255 
position. This tree was evidently topped at about four feet from the 
ground and threw out three branches, which are now to great size. 
It is grown in the open in low swampy soil. It gave fourteen pounds 
of rubber on being tapped by the spiral system and would probably 
have given more under any other system of tapping. 
The growth of this tree in the last few years in girth has been: 
1904 
109i 
1905 
ml 
1906 
113| inches 
1907 
1908 
120 inches. 
H. N. R. 
BEE CULTURE. 
The honey or hive bee {Apis mellifica) is of great value to the 
Agriculturist and Horticulturist in Europe because of the important 
part it performs in the conveyence of pollen from flower to flower and 
thereby securing by cross fertilization the production of healthy seeds. 
The presence of the honey bee in Malaya is equally important to the 
Agriculturalist and for this reason planters and others would be well 
advised to encourage the cultivation of honey on their states and gardens. 
Often we hear of crops of seed being poor and partly failing. This is 
probably due in some measure to the improper fertilization of the flowers 
by insects and when we remember that the honey bees perform by far 
the most important part in cross-fertilization it appears surprising 
that so little thought is given to these little creatures. 
The honey bees are a numerous group of insects with a general 
similarity of aspect and agreeing in many of their social customs. Of 
the several species found wild in the Malay Peninsula the small Apis 
indica is the only one which lends itself to domestication. 
It is somewhat smaller than the European species but in 
appearance and colour is almost identical. It is found in India and 
China and most parts of the east. All the honey-bees have the habit 
of building cells for the storing of eggs and larvae. They also collect 
the pollen and nectar from flowers and plants and feed themselves 
and their larvae on a mixture of these substances. A colony of bees 
is comprised of males or drones, perfect females or Queens and 
undeveloped females generally called workers. 
The Queen (generally one in each nest) is the largest and is easily 
recognised by its long graceful body. The drone is of an inter- 
mediate size and is thick and clumsy looking. The worker is the 
smaller of the three and is well known to everyone. The function of 
the drone is to impregnate the Queen and here its functions cease and 
it is killed off by the workers. The Queen’s share of the work of the 
hive is confined to laying eggs. The bulk of the work falls to the workers 
who collect food, attend to the young brood, etc., etc. Should a queen 
leave the hive with a swarm the workers have the power of producing a 
new queen from one of the undeveloped female larvae by enlarging its 
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