LIVE STOCK AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS 345 



French, Belgians and Italians are introducing silk culture into 

 their tropical colonies in a serious manner, and it is to be ex- 

 pected that the production of raw silk will be greatly increased 

 as the result of their efforts. 



BEES 



The Giant East Indian bee (Apis dorsata) occurs generally 

 on the continent of Asia and the adjacent tropical islands, in- 

 cluding the Philippines. This bee builds huge combs often 

 four feet thick and six feet long attached to ledges of rocks 

 or to the branches of trees. Perhaps the smallest species of 

 honey bee is A. florea, a native of the East Indies. This spe- 

 cies builds a comb only three or four inches across. The 

 common bee of southern Asia is A. indica. It is kept for 

 commercial purposes in crude hives in various parts of the 

 East Indies. The brood comb of this species is much smaller 

 than is that of our familiar honey bee. 



The common honey bee, A. mellifica, including the common 

 German, Italian, Cyprian, Egyptian, Carniolan, Tunisian, and 

 other breeds, is found everywhere in the Tropics and escapes 

 by swarming to form nests in trees in other locations. The 

 honey produced in tropical countries is largely used locally, 

 while the wax goes into the world's commerce. Beeswax is 

 an important industry in many parts of the Tropics, as is ap- 

 parent from the fact that French Guinea and Senegal exports 

 about 200,000 pounds of beeswax annually. The United States 

 imports about 1,503,000 pounds of beeswax per year. 



In Hawaii, a considerable development of the bee industry 

 has taken place in recent years. The most important honey 

 plant of the Territory is the algaroba which furnishes two 

 crops of flowers annually. In all of the large forests of 

 algaroba apiaries have been established at intervals so as to 

 utilize the flowers most effectively. From Hawaii about 1,000 

 tons of honey are exported annually and also an excellent, very 



