THE BEE-KEEPERS' BR VIEW. 



17 



Could we find a bee twice the si/e of the 

 common bee, stroug and active and withal 

 building its combs in a hollow receptacle it 

 would seem to be a decided acquisition. 

 May we not expect to find something of 

 this sort in Southern Asia ? It is idle to say 

 that had there been such kind of bees they 

 would have been introduced before this. 

 Let us remember it is only forty or fifty 

 years since the large Asiatic breeds of fowls, 

 that have proved so valuable, have been 

 imported. Great Britian alone claims to 

 have ;W0 species of wild bees, which are, a 

 large part of them, of the type of our hum- 

 ble bees. How many species of bees closely 

 allied to our domestic bees there may be in 

 Southern Asia no one knows, but we be- 

 lieve that among them some will be found 

 of great value to the honey producing inter- 

 ests of the world. 



In.lookingover an old vol. of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal I came across the follow- 

 ing under the title 



A CHINESE BEK. 



"The Apicoltural Section of the Entomo- 

 logical Society at its annual meeting in Paris 

 August, 1874, made many interesting state- 

 ments. M. Durand Saint Armand, a gov- 

 erment officer in Cochin China, states that 

 the country possesses a bee twice the size of 

 ours, which, consequently, ought to have a 

 probocis long enough to extract the honey 

 from red clover which is known to be very 

 abundant. This bee is found in great num- 

 bers all along the coast, in a wild state, in 

 hollow trees, and the natives hunt them for 

 their wax. The extensive forests of this 

 coutry are leased for the product of wax 

 which is to be sold to the Chinese. " 



Here then would appear to be our bee 

 twice the size of Apis mellifica and living 

 like them in hollow trees. Can not our bee- 

 keeping friends in France give us more in- 

 formation in regard to these bees ? I be- 

 lieve a large portion, if not all, of Cochin 

 China is now in the hands of France. I 

 should not have thought so much of this 

 statement had I not in conversation with a 

 returned missionary learned of the same, or 

 a similar bee, under domestication by the 

 Chinese in western China. As he was a 

 young man, a native of this town, brought 

 up on a farm, I felt that his statements were 

 worthy of entire confidence. He said the 

 bees of Western China were in size midway 

 between our hive bees and the bumble bee, 

 and were, like our domestic bees, kept in 



hives ; and must be of gentle disposition as 

 he had seen a colony clustered in a crowded 

 street yet no one seemed afraid of them. I 

 had hoped before this to have secured speci- 

 mens of them, but owing perhaps to the un- 

 settled condition of the country I have not 

 as yet received them. I supposed when he 

 first told me of them that they were the Apis 

 Dorsata which the Chinese had domestica- 

 ted, but I now think they must belong to 

 another species. 



With the opening of the interior of China 

 to the commerce of the world it may be 

 possible to secure these bees, which may 

 prove of much greater value than Apis Dor- 

 sata. Or they may be brought by the 

 French from a point much farther south. 



MiDDLEBUKv, Vt. Dec. 11, 1895. 



Heating Honey— Some Thoughts on Over- 

 Stocking. 



Vli. V. C. M.LIiEK. 



T HAVE no little 

 ± contempt for the 

 present outrageous 

 system of spelling 

 the English langu- 

 age, and so when 

 you write " liqui- 

 fy " and " liquified " 

 instead of "liquefy" 

 and "liquefied" I 

 don't mind it a 

 great deal, but when 

 you Mr. Editor, 

 unite with our experimental friend — 

 something not right about that — guess I 

 mean verified friefld at any rate, when you 

 and Hon. R. 1j. Taylor unite as you do on 

 pages :W> and IvU; to put " liquification " for 

 "liquefaction,"! object to your manufac- 

 turing a word that is better in no way and 

 longer by one syllable. 



In spite of that I was very much interested 

 inthat" Honey and Heat" article, and feel 

 that it is no little satisfaction to have so 

 much definitely settled. I think Bro. Taylor 

 has settled that heat may produce a change 

 in honey before it reaches 16.") \ I am inclin- 

 ed to think it would be a pretty safe thing to 

 say that honey is injured by a temperature 

 of Kth-, although Bro. Taylor goes hardly so 

 far as that. 



