American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLAKS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. v. 



DECEMiBEBr, lJ*i«0. 



No. 



Attempts at Bee-keeping in India. 



I am indebted to an unknown friend in the 

 great Asiatic peninsula for a copy of a recent 

 number of the Saturday edition of The Indian 

 Daily Netos, from which I extract tlie following 

 interesting article. 



T. W. Woodbury, 

 "A Devonshire Bee-keeper." 

 Mount Radford, Exeter, England. 



Amusements op a Naturali.-t — Bees. 

 Bees that collect honey are found in almost 

 all countries. Aud wherever Englishmen go to 

 make new homes for themselves, if they find 

 there are uonp, or none of the right kind to meet 

 their wishes, they soon manage to get some from 

 home. Bees occupy a very important place in 

 creation, and perform very important functions 

 in rendering fruitful the seed-vessels of vegeta- 

 bles and flowers. In New Zealand, it is said 

 that the Clover taken from home and sown there 

 produced beautiful crops of fodder, but no seed, 

 till the English honey bee was imported. In In- 

 dia there is no lack of honey bees. There are 

 three kinds that are especially interesting. The 

 large bee, that constructs its combs on the boughs 

 of trees, makes a comb about the size of the half 

 of an ordinary carP-wheel. The bee is as large 

 as a hornet, and its sting is fully as poisonous. 

 I began amusing myself with this creature, but I 

 thought it necessary to go about forming an ac- 

 quaintance with it very cautiously. I thought it 

 advisable, first of all, to understand the extent 

 of its ability to produce hurt. 1 could pretty 

 well judge of the extent of its honey- producing 

 capacities from what I had seen of its comb, — 

 3 inches thick near the bough upon which it was 

 built, and indeed at times thicker if the bough 

 were a thick one, and in the thinnest part where 

 the breeding was carried on, fully 2^ inches in 

 thickness. The upper part, that is to 'say, about 

 a depth of 4 inches, was occupied with honey ; 

 and a full-sized comb would be about 3 feet along 

 the bough, that is to say, comb filled with honey, 

 3 feet long and from 4 to 5 inches deep. A goodly 

 quantity of sweet-stuff this, to be bad for the 



I gathering. The best way of gathering is to get 

 ! a quantity of rubbish together, put it under the 

 the hive, or more properly the comb, and set fire 

 I to it in the evening. Bees cannot bear smoke, 

 I and there are most alarming tales told about 

 j travellers having made fires under trees in the 

 j daytime, without first looking up to see if the 

 smoke might be any annoyance to any one up 

 above. I remember an Arab horse-dealer once 

 acting thus imprudently, and almost before his 

 horses were picketed, the infuriated saurungs — 

 I that is t^ie native name — began to sting the 

 I horses, and in the course of ten minutes every 

 i horse fled from the encampment, tearing like 

 ! mad horses, at every point of the compass ; the 

 j syees trying in vain every possible dodge but the 

 right one to escape the infuriated creatures. Two 

 i of the horses that could not escape early enough, 

 I died from the stings they received, and of the 

 , men several were ill for days. I did not know 

 I of the certainty of such cases as this, when I 

 ; sought to make the acquaintance of the saurung 

 I honey bee. The object I had in view was to do- 

 I mesticate them ; and I knew I could not do so 

 unless I could establish a sort of friendship with 

 j them I found a fine large hive near my house, 

 suspended from a large branch on a mangoe 

 tree. My first object was to get hold of one in- 

 dividual bee by itself. I thought it safer to ascer- 

 tain what could be done with one before I at- 

 tempted a number. A marble from a goolail* 

 soon brought down about half-a-dozen, and they 

 were rather at my mercy in that state. I quietly 

 proposed to one, that we should make each oth- 

 er's acquaintance ; he offered no objection, but 

 when I took hold of his wings he protruded his 

 sting. I said, "Exactly so ! what is its value ?" 

 and presented the little finger of my left hand in 

 return. In an instant the bee was under my 

 foot, for with a force which I had not counted 

 upon, the sting was thrust home into my finger. 

 Fortunately it pierced the finger sidewise, and 

 the thickness of the skin had saved me from the 

 full effect of the poison ; but the burning heat it 

 had engendered in my finger, running right up 

 my arm in an instant, quite satisfied me that I 

 had better let well enough alone, and drop their 



Pellet-bow. 



