14 AUSTRALASIAN 



I have not been able to obtain any information as to the 

 introduction of the G-erman bee into South Australia, Victoria, 

 or Queensland. Probably the importation may have been made 

 from New South Wales or Tasmania, and not direct fromEurope. 

 To Mr. C. Fullwood, of Brisbane, I am indebted for much 

 information as to the progress of bee-culture in Queensland. 

 The following extract from a communication of his in the first 

 number of the New Zealand and Australian Bee Journal gives a 

 graphic description of bee-culture under the old regime : — 



' ' Some years ago large quantities of bees were kept by farmers and 

 others in a very primitive fashion, and the bush resounded with the 

 hum of the ' busy bee.' Timber getters, wood carters, and aborigines 

 frequently secured large quantities of honey from hollow trees ; both 

 the black bee and stingless bee, peculiar to Australia, were found 

 almost everywhere. Gin cases, tea, or any kind of rough boxes were 

 appropriated to bee use, and such is the climate, and the yield of 

 honey so regular, that bees appeared to thrive everywhere, and in any 

 kind of hive, so long as they had a cover under which to build their 

 comb and rear their brood. No skill was demanded in their manage- 

 ment. Given a swarm — put it in a box, on a stand, under a 'sheet of 

 bark ; then look out for swarms in a few weeks ; and, after a while, 

 turn up the box, cut out some honey, or drive the bees into another 

 box to go through the process of building and storing, to be again 

 despoiled in like manner. 



" No thought about the destruction of brood, waste of honey and 

 wax ; no care about the queens. Would not know a queen from a 

 drone, or their value in the hive. What matter if a few boxes (stock) 

 perish ? Such was the natural increase by swarming that a few losses 

 were of no consequence. 



" Anybody could keep bees who had courage enough to rob them. 

 The aborigines knew how to do it. With a tomahawk and fire-stick 

 they would attack the ' white-fellow sugar bag,' and driving the bees 

 with smoke, deprived them of their honey. ' Fettigrew's old Irishman' 

 was not required here to teach the Australian aborigines how to rob 

 the bees by means of smoke. 



" A few years ago, however, a great change came over the land. A 

 moth, unknown previously, commenced its ravages. The bees suc- 

 cumbed before it, and were rapidly swept away. Farmers owning 

 from fifty to two hundred stocks lost all. The bees in the bush gave way 

 also before the terrible onslaught, leaving the invader all but master 

 of the field. Only a very few individuals, by dint of determined 

 persevering watchfulness and care, managed to save » few stocks' 

 amid the general devastation. 



T ' Bee-keeping naturally came to be viewed as a very precarious, 

 risky, and unprofitable business ; and, although it has its charms for 

 many, there are but. two or three persons in the colony who have any 

 number of stocks, or who attempt bee-keeping as a means of obtaining 

 an income." 



