, that can be fierce at times, t A story is told 



* In India their habits are the same. — En. 



t As poor Mr. Benton found to his cost : by-the-bye 

 has "Honeydew " read Mr. Benton's letters on this sub- 

 ject in our columns? — ^Ed. 



that a planter was chased through a new clearing by a 

 swarm and only escaped by going to bed and pulling 

 down the mosquito curtain. The wax is of a beautiful 

 whiteness,— Yours, HONEYDEW. 



NUTMEGS. 



Dear Sie, — Any one experienced in the cultivation 

 of nutmegs will, I daresay, be able to explam the reason 

 why some trees only blossom and do not set at all. 

 I have twenty-six trees, all but ten bearing : the latter 

 blossom magnificently and never set. 



They are somewhat closely jilanted, or rather the 

 spreadmg branches touch each other and I believe 

 they are about 10 feet apart, and I would be thankful 

 to any one who will let me know if by any artificial 

 means these ten trees could be made to bear. — Y'ours 

 faithfully, MALIGAKANDA. 



THE CORK TREE. 

 Deae Sir, — The corls oak grows readily enough as 

 low as SOO feet above the sea in some parts of Portu- 

 gal. The bark is taken about once in II years. 

 If you out any cork longitudinally you can see cer- 

 tain cross marks or divisions, each division represents 

 the growth of a year. No ti-ouble is taken in the 

 cultivation and the cost of nurseries is trifling. I 

 should think that the climate up-country generally, 

 would be too wet for tlie cork oak, but of course that 

 can be only seen from experience. — Yours truly. 



R. I. P. 



CINCHONA OFFICINALIS: THE OTHER SIDE 

 OF THE PICTURE. 



Bogawantalawa, 20th July 1.^82. 



Dear Sir, — I am sorry I cannot agree with "Hybrid" 

 in your issue of IStb, if he implies that olJicinalis 

 cinchona hai found its zone throughout this district. 



In my humble opinion a large sum of money has 

 been sacrificed in convincing us that officinalis is too 

 uncertain to warr^mt its cultivation here, and 1 regret 

 having been misled by tlie promising appearance of 

 plants one and two years old. It is possible that Loinorn 

 and the estates adjoining enjoy exceptional soil and 

 climate but with the experience 1 have had, I fail 

 to see why we should not stick to succirubra and 

 hybrid, the growth, analysis and certainty of which place 

 them in advance of any other variety we have tried. 



The existence of a fine old officinalis tree, here and 

 there, or even of a group of trees, is anything but 

 conclusive evidence in favour of "Hybrid"'s opinion Let 

 him enquire what percentage of officinalis plants can fiiUy 

 put out has failed in Bogawantalawa and Uilioya, 

 smce 1869, and I think he will change bis opinion! — 

 Y'ours truly, V. A. 



THE TEA ENTERPRIZE IN CEYLON : 5 YEARS' 



OLD TEA YIELDING OVER 6 MAUNDS PER 



ACRE IN AiMBAGAMUWA. 



Colombo, 22nd July 1882. 



Deak Slit,— In your issue of the 8th instant wherein 



reference is made to the lea on Gullebodde estate, it is 



stated that the estimate for coming year is SJ maunds 



per acre ; probably your correspondent has mixed up 



the coming season with results already obtained, and 



we therefore append a meniorandum of the yield from 



the beginning, which should afl'ord encouragement to 



all engaged in the enlerprize. For the coming season 



we hope to again exceed 6 maunds per acre. — Yours 



faithfully, MACKWOOD & CO. 



Planted June to August IS77. per acre. 



Y'ield for 12 months ending 30th June 1880 = 98 lb'. 



„ „ 30th June IS8I = 392 lb. 



>i „ 30th June IS82 = 530 lb. 



