tt Journal 



DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE PRODUCERS OF HONEY. 



VOL. XX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 2, 1884. 



No. 27. 



EDITOr AND PnoPHIETOR. 



Markets for Honey in Asia- 



111 the Loudon Telegraph of recent 

 date, we tind an article on the uses of 

 honey in India, and setting forth the 

 inducements as well as the difficulties 

 in the way of tind ins an excellent 

 market there for our surplus honey. 

 As we feel sure that our readers will 

 be much interested in this article, we 

 will copy the following portions of it : 



Bee-keepers will be interested to 

 know that, according to tlie results of 

 recent inquiries made by the govern- 

 ment of India, a large market for 

 their produce appears" to be open in 

 our Eastern Empire. This at any 

 rate is certain, that honey is every- 

 where in demand throughout the 

 peninsula for domestic, medicinal and 

 sacrificial purposes, and that at pres- 

 ent no attempt has been made by in- 

 digenous industry to meet it. 



The Oriental, wherever you find 

 him, is a great consumer of sweets; 

 and, just as tlie British workman 

 spends his spare half-peiiee in liquid 

 refreshment, so the Eastern, seeking 

 to recruit himself after a bout of 

 work, looks out for the nearest lolli- 

 pop stall. 



Kor should it be forgotten that in 

 religious offerings also, candies play 

 an important part. There is nothing 

 the deities like better than lollipops— 

 so, at least, the priests tell such vo- 

 taries as cannot afford more costly 

 offerings— and the shrines are, there- 

 fore, liberally supplied with sweet 

 confectionery. 



Xow, honey is an important in- 

 gredient of many of tliose things 

 for which Orientals, both human and 

 divine, have such a sweet tooth ; and 

 at present the amount in the market 

 is nowhere commensurate with re- 

 quirements. 



Medicinally, as a gargle, and a cor- 

 dial especially, the bees' treasures are 

 in equal demand in all the Presi- 

 dencies, but are not always obtainable 

 when wanted. Yet India has been 

 specially favored by nature in the 

 matter of bees, for the indigenous va- 



rieties of those insects are very 

 numerous. 



The Hindoo, however, classifies 

 them much as I'liildren classify bears 

 —there are, they say, big bees, middle 

 sized bees, and little bees; and the 

 first two kinds are of no use for do- 

 mestication, as they have stings. The 

 third, they say, might be of use for 

 hiving, but unfortunately it is very 

 small. Some describe tliis stingless 

 insect as " a quarter the size of the 

 house fly," others " about as large as 

 a mosquito," while one says " it 

 should perhaps be called a gnat 

 rather than a bee." 



This deliglitful innocence of en- 

 tomology is not more refreshing than 

 the Oriental's idea of the sting of the 

 bee being a fatal objection" to its 

 utility under cultivation. But we 

 should not forget that he wears very 

 scanty clothing, and that few of us, 

 even the most expert, would care to 

 be honey-taking with no more per- 

 sonal protection tlian a waist-cloth 

 round the loins, and a dab of yellow 

 paint on the forehead. It would re- 

 quire something more than even the 

 sang-froid of a professional bee- 

 keeper to venture among the angry 

 bees in such Gaidenof Eden apparel, 

 and a good deal more than good man- 

 ners in the insect to forbear attacking 

 such an extent of undefended surface. 



There remains the fact that India 

 possesses several breeds of bees which 

 have no stings. We should like to 

 hear some disciple of Darwin explain 

 this development of the inoffensive 

 bee. It would be simple enough if 

 the people of India were all liide- 

 bound like their rhinoceroses, or went 

 about ironclad, for stings would then, 

 no doubt, be given up by the insects 

 as being of no use ; but considering, 

 as we have already said, that their 

 costume is so carefully adapted to the 

 climate, and that the provocations to 

 attack are so copious and extensive, 

 the natural fact justifies some sur- 

 prise. We could have understood the 

 India bees having tips to their tails 

 like scorpions, or lieing all sting; but 

 when it comes to tlieir deliberately 

 doing away with •' the business end " 

 of their bodies, we are compelled to 

 credit the bees with a measure of 

 good taste and magnanimity that en- 

 tomologists have not hitherto done 

 justice to. These harmless honey- 

 makers, however, produce but poor 

 stuff, and little uf it, though in fair- ' 

 ness to them it sliould be said the na- j 

 five has not tested their capabilities 

 with any remaikable degree of judg- ; 

 ment or intelligence. Our ov^n apiar- 

 ists, for instance, will agree with us 



that to tie a string round the waist of 

 a queen bee, and then tether it down 

 inside a hollow tree, is at best a crude 

 and primitive way of attracting the 

 hive of bees— especially so in a country 

 where the ant, " edax reruni," is om- 

 nivorous and omnipresent, and where 

 lizards and large spiders, the partic- 

 ular enemies of lees, swarm in hol- 

 low trees. 



What the result might be under 

 more scientific treatment remains, of 

 course, a matter of conjecture ; but 

 meanwiiile it mav be accepted as es- 

 tablished that the majority of the in- 

 offensive species give only an infer- 

 ior quality of honey, and that the 

 quantity as compared with that of 

 the insects wliich are less plea.sant 

 to handle, is inconsiderable. It would 

 seem, therefore, that if the experi- 

 ment of apiculture in India is ever to 

 be made in earnest, it must be made 

 with the bees that have stings, and 

 here the possibilities of yield appear 

 to be almost without limit. At any 

 rate, the quantities said to be pro- 

 duced by wild bees of some of the 

 larger and more ferocious kinds are 

 so large as to be almost incredible. 



What, for instance, would our En- 

 glish bee-owners say to a colony that 

 could produce in a year, without any 

 attention, ^JO pounds of honey, and 

 half as much wax? or to a wild rock- 

 bee that stores up, without assistance 

 or any incentive beyond its own in- 

 stinct for industry, an average of 40 

 pounds in a season 'r* They would 

 probably think such insects as these 

 to be well worth cultivation, and no 

 one could disagree with them if they 

 did. 



To be put against this amazing pro- 

 ductiveness is, however, the fact that 

 these bees, especially the large cliff- 

 bee, are exceptionally fierce. They 

 are tigers of their kind. Man him- 

 self is not safe for them, and beasts 

 perish under their stings without a 

 chance. Combined with the dreadful 

 potency of the venom is a liability to 

 provocation to which only a parallel 

 can be found among beasts of prey 

 when on guard over their young. For 

 these bees will attack a passer-by if 

 he even makes any unusual noise. 



A gun tired off in their vicinity sets 

 the whole to buzzing, and the bees— 

 though hornets would almost seem to 

 be a l)etter name for them— if they 

 catch sight of any moving object, 

 whether man or beast, while thus ir- 

 ritated, tlirow themselves upon it 

 with a malignity that is always terri- 

 fying, and an effect that is often fatal. 

 Animals have, as a rule, no hope of 

 escape, for in their panic they at- 



