combine the good qualities of the Nothern 

 breeds with those of the Southern varieties. 

 An effort is being made, to Jearn more about 

 them. 



APIS INDICA AND APIS DORSATA. 



Apis indiea is found in India, Ceylon, 

 Malacca, Java, Borneo, Banca, Celebes, 

 Timo, Floris and Sumatra. It is smaller 

 and weaker than our common bees, and its 

 honey is not as good as that of Apis dor- 

 sata, which is said to be very fine. 



Apis dorsata is a native of India, Ma- 

 lacca, Borneo, Timor, Floris, Java, Sumatra 

 and Ceylon. It is most abundant on the 

 Island of Timor. This bee is about twice 

 the size of our common bees, and could 

 doubtless gather honey from red clover as 

 well as from many other plants. The only 

 man who has said that they were not suit- 

 able for domestication, is Rykens, who was 

 paid a round sum by the Dutch government 

 to import Italian and Cyprian bees to Java. 

 Even supposing they do build their combs 

 in a horizontal instead of a perpendicular 

 manner, cannot Yankee ingenuity adapt 

 hives to their habits ? 



I would call the especial attention of all 

 to article on Apis dorsata, which can be 

 be found in the American Bee Journal, 

 for December, 1877, January, February and 

 December, 1878. The latter is by our honored 

 master in bee culture, L. L. Langstroth. 

 Mr. L., says: "Will our American bee- 

 keepers raise a fund and obtain the services 

 of some bee-keeper, not too old, strong, wise, 

 and of indomitable energy, to test this mat- 

 ter ?" And again he says : " instead of so 

 much theory and talk, let us get to practical 

 work." Let the bee-keepers of Michigan 

 sustain their reputation for progressiveness, 

 by taking the initiatory step, and, if possi- 

 ble, the lead in the actual execution of this 

 work ! 



APIS ZONATA 



is a native of the Philippine and Celebes 

 Islands. This is called a "beautiful and 

 strong bee, quite black, except that the 

 bases of the third and fourth "segments are 

 edged with a small white line." Chancellor 

 Cori thought when he wrote about Apis 

 dorsata, that it was exceeded in size by no 

 other honey bee, but a later authority — one 

 who has seen both Apis dorsata and Apis 

 zonata, gives additional information which 

 leads to the belief that Apis zonata is the 

 largest honexi bee of the World ! 

 Detroit, Mich., Nov. 30, 1878. 



Read before the Michigan State Convention. 



Mustard as a Honey Plant. 



BY FISK BANGS. 



Bee-keeping has advanced to that degree 

 of success, and bees have become so 

 numerous.throughout the country, that, it 

 will soon become necessary for us, as bee- 

 keepers, to look to something besides the 

 pastures that nature has supplied. 



The most important object to be attained 

 in the selection of plants are those that 

 secrete the best and most honey ; those that 

 will not only secrete honey, but also, can be 



utilized in the feeding of stock ; thus, mak- 

 ing the bees produce a profit from the nectar, 

 and the cattle by laying on the fat. 



In Vol. X11L, No. 6, page 188 of the 

 American Bee Journal, we find the fol- 

 lowing: "Perhaps one of the best honey 

 producing plants is tall Chinese mustard. It 

 remains in bloom a very long time, seems to 

 yield honey continuously; is equally vigo- 

 rous to resist drought, or wet, and flourishes 

 in all soils. It may be sown any time from 

 May 1st to the middle of June, the earlier 

 the better. It will seed itself— its greatest 

 drawback. Yet it is far less troublesome 

 than the common mustard. It should be 

 planted in drills one foot apart, for easy cul- 

 tivation. An ounce will plant one rod by 

 four." 



To test its qualities and have no "perhaps" 

 in the question, I planted two acres and a 

 half of this "tall Chinese mustard," or 

 what is generally known as black mustard. 

 It was sown the first day of June, rather 

 late in the season. The weather being dry 

 it took longer for it to get a fair start, and 

 when fairly under way, it was very irregular 

 in growth. 1 wanted it for use by the mid- 

 dle of July and from that time on. But I 

 missed my calculation and it did not come 

 into bloom until the middle of August or 

 just before the mass of buckwheat. It then 

 bloomed until the setting in of cold weather. 

 The first frosts of the season seem to have 

 no effect upon it, and every morning it was 

 covered with bees until noon, and then they 

 would depart for other fields of labor. If 

 sown about the middle of May, it will come 

 into bloom the middle of July, and will last 

 until buckwheat. Just the time when there 

 is a cessation in the honey gathering and 

 the bees a;e idle. As stated before, it 

 should be sown in drills a footormore apart 

 for easy cultivation, for if sown broad-cast, 

 it will be held in check by the weeds ; but, 

 when once it gets fairly under way, weeds 

 nor anything else can check it. It would be 

 a good plant to sow for the extermination of 

 weeds. It should be well cultivated in its 

 earlier stages. 



The honey produced by mustard, is of a 

 bright golden yellow ; it is very mild and 

 pleasant to the taste, not producing the 

 strangling sensation as that of basswood, 

 and is entirely different from that of white 

 clover. Dr. Kedzie says "it is the best 

 honey he ever tasted." That is the verdict 

 of all who have tasted it. In the market, 

 those customers who have once had some, 

 invariably want more. 



Now, granting that mustard is a grand 

 honey producing plant, will it be safe for us 

 to sow a plant that has such a reputation 

 as mustard ? I answer this only from my 

 own experience and observations. At the 

 Agricultural College, for several years "tall 

 Chinese mustard," has been sown for bees, 

 in large beds, in a different place from that 

 of former years. It seeded itself every fall 

 and the following spring it would come up 

 very thick, but as these plots were cultivated 

 afterwards, for other plants, the mustard 

 disappeared. It has never been troublesome 

 there as a weed, though some persons talked 

 about its beiDg such a bad weed, when first 

 sown. Their predictions proved untrue. 

 The plant grows from 4 to 7 feet high, and 



