24 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



tain sea of apiculture. No doubt 

 many dreamed of tlie untold fortunes 

 they were soon to receive from the 

 labors of the bees, but in 1S84-85 the 

 honey crop here was very light, bees 

 huve'barely stored enougli (generally 

 speaking) to live on, and many have 

 even starved ; besides, the winter of 

 1.S84-SO was ruinous, fully one-half of 

 all colonies here having perished, and 

 what did survive came out in the 

 spring so weak that it took all the 

 white clover season to build them up. 



I have been a constant reader of the 

 American Bee Journal, and I have 

 read the discussions with great inter- 

 est, especially as regards size of hive. 

 I think that "the size of hive depends 

 very much upon the locality. For in- 

 stance, in a great honey-yielding dis- 

 trict I think that a 10-frame hive 

 would lie the proper thing, for in this 

 case, where honey is constantly com- 

 ing in. the swarms are necessarily 

 larger, as the queen is kept constantly 

 laying, and with 7-frames they vpould 

 do nothing but swarm, which, to my 

 notion, would be the ruination of a 

 honey crop ; but in a place like this, 

 where bees only gather honey from 

 June 10 to .June island from August 

 10 to August 25, ordinarily, we have 

 no use for hives larger than ,S-frames ; 

 and I believe that 7 are better. 



I am rather inclined to Mr. Ileddon's 

 views, all things considered, and I be- 

 lieve that the same amount of money 

 Invested in small hives will be more 

 remuuerative, taking one season with 

 another in districts like this ; but if 

 you are in a great lioney -producing 

 section, and want to average 400 fts. 

 per colony, I agree with Mr. Dadant 

 in using a 12-frame hive. 



Yesterday I took my bees out of the 

 cellar for a flight, having been con- 

 fined 00 days, and on examination I 

 did not find more than a handful of 

 dead l)ees in 28 hives ; to-day they had 

 a good flight, and now I will put them 

 back. 



Clarksville, c$Mo., Jan. 1, 1886. 



For tbe American Eee Journal. 



Tie Insect-fax of CMiia, 



V. THEILMANN. 



The following is taken from the 

 Acker and Garten-Bau Zeitung, of Mil- 

 waukee, AVis. that paper l)aving taken 

 it from the Ilong Kong Daily Press. 

 It will probably be read with much in- 

 terest by many readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee .Journal. The article is as 

 follows : 



"It is quite a new fact that the 

 Chinese insect-wax is being exported ; 

 no wonder that it is generally little 

 known. This wax is mainly com- 

 posed of wax-acid combined with 

 Oxide of Cerotyl, and is used in Eng- 

 land in the manufacture of the best 

 tapers which are at present too costly 

 for general use. There are nearly 500 

 tons of beeswax imported into Eng- 

 land yearly, and as Chinese insect- wax 

 can in the highest degree be appro- 



Eriated the same as beeswax, it will 

 espeak a great future. 

 " Within the past few years the 

 Chinese insect- wax has drawn the at- 



tention of the French Government, 

 which has made trials in Algeria to 

 climatize the insects and their mother- 

 tree there; also the director of the 

 Kew Gardens, Sir Joseph Dalton 

 Hooker, has had his attention drawn 

 to their produce, and has applied to 

 Sir Harry Parks for better informa- 

 tion about the insect and its white 

 wax, and to learn more about the in- 

 sect and wax-trees, and last, about the 

 wax product. Sir Harry Parks gave 

 the commission to Mr. Hosie, to visit 

 the wax-producing territory of the 

 Chinese Province, Szetschneu. 



" Mr. Hosie thereafter traveled and 

 searched in June and July, 18S4, the 

 interior of Szetsehnen, studied the 

 case at that place, and made a report 

 thereof to the English Government, 

 which report was published in the 

 second Chinese Bluebook of 188.5. 

 This report is positive, and explains 

 fully, though the writer has classified 

 it in a way that is rather hard to un- 

 derstand, having classilied it in four 

 rubrics, viz.: 1. The insect-tree. 2. 

 The insect. 3. The wax tree. 4. The 

 wax. It looks as if some parts of the 

 Province of Szetsehnen were extra- 

 ordinarily favored for the industry ; 

 likewise "the Chien-chang-valley, the 

 Chin-wie-territory, and the neighbor- 

 hood of Chungching where the tree 

 in which there is suspected Ligustrum 

 Luzidum, is growing wild. 



"Mr. Hosie failed to give the cor- 

 rect situation of these places, but we 

 find in Playfairs' (Cities and Towns 

 of China), that all the vicinities where 

 the tree grows in profusion, and where 

 the aLiove industry is in its full bloom, 

 lies between the 29th and 30lh degrees 

 north latitude, and 103 to 104 east 

 longitude. In the aforesaid districts 

 there is great activity in scraping 

 the pea-like outgrowths or galls, off the 

 limbs of the insect-trees, to export 

 them to the different places— Szet- 

 sehnen and other provinces, especially 

 to Hunan and Kweichow. Each of 

 these galls contains a little colony of 

 very small, brown insects, which look 

 like small lice, and each of them has 

 six le^s and a pair of antennce which 

 are ot wedge form ; sometimes they 

 have also a small white cocoon which 

 contains a bug, called' buffalo-beetle,' 

 which also has six legs and a long 

 trunk that is armed with a pair of 

 pincers. 



"These galls are yearly (during the 

 latter part ot April) taken from the 

 limbs of the insect-trees, and 20 to 30 

 pieces rolled in the leaves of the wood- 

 oil tree and tied with rice-straw, or 

 they are put in paper packages which 

 weigh about 12 Chinese ounces, and 

 are valued from 3^ to 1 tael. The buy- 

 ers of these galls, which are posses- 

 sors of wax-trees in Szetschneu or 

 other provinces, take these packages 

 with the galls and hang them on the 

 bushy twigs of the wax-tree, after 

 making some rough holes in the leaves 

 for the progress of the gall inhabi- 

 tants. Mr. Hosie does not give the 

 name of tills tree ; he left that part to 

 the director of the Kew Gardens, to 

 whom he sent parts of the tree. The 

 wax-tree is thought to be an ash and 

 is called Traxinus Chinensis. 



" Mr. Hosie observed, as soon as the 

 gall packages were hung amongst the 

 twigs, the following : 



" Each gall contains a live ' buffalo- 

 beetle ' which bores a hole in the bark 

 of the gall through which the larvse 

 escapes. At first they are unable to 

 tiy, and for sometime stay in company 

 with some ' buffalo-beetles ' of both 

 sexes on the bushy twigs of the wax- 

 tree, and after they get wings they lay 

 small eggs and deposit them on the 

 twigs. Afterwards the wax-insects 

 crawl through the holes which was 

 made by the ' buffalo-beetle,' and 

 crawl rapidly" on the twigs of the 

 wax-tree ; after a stay of about 13 

 days on the leaves of old twigs, and 

 after they have shed their coat, they 

 climb to the tender twigs where they 

 settle on the under side to fasten their 

 mouths in the bark whereby a liquid 

 gushes forth and incrusts the twig 

 with a thick layer of wax. Mean- 

 while, the eggs of the 'buffalo-beetle' 

 hatch out also, and these insects are 

 called the wax-hounds which follow 

 the wax-insect for their prey ; the lat- 

 ter are destroyed by the wax- grower. 

 In about 3 months the wax crust is 

 about I4 of an inch thick, and the 

 twigs are then cut off, the wax picked 

 off bv hand and thrown into boiling 

 water, and the melted mass is mould- 

 ed. This is the wax for the trade. 



"The twigs are also boiled to be 

 entirely cleared of the wax. The in- 

 sects which sink to the bottom while 

 it is boiling, are pressed out and given 

 to the hogs for food. The owners of 

 the wax-trees have but little expense, 

 and the industry, on the whole, is 

 very profitable. In good years, 

 a package of Chien -Chang- galls costs 

 about >4 of a tael, which produces 

 from 3 to 4 catties of wax. Its pres- 

 ent price is 40 taels per pikol. In un- 

 favorable years not more than one 

 cattie of wax from a package of galls 

 is expected, whereby the wax-industry 

 stands a great deal of risk, where the 

 owners of the wax-tree does not also 

 have the insect-trees, and rears the 

 insects himself. We mention that 

 the latter is known to the entomolo- 

 gists as Tatalimbata." 

 Thielmanton, o^Minn. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Bees and tlie Friiit-&rowers, 



C. H. COGSWELL. 



While attending the meeting of the 

 Illinois State Horticultural Society, 

 at Centralia, Ills., during the present 

 week, I took occasion, in the interest 

 of bee-culture, to inquire of some of 

 the fruit-growers for their opinions 

 and observations as to whether bees 

 were in any way the natural enemies 

 of fruit-growers. The unanimous ex- 

 pression, so far as I obtained it, was 

 in favor of the bees. All admitted 

 that, at times, bees work largely on 

 the juices of fruits, but none believed 

 that they puncture the skins of grapes 

 or other fruits. 



In some localities ii) the southern 

 part of the State, much complaint 

 was made against birds, particularly 



