

59 



feeds upon pollen extensively until she 

 has met the drone, from whicli time 

 she is fed by the bees entirelj- uijon 

 digested food. Now just here I wish 

 to show the folh" of keeping young 

 queens confined in the frame nurseries 

 for a number of days after hatching, as 

 is done extensively in several Ameri- 

 can queen-reai'ing apiaries. Witliout 

 the nitrogenous food at this time when 

 the constitution should be established, 

 they are dragging out their existence 

 upon sugar alone at the most impor- 

 tant period of their growth." 



Mr. Simmins believes, as does Mr. 

 Alley, that better queens can be reared 

 by proper artificial means than under 

 the swarming-impulse. 



In justice to the author I refrain 

 from giving more of this book, but I 

 can assure the readers that I have 

 given but a small part of its good 

 points. This work is now for sale in 

 this country. It contains nearly 200 

 pages, and is well illustrated. I ad- 

 vise all progres.sive bee-keepers (es- 

 pecially those who make it a Ijusiness) 

 to thoroughly stud}- this book. 



Pawtucket, 5 R- I- 



PALESTINE. 



An Account of Bec-Kccping 

 there by an Eye-'Witness. 



Wrttterifor the British Bee Journal 

 BY J. BAIDENSPERGEK. 



There is only one waj- to enter the 

 " land flowing with milk and honey." 

 According to mythology, Andromeda 

 ■was exjjosed on the rocks lying out 

 before the town of Jaffa to the seaside, 

 forming a small harbor for little sail- 

 ing vessels, and was delivered by 

 Perseus from the sea-monster going to 

 devour her. It is wild enough, the 

 entrance to this town. I have been 

 standing on the shore looking out for 

 friends coming back from France and 

 England, have seen them lighting their 

 way through the angiy sea, and ex- 

 posed to the waves carrying tlie boats 

 high up to the top and down again into 

 a deep gulph of water hiding them 

 from sight. Why do they not choose 

 an easier way ? The steamer can 

 come no nearer, for the rocks which 

 abound here. It is always a terrific 

 sight to see travelers and pilgrims land- 

 ing. Yet after having traveled so 

 many days and nights, it is only a mile 

 on the raging sea to touch the Holy 

 Land. It is here the prophet Jonas 

 found a ship going to Tarshish, em- 

 barked for that place, and was seized 

 by a tempest. Joppa of the ancients, 

 now Jaffa, is the port of Jerusalem. It 

 is here that numbers of bees are kept, 

 both in the orignal way of keeping 



them, I. e., in clay pipes, and in Lang- 

 stroth hives, kept only by your humble 

 servant. 



Although Palestine is acknowledged 

 bj- many authorities to be the real 

 home of the honey-bees, and although 

 we never read in the Bible of bee- 

 keeping, yet, very often we read of 

 the " land flowing with milk and 

 honey " promised to Moses. Some 

 writers on Palestine are mistaken when 

 they mention wild bees as more abund- 

 ant than the domesticated ones, be- 

 cause, in Psalm Ixxxi. 16, the Lord 

 promises honey out of the rock ; this is 

 only to illustrate the abundance in 

 saying, " Even out of the rock shall I 

 fili thee with honey." In nowise was 

 it meant that the honey out of the rock 

 was more abundant than the honey 

 out of domesticated hives. Although 

 it is possible runaway swarms were 

 more secure from the interference of 

 man before the in\'cntion of gunpow- 

 der, because they could not easilj' be 

 had without breaking the rocks, yet 

 certainly they did get some, or else it 

 would not have been mentioned. 



Very likely the Canaanites kept bees 

 in the same way as the Arals popula- 

 tion of Palestine, partlj' their descen- 

 dants. All Eastern invasions were 

 followed by a retrogi'ade movement, 

 agricultural, architectural, industrial, 

 etc. We know that the Canaanites 

 had chariots and highways, but nowa- 

 da3's an Arab is astonished to see a 

 chariot, introduced only about 18 years 

 ago from Europe ; and, to use their 

 own expression, it is a " thing moving 

 along with nothing but two horses in 

 front to drag it." They had oil-mills 

 exactly the same as now. The inva- 

 sions destroyed arts and sciences, 

 whilst the weaker inhabitant of the 

 country was always more or less 

 abandoned, and continued in his 

 primitive industry, thus carrying 

 throughout more than thirty centuries 

 household and agricultural implements 

 without the least improvements, and 

 in many cases carrying the verj' name 

 throughout all the generations, not- 

 withstanding the cliange of languages 

 from the Canaanites, Hebrews, Greeks, 

 Romans, Arabs, Latins to Turks and 

 Arabs again. 



Go to an Arab village, and you will 

 find women grinding at the mill, either 

 alone or as illustrated in Matt. xxiv. 

 71, "Two women shall be grinding at 

 the mill." The mill is small, and can 

 easily be transported. Two women sit 

 down on each side of the mill (the 

 upper mill-stone having a handle with 

 just place enough for two hands), thus 

 driving the mill, and singing a monoto- 

 nous, solemn song of their departed 

 loved ones and friends. It is to be 

 concluded that the aborigines of this 

 country kept bees in the same way as 



the inhabitants now do, bj- comparing- 

 the above. 



Honey was always abundant in 

 Palestine — I mean real bees' honey, 

 gathered from flowers of all kin<ls 

 abounding in tlie land, the almond, 

 pear (our largest crop), the orange- 

 blossom, and the cactus ; and in sum- 

 mer-time, when everything seems dry, 

 the sesame (from the seeds of wliich 

 the oil of sesame is produced, and used 

 to a great extent in the country), and 

 the labiate flowers, from whicli still 

 the very highly flavored and high-re- 

 nowned honey of Hj'mettus was gatli- 

 ered from thyme-blossoms. 



Though some travelers tried to illus- 

 trate the fact of hone}- flowing from 

 the trees, it is in no way common, foi- 

 the want of trees or forests ; and in tlie 

 ease of Jonathan, 1 Sam. xiv. 25-30, 

 the honey was not dropping from tlie 

 trees, but was flowing upon tlie 

 ground, according to the new version ; 

 and, furthermore, Jonathan dipped his 

 rod in a hone^'-comb, thus it was no 

 honey-dew, and he said : " My father 

 hath troubled the land ; see, I pray 

 you, how mine eyes have been enlight- 

 ened because I tasted a little of this 

 honey. How much more, if the people 

 had eaten freely to-day of the sjwil of 

 their enemies which they^ found ?" The 

 Israelites came on the encampment of 

 the Philistines, and suddenly fell on 

 them. They o\-erthrew everything,, 

 and the honey, kept in jars or he-goat 

 skins then as nowada3-s, was ovei-- 

 turned by the frightened cattle and 

 soldiers, and was floioing upon the 

 ground. 



The honey-dew is only found in 

 some trees, Ijut in no locality that I 

 know of, will it yield honey enough to- 

 give anything more than a taste t» 

 bees in search of water or pollen dur- 

 ing the intermediate months of the 

 honey-flow. In the Jordan Valley n» 

 bees "are kept, because only the nom- 

 adic Arabs live here, and never trouble 

 themselves in their wanderings with 

 bees. 



I dare say, except oi'ange-trees and 

 cactus-plants introduced here, the- 

 other honey-plants have always beea 

 here, and the country yielded honey in 

 quantity suiHcient to form an article of 

 export (Ezek. xxvii. 17). Honey was- 

 translated from the Hebrew " dabash." 

 the real old name for honey. The 

 Arabic word for honey is " assal,"' 

 whilst a treacle made of the juice of 

 grapes and boiled is called "dibs" or 

 "dibes"in Arabic; wherefore many 

 writers suppose thalt the honey so often 

 mentioned in the Bible was not bees' 

 honey, but this dibes or grape-treacle f 

 when we read in Judges, xiv. 8, 9, 

 that there was a swarm of bees 

 (daburin) and honey (dabash) in the 

 carcass of the lion, and that Samson 



