llo 
THI-:  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Aug.  i,  1895. 
gulavly  atx.dded  with  Rplenclid  dowering  speci- 
mens of  thd  red  and  white  gums  and  acacias. 
Cheerily  bowling  along  a well-kept  road  and 
rapidly  nearing  the  lofty  peaks  of  Mt.  Sturgeon 
and  Mt.  Abrupt,  which  rise  precipitously  on  either 
hand  for  several  hundreds  of  feet,  the  visitor’s  at- 
tention is  attracted  to  the  opposite  thickly  wooded 
slope  of  “the  I’icaninny,’’  stretching  picturesquely 
between  the  rocky  heights  of  its  frowning  neighbours, 
and  which  on  its  lower  levels  is  patterned  in  clus- 
ters of  white  half  hidden  by  the  green  of  the  bush, 
recalling  the  well  filled  cemeteries  of  the  malarial 
coasts  of  Africa.  Even  a carefully  guarded  question 
invokes  a supercilious  smile  from  the  driver  over  the 
“ new  chumm’s”  innocence  with  the  information  that 
the  apparently  marble  grave-stones  Hashing  back  the 
sun-light  are  merelj  the  painted  hives  of  the  Uee- 
Farm.  A little  later  further  evidence  is  forthcoming 
by  an  all-pervading  drowsy  hum,  ever  increasing  till 
the  Farm  is  reached,  when  the  air  is  seen  to  be  so 
alive  with  excited  bees  as  to  cause  considerable 
feelings  of  alarm  in  the  mind  of  the  visitor.  With 
the  welcome  protection  of  a veil,  supposedly  sting 
proof,  and  affecting  a naixj  /raid  which  he  is  far 
from  feeling  the  novitiate  accepts,  though  with 
doubtful  pleastire,  the  invitation  of  the  Manager  to 
watch  the  robbing  of  the  hives,  a form  of  enter- 
tainment which  he  will  appreciate  only  till  some 
more  tender  part  of  his  anatomy  is  pierced  by  the 
far  reaching  stings  of  a few  particularly  savage  and 
persistent  bees. 
The  hives  are  built  up  of  several  layers  of  rec- 
tangular wooden  cases,  the  two  lowest  of  which  are 
set  apart  for  the  “brood  nest’’  where  the  “Queen” 
deposits  her  eggs  and  the  young  bees  are  hatched ; 
above  these  are  the  “supers”  for  the  storage  of 
honey  “ beyond”  that  requited  by  the  bees,  a 
specially  perforated  sheet  of  zinc  between  the  “brood 
nest”  and  the  bottom  “sujier”  being  fitted  to  bar 
the  access  of  the  Queen-bee  but  allow  that  of  the 
smaller  worker  bees. 
The  “supers”  are  ari-anged  to  hold  thin  oblong 
“frames”  or  square  thick  “sections’’  to  form 
receptacles  for  the  honey  according  as  it  is  required 
in  its  viscous  extracted  state  or  in  a complete  comb 
for  table  use;  in  the  former  case  the  honey  is  re- 
moved from  the  frame  by  the  cei-trifugal  force  due 
to  rapid  revolution  round  the  vertical  axle  of  a cage 
into  the  groves  of  which  the  frames  after  removal 
from  the  supers  to  the  honey-room  are  placed  for 
“extracting.” 
The  comb  of  the  frames,  which  is  about  one  inch 
in  thickness,  is  emptied  by  this  means  without  being 
in  the  least  degree  injured,  hence  the  frames  are  at 
once  available  for  being  refilled  by  the  further  in- 
dustry of  the  bees,  altogether  a great  saving  of  their 
time  and  labour  on  the  old  system  of  breaking  up 
the  comb  by  hand  for  the  extraction  of  the  honey 
which  involved  the  building  of  new  combs  every  time 
of  honey-getting. 
The  number  of  supers  varies  from  one  to  three 
depending  on  the  strength  of  the  colony  ; and  in 
what  the  Apiarist  calls  a good  “ honey-tlow,”  each 
super  or  set  of  supers  yielding  thirty  to  sixty  lbs. 
will  require  to  be  emptied  once  in  seven  to  ten  days. 
From  the  extractor  the  honey  is  drawn  off  and  passed 
through  wire  strainers  of  fine  mesh  into  large  iron 
tanks  of  several  tons  capacity,  of  which  the  interiors 
are  painted  with  beeswax ; in  these  tanks  the  honey 
is  allowed  to  stand  for  several  days  that  all  minute 
particles  of  wax  may  rise  to  the  surface  and  be  skim- 
med off,  after  w'hich  there  only  remains  the  work  of 
putting  up  the  honey  into  differently  sized  tins  and 
the  wait  for  a rise  in  the  market,  often  in  these 
days  of  'Victorian  repentance  for  fiscal  sins  of  the 
past,  the  most  trying  experience  of  the  Apiarist. 
But,  of  all  one  learns  in  the  course  of  an  object 
lesson  from  an  expert  on  Bees,  of  the  most 
absorbing  interest  are  some  points  in  the  natural 
history  of  the  Queen-mother  and  the  way 
she  governs  ; her  remarkable  fecundity  which  amounts 
to  tlie  laying  in  the  height  of  the  season  of  from 
three  to  four  thousand  eggs  a day  ; her  discrimina- 
ting power  exercised  in  depositing  at  will  eggs  of 
workers,  drones,  or  queens,  each  in  their  special  cells; 
the  royal  demands  she  makes  upon  the  attentions 
of  the  workers  to  her  sufficient  feeding  and  warmth 
and  the  general  distress  occasioned  thioughout  the 
hive  by  her  removal ; these,  together  with  the  curious 
relations  of  the  sexes  in  the  internal  economy  of  the 
hive,  in  that  all  the  workers,  warriors  and  law- 
makers are  female  endowed  with  a plenitude  of  power 
over  the  luckless  drones  or  males,  almost  comparable 
to  that  among  men  to  which  soar  the  dearly  cherished 
aspirations  of  the  most  rabid  women’s  rights  society, 
are  some  of  the  features  which  almost  beguile  into 
a deeper  study  of  the  habits  of  bee-life. 
From  the  unlimited  supply  of  bee-food  scattered 
broad  cast  over  the  land,  from  the  length  of  the  bee 
season,  practically  from  September  to  May,  through 
which  the  blossoms  last  and  the  bees  can  work  and 
lastly  from  the  abnormal  disparity  between  the  honey 
values  quoted  in  the  English  home  market  and  the 
cost  of  its  production  here,  even  enhanced  as  it  is 
at  present  by  the  evil  effects  of  a prohibitively  high 
tariff,  it  is  evident  on  the  face  of  it  that  under 
ordinarily  favourable  conditions  of  transport  there 
is  a great  field  for  the  expansion  of  this  industry 
in  Victoria. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  in  fact  that  with  its  many 
advantages  this  Colony  can  in  this  respect  success- 
fully compete  with  California  or  other  of  the  Americans, 
and  that  were  only  the  excellent  quality  of  the  honey 
produced  sufficiently  known  in  Europe,  the  yearly 
output  would  quickly  increase  to  the  tune  of  several 
hundreds  of  tons  and  the  retail  price  there  become 
so  reduced  as  to  bring  the  luxury  of  its  daily  use 
within  the  means  of  the  toiling  masses  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  Old  World. 
THE  IfUSSIAN  TEA  COMMISSIONEKS  IN 
CEYLON. 
On  board  steamer,  3rd  -June,  189o. 
Dk.VI!  Sili, — Totally  unforseen  affairs  hindered 
me  in  my  travelling,  and  when  I returned  to 
Colombo,  I only  just  bad  time  enough  to  ful- 
fill some  very  urgent  btisine.ss  and  get  on  board 
the  steamer  in  time  before  it  sailed.  In  this 
manner  I was  de|)rived  of  the  |)ossibility  ot  seeing 
yoti  again.  This  was  a double  grief  to  me  as  it 
would  have  given  me  the  greatest  possible 
|)leasure  to  see  you  once  more  as  1 should  very 
much  have  liked  to  have  narrated  to  j'ou  afi 
my  experiences  and  to  have  bad  the  jtleasure  of 
hearing  your  valuable  oitinion  about  them. 
As  a matter  of  course,  on  my  returning  from 
China  amt  .Japan  to  Ceylon,  my  first  visit  will 
be  to  you.  But  Jiow  you  must  allow  me, 
altbougli  it  can  onlj’ be  by  letter  to  thank  you  from 
the  bottom  of  my  heart  for  all  your  kindness  to 
me  and  for  tlie  active  help  3’ou  gave  me  in  my 
mission,  thanks  to  which  help  I was  enabled  in 
a very  short  time  to  examine  several  large  tea 
estates,  and  collected  some  most  costly  material 
for  stndying  the  tea  busine.ss  in  the  most  advanced 
and  motlernized  tea-country,  which  no  doubt 
Ceylon  is  in  coni]iari.son  with  ari,y  other  tea  dis- 
tricts of  India.  The  Euroj)can  art,  the  amr.zing 
energy,  the  ingenuity,  the  expediencj’  and 
practicalne.ss,  thet  is  to  be  .seen  in  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  total  management  as  well  as  in  respect 
to  all  the  technicalities  of  the  business,  struck 
me  as  beiim  most  wonderful.  I add  in  conclu- 
sion that  the  Planters  received  me  every  win  re 
in  a very  kind  and  hospitable  manner  and  with 
the  greatest  reiidine-s.s  showed  me  their  busine.ss  ; 
communicated  to  me  a whole  (luantiQy  of  tiseful 
knowledge,  obtained  by  many  jears  practical 
xnerience,  all  of  whicii  was  of  the  greatest 
value  to  me. 
I should  like  to  have  once  more  the  opportunity 
of  shaking  hands  with  those  clever  planters, 
who  were  my  tiist  instructors  in  tea  matters  ami 
to  whom  I shall  always  bad  exceptional  anil 
t hankful  acknowledgment , 
