34 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



mesticate them if possible in some of our 

 soutliein forests. As the drones of the 

 new race are not much larger than the 

 drones of our common varieties, it is 

 hoped that there will be no difficulty in 

 crossing the races As you mention in 

 the Apiculturist for this month (Janu- 

 ary), Mr. Frank Benton is to go to India 

 as the Government agent to investigate 

 the merits of the race called Apis dor- 

 sata, which I presume is the same that I 

 have mentioned. Among the natives of 

 India these bees are reputed to have a 

 very fierce disposition. It is said that 

 the bees sometimes attack the people in 

 the villages and in some cases with fatal 

 results. It may be that these reports 

 are exaggerated, but at any rate it is 

 certain that the natives in some way 

 succeed in securing enormous quantides 

 of comb and many tons of wax are an- 

 nually exported. The bees are said to 

 build combs "as large as an ordinary 

 door" according to one writer. These 

 combs are built on the branches of trees 

 in the forests and some of the natives 

 of the country make a business ot col- 

 lecting the wax for market. In climb- 

 ing the trees these natives wear no cloth- 

 ing but they drive the bees away from 

 the combs and at the same time protect 

 themselves from attack by holding un- 

 der the combs a bunch of burning leaves 

 fastened to the end of a stick. By this 

 means the bees are driven away and 

 hover in the air over the comb and the 

 comb is quickly cut out and lowered to 

 the ground by a rope. 



All beekeepers will wait with interest 

 to hear the report which Mr. Benton 

 brings concerning these bees, as nothing 

 is now known except from hearsay re- 

 ports, and we regret that we must wait 

 until after the World's fair in 1893, be- 

 fore he can start for India. 



J. Edward Giles. 

 Neio York, N. V. 



C. C. Eddy, under date of Jan. 15, 

 writes : 'T have taken all the bee- papers 

 and find the Api always gives me reliable 

 information." 



A FABLE OF THE WISE (?) MAN 

 AND HIS BEES. 



The wise (?) man informs the pub- 

 lic that this has been an "off year," 

 politically and otherwise, and that he 

 nuist confess that when he was on the 

 point of exclaiming "Eureka," he found 

 that //is method that was a success last 

 year was of no avail this season. 



He thought -he could regulate swarm- 

 ing by giving /lis bees plenty of room 

 and sections partly filled with honey, 

 but they just swarmed and swarmed and 

 continued to swarm till he became dis- 

 gusted and left them to their fate. A 

 handful or two late in the season would 

 leave empty hives and fly aimlessly 

 away. Many swarms were picked up 

 on the prairie in different localities in 

 the county ; as to where they were go- 

 ing or where they came from, no one 

 ventured an opinion. What caused 

 them to act so rashly. Dr. Miller? 



It he were to ask the 300,000 pur- 

 ported beekeepers in this country the 

 cause therefor, he would no doubt re- 

 ceive 300,000 solutions to his query. 

 In this connection he would ^ay that he 

 considers Dr. Miller the best authority 

 in the world on all mooted questions per- 

 taining to apiculture. His laconic 'T 

 do not know" will go thundering down 

 the ages and all along the line of the 

 300,000 (more or less) beekeepers, and 

 mike him f^imous, whether he will or 

 not. 



IV/ia can truthfully say "I do know 

 for a certainty all about bees?" 



What we i/ii//k we know about them 

 to-day, may be upset to morrow for so of- 

 ten the peculiar actions of the busy lit- 

 tle rustlers for humanity are past find- 

 ing out. Still there is a fascination in 

 and around an apiary, in spite of the 

 frequent failures that we cannot pre- 

 vent and are in no manner responsible 

 for. 



- He is inclined to try his luck another 

 year, and still as anxious to learn or be 

 taught something about bees and their 

 idiosyncrasies as when he bought his 



