500 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



July 



roasted before the flre, beaten with rods, pricked 

 and cut with knives, covered with kerosene oil and 

 set on flre— no words can describe the ferocious bru- 

 tality of these idolators. 



The Karen Christians have been most loyal and 

 helpful to the g-overnment, but the officials have 

 been obliged to work with them largely through us 

 missionaries, as wo alone understand the Karens 

 and their language. The Burmese have, of course, 

 been especially hostile to the Karens, because of 

 this loyalty, and iu the flrst few months of the war 

 they did them much harm, burning their chapels 

 and schoolhouses, and destroying their villages. 

 The government, however, soon rr cognized the 

 help they had in the Karens, and organized them 

 into "levies," with arms for general defense— a 

 sort of "home guards." Tbey have done much in 

 putting- down lawlessness. So much has this once 

 "no people" risen in pulilic favor and interest, 

 that an officer, of some experience in the province, 

 has thought them worthy a book, and has recently 

 published one concerning them. 



This war has thus brought to the front the Karen 

 Christian, but it has also, under God's providence, 

 done more. It has taught the many heathen 

 Karens the difference between the God of the 

 Christians and the dumb idols of the Burmans, and 

 they are now moving rapidly toward Christianity in 

 many parts of the province. 



In all our cares of a Christian population of eight 

 or ten thousand, during these troublesome times, 

 our recreation has been the " blessed bees." We 

 have had eleven swarms under study during the 

 year. Observations g-iven you in previous letters 

 concerning the ^2J's Indica have been confirmed. 

 We have been able to overcome the propensity of 

 this bee to abscond, or migrate, at the end of the two 

 breeding seasons, by cutting out all brood comb as 

 soon as the young- beos have hatched out. It would 

 appear that this bee migrates only on account of 

 the moth; for where the moth can not reach the 

 comb the bees almost always remain; yet even then 

 they bite down the old comb, after using it for 

 breeding purposes two or threte times. I have kept 

 one swarm two years, and several a year, by thus 

 cutting out all dark comb at the end of the breed- 

 ing season. 



Etforts to import European bees into this country 

 have not been successful. Mr. Douglas, of Calcut- 

 ta, left England early in the year on his return to 

 India, with 30 stocks of Italians, and reached Cal- 

 cutta with only two alive. Shortly after reaching 

 India Mr. Douglas was taken ill of cholera, and died. 

 So has passed away perhaps the only skilled bee- 

 keeper in all India. He was indefatigable in his 

 etforts to introduce the European bee into this 

 vast country. 



This is a good year tor A. Dorsata. Swarms of 

 this bee have returned in large numbers, and those 

 Karen villages domesticating- this bee have large 

 yields of honey. One village near here expects to 

 gather about thirty barrels as its harvest of sweets. 



At the time of writing, I am in camp on a lone 

 mountain in an old forest. A short distance from 

 my camp stands a gigantic wood-oil, or dammer- 

 oil tree. It is nearly four feet in diameter, and runs 

 up nearly one hundred feet without a limb, as 

 straight as a candle; then the limbs branch otf in a 

 nearly horizontal jiosition, and under these the A. 

 Dorsata have their brood-combs. A dozen or more, 

 from two to three cubits in length, are seen. What 



a roar of humming wing-s you hear as these bees 

 hasten to and fro with their loads of sweets! 



Extracted honey is selling here at about 50 cts. 

 pei-"pound. Section honey! Ah! I wish you bee-folks 

 could have this market for a while. I have succeed- 

 ed in teaching my little A. 7. swarms to put honey 

 in sections, by giving them all the honev they can 

 store away; but the honey thus stored is dark and 

 thick, though the combs are beautifully white. 

 This section honey is very ditterent from my re- 

 membrance of home honey. A. Bunkeh. 



Toungoo, Burmah, April 30, 188T. 



Friend B.. I suppose we are to understand 

 that the Apis dorsata lias, then, been really 

 domesticated by the natives. Now, if you 

 have told us how they domesticate them, I 

 do not remember to "have noticed it. Do 

 you mean the colonies hanging on those 

 great trees 100 feet to the first limbs? In 

 that case they may be domesticated, but I 

 should think the domestication was pretty 

 high up. Have they ever been brought 

 down to the ground, and made to work in 

 hives, and can it be done? Why in the 

 world do your people hold honey at 50 cts. 

 per Ib.r' It seems to me that, with only a 

 moderate pasturage, bee-keeping would pay 

 wonderfully at these figures. Why, we 

 could almost ship our nice section honey to 

 you, if we could be sure of getting any tiling 

 like the above price. You say one village 

 expects to have about ;^0 barrels. Well, if 

 those oO barrels is to be Ai)is-dorsata honey, 

 that is another big fact. By the way, if we 

 had a barrel here that we eoiild declare pos- 

 itively was gathered by the Apis dorsata, I 

 do not know but that ive could get 60 cts. a 

 pound. We coitld for a limited quantity, 

 any way. 



DO BEES EAT GRAPES? 



SOME OUlGtNAL FACTS FHOM FKIEND nOOIjITTLiE 

 IN REGARD TO THE MATTER. 



'E clip the following from the Rural 

 New-Yorker of June 11 : 



Much discussion has taken place of late 

 in the bee-papers and elsewhere relative to 

 bees eating grapes, the bee-keepers insist- 

 ing that bees do not attack sound grapes, 

 some going so far as to claim that it is impossible 

 for the bee, on account of the construction of its 

 mouth, to bite into a sound grape, while many 

 grape-growers claim that bees do bite into and de- 

 vour sound grapes. In this the latter are upheld 

 by the late decision in California, by a .jury who 

 decided against the bees in that " bees and grapes " 

 lawsuit. However, as this case has been appealed 

 by the bee-keepers, it may be decided difl'erently at 

 the next trial, when the necessary proof is fully 

 brought in. I am not among the number who 

 claim that a bee can not bite into a sound grape, 

 for I see no reason why an insect which can so 

 gnaw as to enlarge the entrance to its hive made of 

 solid wood, or bite holes through cotton cloth and 

 other fabrics, could not do so if it were intent on 

 such a procedure; but I do claim that the bee nev- 

 er does bite into a sound grape, for the simple rea- 

 son that it was never made to bite into even the 

 most delicate flower to get sweets, and that all open- 

 ings made in grapes, peaches, pears, and plums, 

 can be traced to other sources. 



Among the beehives in my apiary are many 

 choice varieties of grapes which were never work- 

 ed upon by the bees to any extent until last season, 

 at which time the vines of certain kinds were liter- 

 ally swarming with bees. The kinds most injured 

 were the Lady and Belinda among- the white; the 

 Salem and Agawani among the red, and the Worden 

 among the black. On a careful examination, I 



