_»*!?_•. 



^^ "^^ ^^^ "^^ir^lr^pilK; 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



vol. xvn. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MARCH 30, 1881. 



No. 13. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor ani» Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION I 



WEEKLY— (5? numbers) $3.00 a year, in advance. 



Three or Six Months at the same rate. 

 SEMI-MONTHLY- The 8rst and third numbers of 



each month, at Sl.O© a year, in advance. 

 MONTHLY— The first number of each month, at 



.»<; cent* a year, in advance. 



tW Any person sending a Club of six is entitled 

 loan extra copy i like the club) which may be sent to 

 any address desired. Sample copies furnished free. 



XW Kemit by money-order, registered letter, ex- 

 press or bant draft on Chicago or New York, payable 

 to our order. Such only are at our risk. Checks on 

 local banks cost us 25 cents for collecting. 



Free of postage in the United States or Canada. 

 Postage to Europe GO ceots extra. 



SnUred at Chicago post office as second class matter. 



Bee-Keeping in Ceylon. 



We acknowledge, with thanks, the 

 receipt of two copies of the Ceylon 06- 

 sercer, from J. Matthew Jones, Esq., of 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia, who kindly sent 

 them to us after having received them 

 from a friend in that far-off island. 

 They contain articles on the bees of 

 Ceylon. In one of them the editor re- 

 marks as follows : 



We are much indebted to our visitor, 

 Mr. Frank Benton from the United 

 States, for calling public attention in so 

 interesting and practical a manner to a 

 subject which has been too long neg- 

 lected in Ceylon It is far from cred- 

 itable to the natives of Ceylon and other 

 comparatively permanent residents in 

 the island that no systematic attempts 

 have been made to utilize the honey- 

 making bees so common in our forests. 

 Mr. Benton has formed a very high 

 opinion of the small island bee {Apis! 

 Indica) and it is purely from his inter- 

 est as an apiarist that he has come for- 

 ward to remind us of the value of a to- 

 tally neglected industry. Cyprus, at | 

 this moment, has over 30,000 bee-hives 

 in full operation, and official tradition J 

 has it that the number once exceeded ' 

 200,000. Mr. Benton is evidently of 

 opinion that if the Sinhalese villagers 

 as well as town residents took up the 

 business with good will and intelligence, 

 the " spicy island " could very soon be- 

 come no mean rival to the classical is- 

 land of Asia Minor. Be this as it may, 

 we trust the subject will not be lost 

 sight of by our Government Agents and 

 their subordinate headmen. Our low- 

 country rural population wants an offi- 

 cial leading,and tiiis could come through 

 the village headmen or the village 

 school-master, or both, if only the hint 

 were given through superior authority. 

 At the same time simple instructions as 



to the best mode of bee-keeping and 

 honey-harvesting ought to be printed 

 and circulated in the vernacular. Some 

 years ago attention was called to the 

 subject of "bee-keeping in Ceylon" 

 in the columns of the Observer, but we 

 cannot recall the date of the communi- 

 cation. Meantime as of interestin con- 

 nection with Mr. Benton's paper we re- 

 publish all that appears in Tennent's 

 "Natural History of Ceylon" on the 

 subject of bees : 



Bees. — Bees of several species and gen- 

 era, some unprovided with stings, and 

 some in size scarcely exceeding a house- 

 fly deposit their honey in hollow trees 

 or suspend their combs from a branch. 

 The spoils of their industry form one of 

 the chief resources of the uncivilized 

 Veddahs, who collect the wax in the up- 

 land forests, to be bartered for arrow 

 points and clothes in the lowlands. 



A gentleman connected with the de- 

 partment of the Surveyor General (Mr. 

 \V. Ferguson) writes to me that he 

 measured a honey comb which he found 

 fastened to the overhanging branch of 

 a small tree in the forest near Adam's 

 Peak, and found it 9 links of his chain 

 or about 6 feet in length and a foot in 

 breadth where it was attached to the 

 blanch, but tapering towards the other 

 extremity. " It was a single comb with 

 a layer of cells on either side, but so 

 weighty that it broke the branch." 



I have never heard of an instance o f 

 persons being attacked by the bees of 

 Ceylon, and hence the natives assert, 

 that those most productive of honey are 

 destitute of stings. 



The Carpenter Bee. — The operation of 

 the most interesting of the tribe, the 

 Carpenter Bee, I have watched with 

 admiration from the window of the Co- 

 lonial Secretary's official residence at 

 Kandy. So soon as the day grew warm, 

 these active creatures were at work per- 

 forating the wooden columns which 

 supported the verandah. They poised 

 themselves on their shining purple 

 wing, as they made the first lodgement 

 in the wood", enlivening the wood with 

 an uninterrupted hum of delight which 

 was audible to a consierable distance. 

 When the excavation had proceeded so 

 far that the insect could descend into it 

 the music was suspended, but renewed 

 from time to time, as the little creature 

 came to the orifice to throw out the 

 chips, to rest, or to enjoy the fresh air. 

 By degrees a mound of sawdust was 

 formed at the base of the pillar consist- 

 ing of particles abraded by the mandi- 

 bles of the bee. These when the hollow 

 was completed to the depth of several 

 inches, were partially replaced in the 

 excavation after being agglutinated to 

 form partitions between the eggs, as 

 they were deposited within. The man- 

 dibles of these bees are admirably 

 formed for the purpose of working out 

 the tunnels required, being short, stout, 

 and usually furnished at the tip with 2 

 teeth which are rounded somewhat into 

 the form of cheese-cutters. These, 

 when brought into operation, cut out 

 the wood in the same way as a carpen- 

 ter's double gouge, the teeth being more 

 or less hollowed out within. The fe- 

 male alone is furnished with these pow- 

 erful instruments. In the males the 

 mandibles are slender as compared with 

 those of the females. The bores of some 

 of these are described as being from 12 

 to 14 inches in length. 



Mr. Benton "s paper is as follows :— 



The Introduction of Bee-Cnltnre into the 

 Island of Ceylon. 



During a short stay in Ceylon, I have 

 made diligent inquiry in this part of the 

 Island regarding the honey bee found 

 here and have also endeavored to learn 

 whether any bees were kept in hives or 

 not. In the vicinity of Galle, I found 

 no bees, except the wild bees in the 

 jungle. When asked why they did not 

 keep bees, the natives invariably re- 

 plied : " It is too much trouble." But 

 I do not think they know how to man- 

 age these insects. I was told that in the 

 interior, bees were kept in earthen pots 

 or jugs, a statement which was, how- 

 ever, contradicted by most persons with 

 whom I talked. 



There is no reason why a region so 

 productive as the Island of Ceylon, and 

 so well adapted in every way to the 

 raising of bees, should not yield annu- 

 ally honey and wax to the value of many 

 thousand pounds sterling. In the 

 United States of America, this indus- 

 try is still in its infancy, improved 

 methods in bee-culture not having ob- 

 tained in all parts and the " field not 

 being one-tenth occupied ; yet the an- 

 nual honey and wax product of that 

 country exceeds 1,000,000 pounds ster- 

 ling, and tons of pure nectar are yearly 

 shipped to Europe, much of it being 

 sold in English markets at 4J<>d to 6d 

 per lb. One weekly publication and (> 

 monthlies are devoted to bee-culture in 

 America. Those familiar with the con- 

 dition of agriculture in Great Britain 

 and Ireland admit that the industry is 

 sadly neglected, yet movable comb bee 

 hives with improved methods are gain- 

 ing ground, and England has one jour- 

 nal devoted to the interests of apiarists. 

 About a year ago I came to the Island 

 of Cyprus, mainly for the purpose of 

 rearing and sending to European coun- 

 tries and to America queen bees of the 

 highly valuable race found on that ig- 

 land. Among the Greek and Turkish 

 peasants of Cyprus I found a system of 

 bee-keeping which, though far behind 

 the modern approved methods, is still 

 superior to the cruel plan yet followed 

 largely in many of the countries of 

 Europe, notably in France, and even in 

 England, namely : the barbarous prac- 

 tice of brimstoning the bees to obtain 

 their honey. The native bee-owners 

 in Cyprus place the bees in clay cylin- 

 ders, some of which are baked, others 

 sun-dried, and these are then piled up 

 and covered with a roof or embedded in 

 the walls of the houses. The cylinders, 

 which are about one yard long and 8 or 

 10 inches in diameter, have their ends 

 closed by stone disks plastered in with 

 clay, a small entrance hole being left 

 the bees at the front end. When the 

 time for taking the honey arrives the 

 peasant bee-keeper removes the rear 

 disk and having smoked the bees from 

 the rear combs, cuts out a portion of the 

 latter, leaving the bees, however, some 

 combs of honey for their subsistence 

 until the next gathering season arrives. 

 According to the books of the Collector 

 of Tithes the number of hives of bees 

 kept in Cyprus in 1878 was 32,432, and 

 the sales of honey and wax was no in- 

 considerable item to the peasant own- 

 ers of bees. 



If that poor barren Island, Cyprus, 

 successfully robbed by various govern- 



ments and rulers, and for more thaa 

 300 years under Turkish misrule, could 

 constantly derive benefit through the 

 culture of bees, surely Ceylon, under 

 fostering Britain's care, can show a re- 

 sult a hundred-fold greater. That Cy- 

 prus in its flourishing days, before it 

 was so nearly stripped of its forests, 

 yielded much better results in this di- 

 rection is shown by the figures given 

 me by the officer mentioned above, who 

 stated that there formerly existed on 

 the island 200,000 hives of bees. In the 

 scattering of pollen from flower to 

 flower and consequent complete fertili- 

 zation of the blossoms insuring a larger 

 yield of fruits or seeds, the bees play 

 no unimportant part. Here then is an 

 industry that should go hand in hand 

 with fruit growing, coffee planting, cot- 

 ton raising, etc., and should add to the 

 wealth of Ceylon by putting into a mar- 

 ketable form the nectar which now 

 " wastes its sweetness on the desert 

 air." 



The Dutch Government seeing the 

 advantages likely to accrue through the 

 cultivation of bees in Java, sent to that 

 possession several years ago a native of 

 Holland, commissioning him to trans- 

 port from Europe colonies of the Ital- 

 ian and Cyprian bees, and to superin- 

 tend their introduction into that island. 

 If this undertaking had not been suc- 

 cessful, it is only because the govern- 

 ment referred to was so unfortunate as 

 to have selected for the work a man 

 lacking the necessary practical experi- 

 ence and qualifications. The undertak- 

 ing, however, has by no means be"en re- 

 linquished, and I feel safe in predicting 

 that living colonies of the species Apti 

 vielifica will soon be landed in Java, 

 having myself brought safely as far as 

 Ceylon, 17 colonies ot Cyprian and Holy 

 Land bees, which are to be taken to 

 that island. 



For the Island of Ceylon, the rude 

 method of keeping bees practiced in 

 Cyprus and the adjacent Mediterranean 

 countries would be preferable to no 

 bee-culture at all, yet as wood here is 

 abundant, hollow logs might be sawed 

 into suitable lengths, a board nailed 

 over the end for a cover, and the hive 

 thus formed placed upon its open end 

 upon a stand a few inches from the 

 ground. Au auger hole bored through 

 the board cover would let them euter a 

 box placed over it, and there deposit 

 surplus honey. When tilled, or at the 

 end of the honey season, the box can be 

 removed without disturbing the bees 

 in the body part of the hive. Or, boxes 

 of about 2,000 inches capacity can be 

 treated in the same manner. Hiving 

 the bees simply consists in shaking the 

 cluster from the tree upon which it has 

 lodged into the box, or into a basket, 

 and then pouring it down before the 

 hive. Most of the natives have little 

 fear of bees ; moreover, when bees are 

 about to swarm, it is their instinct 

 to gorge themselves with honey and 

 when trier honey-sacs are thus filled, 

 they never sting unless pressed in the 

 hand or under the clothing. 



The simple methods indicated above 

 are surely not beyond the comprehen- 

 sion of the natives of Ceylon ; indeed, I 

 believe an additional step might be 

 taken at the outset— a step which in the 

 long run would be found wise. 



Farm hives— something essential to 

 modern bee-culture— might be intro- 



