Feb. r, 1895.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
537 
if all took to high cultivation the yield of the island 
would probably be trebled and the pi-ice of nuts fall 
to 1115 per 1,030 and be almost unreuiunerative ! 
Till new uses can be found to which coconuts can 
be put it is perhaps as well that high cultivation 
should not become general. A moderate amount of 
attention, in the way of keeping gardens and 
estates cleaner, digging up the soil, and applying 
the manures available at their doors, would give 
owners better, returns and not swamp the market 
by overproduction. As Mr. Dornhorst forcibly 
remarked, Sinhalese do not despise agriculture, 
as some hive asserted they do; it is quite the other 
way, and the vast m irjority of the people subsist by 
cultivation. Few however will I think be disposed 
to say that they devote the time and energy to it 
that they might do ; they carry it 011 in a most im- 
perfect m muer, and expeud no more energy and 
perseverance upon it than they can help : indeed I 
miy say that they are staunch supporters of the ''con- 
servation of energy " theory, and faithfully carry it 
out in practice ! Witness the choking of paddy crops 
with grass and weels, the dirty condition of their 
coconut and other gardens, &e., and all because they 
will not give the labour to rectify this state of things. 
It is all nonsense to say that they have not got the 
time; tell that to those who have not lived amongst 
them as I hive for many years. For nimy things ! 
I like the Sinhalese, but in this matter I blame them, j 
To induce the cultivators to rectify these and other ■ 
defeits in their meihols of work, while not negleet- 1 
ing their other duties, is worthy the attention of 
Agricultural Instructors. May their numbers and 
uscf illness greatly increase, and may the institution 
whh h turns them out continue to flourish. — Yours • 
truly A WELT, WISHER. 
.. +. 
DEES AND HONEY" ON THE NILGIRIS. 
(From a Correspondent.) 
It is surprising that on the Nilgiris where honey 1 
yielding flowers blossom all the yen- round, it should 
b : 30 difficult to procure honey. Of late years, owing 
t > the Forest Reservation Act and to the fact of 
foreit produce being taken over on contract by indi- 
viduals, it is almost impossible to obtain honey, which 
i; anpu-eatlv bought up by a few individuals and 
exported. The same remarks apply to wax. There 
are at least three varieties of bees on the hills — 
the large rock bee that build 1 usually on cliffs, the 
lnuey-eombs of which reach an enormous size; the 
ordinary-sized bee which corresponds to the English 
hive-bee, anl the small '-fly-bee" mentioned 
above. As to the quality of the honey pro- 
diuel by the three varieties, that of the two latter 
is infinitely superior in quality, the honey of the 
rock-bee being some.vhat watery and apt to ferment 
easilv. The honey of the ordinary bee, thai second 
variety mentioned above, will beir comparison with 
the best foreign or English honey, provided that the 
bees hive gatherel their honey from girden tto.vers. 
The will-bee, as a rule, however, is not very dis- 
criniin iting, the a:rid exudation of the wild tobacco 
or lobelia being quite as acceptable to it as the 
sweet nectar of the lily or the rose. We h wo known 
of eases of illnjis resulting from the eating or honey 
gathered from the strobilanthus and similar flowers. 
In in nitur.il state, the ordinary wild-bee does 
not store ma so honey, pro jibly because large swarms 
are const mtly leaving the parent hive. In the domes- 
tic st ito this can be rumdiod by killing off the young 
queens,. The large rock-bee does not readily lend itself to 
civilization, being savage and aggressive by nature. 
The further iftvay it is'lcep't from the neighbourhood of 
hou ; tflfl'e better. In appearance and habits it is more 
closely allied to the wasp than the beo. The Kurum- 
bas are the only people who will venture to t ike honey 
troiu the rock-bee, and their morlim operand} consists in 
eit'i - " :'. i"T>?vin { the haoi With sm >k > or in-. '■<'■ : • .1 
h >ll ) v b'.m'io) with a sh <od point into the I II > 
d.f lli : •• «:u'n. I'.i) ho 1 !V rtuw Uo.vii the bam J JO an 
ui received ill a vojniJ b low, without the bees in any 
is being disturbed. We have heard of Unrumoas re- 
moving ■<■ ■ in 1 b i 50 or QQ pounds of honey from one 
nest. No native thinks of throwing away the young 
grubs, which are eaten in their cells, either with the 
honey or alone. 
Seeing how difficult it is to obtain honey on the hills 
nowadays, and remembering how favourite an article 
of food it is, it is curious that apiculture is not common 
at Ootacimund and in its environs. The warm slopes 
of the hills and dry localities like Kotagiri and 
Kalhiti would suit admirably for bee-keeping. At- 
tempts have, we believe, been made to introduce the 
Cyprian and English bee on the hills, but how far 
these experiments have proved a success we do not 
know. We knew of a lady who a short time ago 
took infinite pains to bring out three swarms of 
English bees, which wore purchased at Whiteley's. 
But they all died before the boat reached Alexandria, 
on account of defects in the mode of packing. It is 
carelessness and want of intelligence in packing 
that the importers of trout ova have had to con- 
tend with, and which have discouraged and dis- 
appointed to many experimentalists. We should 
suggest to those who may be thinking of trying their 
hands at bee-keeping to obtain imported queen bees 
of the Cyprian or Italian breeds, and hand them 
over to the care of indigenous swarms of what wa 
have termed the ordinary wild-bee. The swarm > that 
are hatched from the eggs of the new queen will 
be pure-bread " Cypriote " while the indigenous bees 
will perform the menial work of the hive. The young- 
queens, instead of being allowed to be murdered by 
their rivals as usually happens, ought to be secured 
and handed over to other indigenous swarms. At 
Ootacamund, during the monsoons, bees ought to be 
kept in a sheltered place, and given a little artificial 
food, such as home made barley-sugar and water. 
It is a mistake to suppose that bees do not require 
any care in the matter of food, &a. The ancient 
Egyptians were in the habit of sending their hives 
on boats down the Nile, to give their swarms the 
benefit of the different flowers; their modern repre- 
sentatives do the same, and on the continent and in 
England a similar course is adopted — the hives being 
carried about the country in carts to places where 
the flowers of the wild thyme and heather grow in 
profusion. An absolute essential for the keeper of 
bees in India is a bee-shed kept under lock and Key. 
With the predatory habits of the lower class native 
this precaution must never be omitted. 
Though the English bee is to be preferred on account 
of its more civilised habits, the ordinary wild-bee 
will, with care and attention, yield a fair quantity 
and quality of honey provided the superfluous 
queens be killed and only one retained. In dry 
weather it is advisable to keep bees well supplied 
with water, for they are large drinkers. The water 
should be in a plate well filled with gravel, so that 
the bees may drink what they want without any 
danger of getting drowned. The European bee has 
several enemies against which it has to be carefully 
guarded. The worst enemy of the apiary is a species 
of orange-coloured parasite, not unlike the one that 
attacks the house-fly. The toad and " death's head " 
moth, which are spoken of by English writers as the 
foes of bees, do not, as far as we are aware, give 
much trouble in India. During the mousoon on the 
Hills the honey becomes thin and watery. The best 
honey is that secreted during the dry months. If 
you want to keep your bees, have in your garden 
plenty of mignonette, heliotrope, salvia, nasturtium, 
cancy-tuft and other English flowers. Bees, it should 
be remembered, are very quarrelsome, so that it is 
advisable to hive the different hives facing north, 
south, east and west and at some distance from 
each other, to prevent quarrels arising from bees 
going into the wrong hives which would inevitably 
happen il tin' hives all faced the same direction 
and stood in a line close to one another. — Madras 
Mall. 
ivol.i. — There is at present a rage for kola-preparati- 
on, in the United States, and druggists in some quarters 
aix- mailing a leading line of them. The symptoms 
are altogether like what the British drugtraae en-- 
joyed a tew . -. jb.— Chemist and fh ui/yist, Jan, 6. 
