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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



THE SEASON IN THE EAST. 



I take the following high-flowing and boast- 

 ful announcements from the bee-papers of the 

 East for June: "Good prospects for a great 

 crop;" " rolling in sweets;" "just rolling in the 

 honey;" "bountiful crops expected;" "bright 

 prospects;" "good honey crop expected;" " bees 

 booming;" "a successful season expected;" 

 " heaviest flow 1 ever saw." Do you expect us, 

 Mr. Editor, to sit here quietly and have such 

 insults thrown across the continent at us — 

 thrown into our very faces? Well, go on. In- 

 scribe them on your banners and your trans- 

 parancies, and go out on your torchlight pro- 

 cessions. >Fe don't care. "Won't we go along?" 

 No, we won't, and we don't torchlight in the 

 same year with you. Besides, we prefer to 

 select our own company. "You didn't say any 

 thing to us." No, but we can take a hint. 

 Every eye is turned on the Pacific Coast. Is 

 there any thing loud in our quiet and dignified 

 contentment? Aren't we as calm as the un- 

 ruffled sea? Have a care how you conduct 

 yourselves on your triumphal marches. Don't 

 reflect on us. Don't say, " I told you so." Don't 

 taunt us. The slumbering fires of our indigna- 

 tion may break forth at any time. We won't 

 be responsible. I wouldn't care, anyway, if 

 you would make a whole lot of bug- juice. I'm 

 just mad. 



APIS DOBSATA NOT UNDESIRABLE. 



their practical, value for the united 

 states; other races of bees. 



By W. K. Morrison. 



The editor of Gleanings is anxious to know 

 something about my way of securing Apis 

 dorsata for the purpose of attempting its do- 

 mestication. In the first place, I hope, for the 

 general good of bee-keeping, that a staid, re- 

 spectable journal like Gleanings will never 

 again make the statement that it did a few 

 weeks ago about Apis dorsata changing the 

 flora of America. Such a statement appears 

 like a sound from the Dark Ages. What ! even 

 the savage would not believe such a statement. 

 Suppose a fruit-grower applies to the Governor 

 of Ohio for protection against the bee-keepers 

 of his State, saying the bees mix up his apples 

 and his strawberries, his pears and his persim- 

 mons, etc. Why, it pains me to discuss such 

 nonsense. Are the readers of this paper aware 

 that there are some 3000 species of bees in ex- 

 istence? These have been working through 

 all the ages, and, so far as we can see, have 

 never changed the flora of any country one iota. 



The honey-bee has been at work in the Unit- 

 ed States some time now, and I fail to see that 

 it has changed one single flower as yet. I 

 know it would stagger the mind of most of 

 your readers to be told how many species of 

 bees there are in the United States. Now. it is 

 to be hoped this sort of thing will be dropped. 

 Talk about Prof. Wiley's lie — this one knocks 

 it completely into the shade. Prof. W. can now 

 poke all the fun he chooses at us. 



Let us discuss a pleasanter subject. Most of 

 your readers who write about Apis dorsata 

 seem to take it for granted that it is the only 

 bee capable of domestication; but this is a 

 mistake, as other species are actually kept by 

 the natives of these eastern countries. We 

 have pretty accurate information of the follow- 

 ing bees: 



Apis Dorsata (natives make a business of its 

 honey). 



Apis Zonata (natives make a business of its 

 honey). 



Apis Indica (kept in hives). 



Apis Bhotan (kept in hives). 



Apis Unicolor (kept in hives). 



Apis Mellifica (the one we cultivate). 



Some bees of Central and South America 

 have been partiallv domesticated. I know I 

 saw notices of a certain species of Trigona as 

 having been imported into the United States, 

 but they were very far removed from the do- 

 mesticated kind. The Trigona of the West 

 Indies has some 1000 bees in a nest, while Mr. 

 Stretch, while at Panama, counted a colony of 

 Melipona with at least 100,000 bees in it. as he 

 says almost countless, their nest occupying 

 several (6) feet of a large hollow tree, and hav- 

 ing large quantities of honey and wax. The 

 bees were like a black cloud. Gardner says In 

 his travels (giving a long list of Melipona), 

 that, in the provinces of Piauhy and Goyaz, he 

 found bees very numerous. In every house 

 they have the honey of these bees. Many spe- 

 cies, he says, build in the hollow of trees, oth- 

 ers in banks; some suspend their nests from 

 branches of trees, while one species makes its 

 nest of clay, the honey of this species being 

 very good. 



Mr. Guerin found one of these nests with six 

 queens {Melipona fulvipes). Bates, no mean 

 observer, brought back from the Amazon 45 

 species of Melipona, mostly new species. 



I know some editors of bee-papers who grave- 

 ly discuss the uses of Trigona and Melipona, 

 and who evidently do not know the meaning of 

 the word " species." I see advertisements in 

 Gleanings like this: "For sale — hybrid bees, 

 $4.00 a hive." Now, friends, this isn't so. No- 

 body has hybrid bees in the United States as 

 yet. Wait till we get Dorsata or Indica here, 

 and there may be a chance to get hybrids. 



One of the most painful reflections about the 

 recent death of the great Langstroth is the 



