July, 1908.] 



45 



Live Slock. 



dairy industry throughout the country 

 to, as far as possible, bring their busi- 

 ness into line with modern scientific 

 thought. — Agricultural Journal of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, Vol. XXX if., No. 

 4, April, 1908. 



APICULTURE IN SOUTH INDIA. 



The honey and wax industry of India 

 has a great future before it. It is an 

 industry so well suited to a pastoral 

 people like the Indians that there is no 

 reason for supposing that it could not 

 be worked here quite as successfully as 

 anywhere in the Western countries. 

 There is a great demand for honey and 

 wax, and it is most necessary that in the 

 interests of the industrial development 

 of the country, greater attention should 

 be devoted to it. There is good reason 

 to believe that this industry could be 

 worked with a fair measure of success 

 in the woodlands of Southern ludia, 

 where a considerable quantity of honey 

 and bees' wax is generally found. These 

 productions are now collected by hill- 

 men in a haphazard fashion. Large 

 quantities of wax and honey are pro- 

 duced in the hills of the Madras Presi- 

 dency, where these products form a 

 part of " Miscellaneous Forest Revenue." 

 The hilly regions from Ganjam to Tinne- 

 velly on the Eastern Coast, and the 

 Western Ghauts of Southern Canara, 

 Malabar and Travancore are, we find, 

 the abodes of wild bees of the A pis 

 family, whose combs are gathered by 

 the hill-tribes called Vettars and Kanik- 

 kars. Coimbatore is another important 

 centre of the wax trade in South India. 

 The hills on the North, South, and 

 West of Coimbatore are the homes of 

 various kinds of bees. The hill tribes of 

 South Coimbatore — Irulars, Maduvars 

 and Kaders — are doing some business in 

 wax and honey, though they have never 

 been able to appreciate at its real worth 

 the importance of this industry. To a 

 small extent, however, the domestica- 

 tion of bees is carried on, we are told, 

 by certain hillmen in the eastern side of 

 Mangapatti as well, the contrivance used 

 to hive them being of a primitive nature. 

 Small mud houses a foot square, on 

 earthen chutties or pots placed mouth 

 downward, with a few holes made in 

 the bottom, are generally used. 



Of course, as we have already men- 

 tioned, Apiculture, as an industry, does 

 not exist on any large scale in Southern 

 India. Here and there some attempts 

 have been made at Apiculture by Euro- 

 peans in the Nilgiris where they want 



to introduce Cyprus and English bees in 

 the hills. Evidently there is no real 

 necessity to introduce foreign varieties. 

 There are many species of bees to be 

 found in India, the principal kinds being 

 four in number, viz : — 



(1) Apis Dorsata, the Tamil name 



of which is Maleteni. 



(2) Apis indica, Tamil Kosumtheni. 



(3) Apis Florea, Tamil Kombeetheni. 

 (i) Apis Melopeni, Tamil Nasritheni. 



It is said that the European bee can 

 be more easily domesticated than the 

 Indian bee. We should, however, think 

 that with proper care, attention and 

 training, the Indian bee may also be 

 expected to prove itself amenable to 

 decipline and yield a good quantity and 

 quality of honey. 



Apis Melifica is the name of the hive 

 bee of Europe. It is not generally found 

 in Southern India. We have already 

 mentioned the four principal species of 

 bees which are generally found in India. 

 They are known to plant their combs on 

 trees in the clefts of rocks and even in 

 the buildings, especially those that have 

 fallen into ruins. Apis Indica (Kosum- 

 theni) and Apis Florea (Kombeetheni) 

 are migratory, and ars always inclined 

 to choose for their new habitats locali- 

 ties in which plants of the Strobilanthes 

 genus of Hacenthaceoe are in full blos- 

 som. The former is known as the ' tree 

 bee' from its tendency to prefer the 

 plains and iow hill ranges. It is also 

 met with, though not in large numbers, 

 in the Nilgiri hills. The bees of this 

 species generally deposit their combs in 

 the branches of trees or in the hollows 

 of tree trunks. Apis Florea commonly 

 known as the 'flower bee' is largely 

 found in the Wynaad plateau. Thee 

 is the other variety known as Apis Meli- 

 poni or mosquito bee. It is so called from 

 the litheness of its body. It is of a stay- 

 at-home nature, sticking to any one local- 

 ity ail the year round. There is a large 

 size of the same variety. It is said to 

 be a denizen of the low rocky hills and 

 plains of this country. The difference 

 between the two is that the former 

 builds its nest in the walls and other 

 crevices of human habitations, and the 

 latter in the crevices of rocks, hollows of 

 trees and ruined buildings. Then comes 

 the fourth species called Apis Dorsata, 

 known in Tamil as Maleteni. It is the 

 hill-bee and is found among low hills 

 aiid forests. It settles down in branches 

 of forest trees, always clinging to 

 favourable haunts free from man's 

 intrusion. It is twice the size of the 

 tree-bee, and is not of a migratory 

 temperament. It seldom leaves its 



