94 J. C. Douglas — The Hive-Bees indigenous to India [No. 1, 



honey collected by Italian bees harvested, and the first stock distributed 

 in India. I decided to introduce a foreign race because little was 

 known of the native races, and the information then available shewed that 

 the latter were either of inferior economic value, or that years of study 

 under cultivation would be necessary to discover the best mode of treat- 

 ing them. All the most experienced bee-masters I consulted agreed 

 with me in considering India a most favourable field for apiculture, 

 and that to ensure success it merely required that the subject should 

 be taken up by some one who had sufficient knowledge and skill to 

 adapt his method to the local conditions. I found the former attempts 

 had failed from causes I well understood. The Duke of Buckingham 

 gave me full information about his effort to introduce bees while he 

 was Governor of Madras. The present editor of the British Bee Journal, 

 Mr. W. Cowan, agreed with me as to the cause of this failure. The 

 Rev. J. S. Wood side, an American Missionary, tried to introduce the 

 Italian bee and failed. I chose Italians because the most extended 

 experience in Europe and America had demonstrated their superioity : 

 they are very productive, proof against moth even when weak, easy 

 to manipulate, thoroughly understood, readily and cheaply obtainable 

 in Italy, and — a minor point — they are a handsome race. Herr F. 

 Morawitz recommended to me the Egyptian bee as most likely to be 

 suited to the climate. This bee was introduced into Germany by the 

 Acclimatization Society at Berlin in 1864, brought from Egypt by Herr 

 Hammerschmidt, but in the best hands it was found of little value and 

 not preserved ; I have since discovered in the Hazara variety a race 

 apparently nearly allied to the Egyptian bee. The Cyprian bee has 

 been strongly recommended and much puffed in dealers' advertisements — 

 a single hive in one season is said to have yielded 1000 lbs. of surplus 

 honey ; but this variety is at least uncertain in temper, it cannot be 

 regarded as in a higher than the experimental stage, and some of the 

 most experienced bee-keepers in America are giving it up ; it and 

 the Syrian and Holyland varieties are most certainly unsuited to the 

 purpose of introducing bee-culture amongst a people who wear very 

 little clothing and have as yet no skill in bee-management. The black 

 bee of England and Northern Europe is inferior in its power of resisting 

 moth, and has been replaced in America by the Italian for this reason ; 

 the Southern Italian bee is inferior in temper to the Northern Italian, the 

 race referred to generally as the Italian bee ; hence I selected the latter 

 race, and I strongly recommend that it be exclusively imported so long 

 as it is necessary to import bees. The economic value of the Bushahr, 

 Hazara, and possibly other Indian varieties of A. mellifica which may be 

 discovered hereafter, remains to be ascertained ; it is not likely to be 



