BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Large quantities of honey, equally as palatable and containing as an agreeable an aroma as this justly celebrated Cuban article, is produced in this State, notably in that part of the county of Cumberland lying between Parraunatta and Gordon, and also in other citrus districts of New South Wales. All that is required to obtain this far-fanned honey for the market is a certain amount of care in the management of the hive during the honey-flow from the orange-trees. At the time these trees and other members of the same family are seen in blossom-bud, the bee-keeper should carefully examine every frame in the hive, and remove the winter storage that has not been consumed. It will not be found necessary to remove every cell of unused honey, more especially if the surplus supply is in colour a light amber. The oil of neroli is very penetrative, and its pleasant perfume will soon permeate the unused residue of the winter stock. As soon as the petals of the orange-blossom are seen thickly on the ground, _i.e.,_ when the young fruit have fairly set, no time should be lost in securing the harvest of orange-blossom honey. The almond flavour sometimes met with in the honey obtained from our fruit districts is entirely due to the volatile oils found in peach blossom and other stone-fruit. With care all these favourite flavoured honeys can be stored for market purposes. The worst part of it is, these valuable honeys come in during early spring, when they are largely required by the bees for raising the first brood of the season. Nevertheless, if the beekeeper has not been over avaricious and extracted too closely before putting his bees up for winter, this drawback will not be there to contend with.
The honey of our native flora that is most appreciated is that from the white box (_Etucalyptus hemiplobia_), yellow box (_E. mellidora_), and the prickly tea-tree (_Melleuen stylipeloides_). Undoubtedly some honey from our native flowers is so strongly impregnated with eucalyptus flavour as to give one the idea that it is a compound medicament for coughs, colds, &c., and was never produced direct from Nature's laboratories. This inferior, strongly-flavoured bush honey is objected to by our brethren in the old country, and indeed by the public of New South Wales ; but the honey with the flavours above-mentioned must ultimately become as popular and as much sought after as that of Crete, Minorca, Narbonne, or Cuba.
Honey is not only a valuable article of food, but is at once dietary, preservatory, medicinal, and a beverage. As an article of food, cheap as it is, there are few people use it to the extent it should be. As a preservative of fruit and other vegetable substances, it is one of the best mediums we have. It is frequently used in the arts for that purpose. It acts in the same manner as sugar. It is said the ancient Spartans used honey to preserve the dead bodies of their kings. The writer once saw the dead body of a mouse cut out from a jar of granulated honey. Whilst in a liquid state it had served as a medium of suicide for the unfortunate one. The body showed not the slightest signs of decomposition, although it must have been dead over twelve months. Honey diluted with about four times its volume of water, and exposed in an open vessel to the heat of the sun, produces a strong vinegar of a fine flavour. This vinegar is cheaply and easily made, and is equal, if not superior, to the malted article for pickling purposes. Honey, prepared with medicinal ingredients, forms an excellent medicated drink. The metheglen of the ancient Britons was fermented honey. Light or weak mead (another name for metheglen) is an excellent cooling summer drink.
## Chapter 3.1 The Value of Beeswax.
Beeswax is gradually going up in price. The bar-frame system of keeping bees has largely to answer for this. Under the old style, to obtain the honey, the combs were destroyed; that meant there was always a certain quantity of wax to be placed in the markets. Under the old regime beekeepers never required the wax, but under the new, nearly every grain is carefully husbanded for the purpose of converting it into foundation comb. As the new system of beekeeping spreads the less wax there will be in proportion to put to commercial use. Nevertheless the demand for wax is steadily on the increase. It therefore becomes a question: Will the production of wax pay? In this State there are localities where the honey is of a very inferior quality, in fact unsaleable at almost any price; and often times in those localities where good honey is obtainable there are seasons when an inferior article is brought home by the bees. I know that the production of wax is expensive alike to bees and bee-masters. Is it worth while in those localities where only inferior honey is obtained to try the experiment of wax production? Bees can be compelled to produce more wax than they need, and the surplus wax will always find a ready market when such honey as above mentioned will be on hand from season to season. The common class of honey can be bought in Sydney at the present time at 1\({}_{\frac{1}{2}}\)d, per lb. Fair samples of wax are worth from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 3d. per lb. For the former there is really little or no sale, for the latter there is a great demand, therefore always a ready sale. The maxim among merchants is the more frequently a penny is turned over the greater the profit. Wax never remains long on hand, but for this common honey there is no knowing when there will be a sale. There is no denying the fact that wax is more expensive to produce than honey. On the other hand it is not merely so expensive to market. The carriage of a ton of wax is the same as the carriage on a ton of honey. A ton of honey at 1\({}_{\frac{1}{2}}\)d. per lb. is worth \(\pounds 14\), and a ton of wax at 1s. per lb. is worth \(\pounds 112\). Wax can be sent to market in a bag, and if the bags burst there is none of the wax wasted. This cannot be said of honey. The vessels to market it in are far more expensive than is the case with wax.
## Wax Production.
Nature is very economic in all her ways, although she sometimes appears to be very lavish in her productions. This may seem contradictory, but it is not so. Where there seems to be a lavish expenditure, Nature's object is, ''supply according to demand.'' Labour and production, with all Nature's tiny workers, go hand in hand, although with some insects occasionally the labour seems excessive in comparison with the article produced, notably is this the case with some of the mason bees. No insect appears to be more saving in the article produced than the hive bee. Every grain of wax is thriftly husband; the walls of the cells are always carefully pared down to the thinnest limit compatible with strength. In a state of nature bees use the same combs and cells for years without renewing them. The old box hive was only one removed from Nature's primitive ways. It is the bar-frame hive that suggested such wonderful advancements in the method of bee-keeping; and it is the bar-frame that has given us the courage to take such daring liberties with the internal workings of the bee-hive. Francis Huber's experiments gave insight to the fact that bees may be forced to produce wax in a greater abundance than was necessary for the primary economy of the hive. Nature, which has taught bees so much, has instructed them in the regular preservation of a uniform distance between the combs. But frequently on the approach of autumn the honey cells are elongated so that the comb may contain a much greater quantity of stores. In the old fashion hives the angles of the box sometimes contained comb of abnormal thickness, not unfrequently cell upon cell to more than twice the ordinary dimensions. On the return of spring such cells are reduced to the uniform normal length. Lengthening a cell, as far as the bees are concerned, is the same as constructing a new comb; therefore to produce an extra quantity of wax it is only necessary to place the completed combs sufficiently far apart to give the bees enough room to construct an additional comb in the interstice, and as fast as the new comb is produced to remove it to the melting pot. Of course this can only be done when bar-frames are used.
## ADULTERATION OF WAX.
The demand for bees wax has stimulated the dishonest to try all ways and means to adulterate the genuine article and increase the profits of the dishonest. Not long since I was called in to
uniformly, through the whole sample; at other times I have seen it somewhat of the appearance of old-fashioned mottle soap. Such wax is in no way adulterated, but its commercial value is sadly marred. If this discoloured wax be used for foundation comb purposes, I do not think that the bees will reject it. Nevertheless, it is very unsightly even for that purpose. The natural colour of wax is of various yellow or orange shades. Oftentimes colouring matter is used to imitate the natural colour--this deception, too, is detectable by the experienced eye. Rendering wax in a galvanised-iron vessel is answerable for a lot of discolouration. Wax, when melted in a galvanised-iron vessel, has a more or less greenish tinge with it. Copper vessels are the best for wax rendering. To ordinary tin there is no objection, providing no acids have been in the tin. Wax should at all times be extracted by means of steam. Boiling water is detrimental. If appliances for extracting wax by the agency of steam are not available, _rain_ water is tne next best material for the purpose. Spring water is too often impregnated with lime or other chemicals. It is these mixing with the wax that produces that grey spongy mixture seen underlying wax after it has cooled.
## 110. Moulding wax.
Almost any vessel is suitable for this purpose, providing it is wider at the mouth than at the base. Glass or enamelware I find to be the best. Wax, after it has been run into the mould and cooled, is frequently found to be full of flaws. This is caused by the molten material being permitted to cool too quickly. As soon as the molten wax has been run into the mould it should be covered over with an old bag or other material, and thus, cooling slowly, these unsightly cracks or fissures will be avoided.
## 110. Old Black Combs.
Some old combs appear to be almost made up of cocoon cases and other cast off material. There certainly is not the quantity of wax to be obtained from these old combs as from the newer ones. Still, while the process of wax rendering is in hand it will pay ''to gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." Before putting these old black combs in the melting pot they should be thoroughly soaked. Rain water will be found best for the purpose, because it contains no mineral substances.
## 10 Loss of Wax.
From Cheshire, 589, vol. II., I quote the following:--"Much wax is wasted through failing to note that lime in water unites with the cerotic acid, forming an insoluble lime soap... Wax should never be melted, nor should combs be rendered in any but rain water or distilled water, unless to the water is added an acid." Vinegar is always procurable, and will answer the purpose as well as anything else. Sulphuric acid is preferable. Two teaspoonfuls of the latter to 1 gallon of water will prevent the formation of lime soap. This soapy material is to be found underneath the cakes of wax when cooled. If this be removed and treated with acid a good deal of the wax can be recovered. These remarks do not apply where a wax-extractor is used. A solar extractor should be in every apiary.
As the arts and sciences advance, the uses of wax are always on the increase. It is still a question if that wonderful wax-working insect, _Ajiis dursata_, would not pay to be introduced in this State.
## Chapter Xxxx.
THE INFLUENCE OF BESS ON CROPS.
"You have a splendid crop, thank God!" was once said at a harvest supper in the Old Country. "What do you thank God for!" was the reply; 'didn't I put plenty of manure in the ground!" If we were to put the question, "What are the chief necessaries in the production of your crops!" to all the agricultural societies in the States, many of them would probably answer, 'Deep and frequent ploughing, the loosening of the soil, keeping the surface well open, judicious manuring, good seed, freedom from weeas, and favourable seasons." No matter what branch of soil-culture an individual may be engaged in, or what crops he is growing, if he be market gardener, agricultural, florist, or orchardist, the answer, perhaps not in as many words, would be tantamount to the same. The florist and orchardist would add pruning to their catalogue of the necessary requirements. There are tiny agents employed by Nature that dwarf into utter insignificance all the modern implements of husbandry that are in use to ensure 'an abundant and heavy harvest." They are seldom taken into account. These tiny agents are an absolute and concomitant necessity for the production of a crop from any member of the vegetable kingdom. The wind and insects are the agents employed for the fertilisation of crops. The two mentioned are the chief, but there are many others of a subordinate character that nature frequently enlists to aid in the reproduction of the various members of her plant life. The members of Nature's great vegetable army, in regard to their method of reproduction, have two distinct characteristics by means of which they perpetuate their species and varieties, _i.e.,_ some are termed flowerless and others flowering plants--_cryptogamic_ and _phureregularite_ respectively. Forns, mosses, seaweeds, etc., are included in the former, but this article has nothing to do with the reproduction of these cryptogamic plants.
Flowering plants, 'the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself," are the portions of the subjects I wish to deal with. How herbs yield seed and how fruit-trees yield fruit, appears strange, if we take into consideration the too frequent destruction of the very many agents, more especially the honey bee, that husbandmen in their blind ignorance are constantly waging war upon. "'Snear the trees with poisoned honey,' "'Destroy the bees of the bee-farmer," or "Burn down the tree where there are bee nests," is the too constant advice given by well-educated fruit-growers, but whose knowledge of bee life is far below zero. Nature has been very lavishing in the distribution of her varieties of indespensable helpmates for the land cultrists. The tiller of the soil, after the necessary preparation of the land and all the mechanical aids he brings to bear in assisting the earth to yield her increase, and to produce her crops of cereals, vegetables, and fruits for our imperative use, is solely dependent on outside agents, over one of which he has little or too control. I refer to the wind. In insect agency--of these the principal ones are members of the bee family--he can to a certain extent regulate the supply and demand.
The chief agent employed in the fertilisation of the seed that supplies us with the "'staff of life" is the wind. Seeds that are so fertilised are termed anenophilus. But life's luxuries--cherries, pluns, and other drupes or stone fruit generally--are fertilised by insects; so are the pomes and all apple-like fruits, citrus fruits, berries, &c. Insects make the labours of the fruit-grower a great certainty--make "'assurance doubly sure.' Without them all lhs labours would end in a wretched and miserable failure. We are entirely dependent on insects for the fertilisation of our fruit. Seeds or fruits that are thus dependent on insects for reproduction are termed entomophilus. It is a true and wise saying, "No bees, no fruit." Nothing can be more fallacious than the idea that bees injury crops. There is no more widely entertained opinion among fruit-growers and florists than this. Let a fruit differ somewhat in form, tint, flavour, or general appearance from that of the same crop on the same tree, the innocent bee is accredited with having "'innoculated" that particular member of the fruit of that tree. I have heard it said, when examining the fruit on a novel orange tree, where the characteristic mark in some of the fruit was very prominent and in others almost inconspicuous, that the latter was caused by _bees;_ and this, too, from men of prominent positions in the agricultural world. If an ornamental flowering plant prototype a bloom differing somewhat from the rest of its kind, or sport, the bee is said to be the culprit.
Jam-makers, during preserving seasons, very frequently, when the bees come to clean up the waste syrup, and perhaps steal a little from that not found in the waste tub, cause, by means of boiling water, the destruction of millions of these tiny and industrious workers. Men do not understand that if they were to carry out this slaughter of the innocents with too high a hand, they would have little or no fruit to preserve. It may be interjected that butterflies, moths, beetles, and other members of the insect world fertilise our fruit crops as well as the bee family. True; but they leave behind them whole armies--well-drilled armies--of caterpillars, grubs, or maggots. These destroy the very fruit their parents fertilised, defoliate the trees, cause sickness inducing disease, and ultimately the destruction of the orchard. This cannot be said of the bee. Butterflies, &c.. fly from tree to tree and orchard to orchard, laying a few eggs here and a few there. It is difficult to confine or introduce them to a district, and when once there it is a greater difficulty still to exterminate them. Insect fertilisers, other than bees, are nearly all solitary and housedess wanderers, and it is a work of patience and labour to mitigate their ravages, and the little good they may do as fertilisers is greatly counterbalanced by the great mischief wrought by their offspring. On the other hand, bees are social, are domestic, are under control, can be increased or diminished according to requirements.
The advent of a bee-keeper in a fruit-growing district is not a blessing in disguise, but a blessing so prominent that a traveller passing through a fruit district by express train during fruit harvest can always see the handwork of the bee. The orchardist cultivates the trees from which the bees get their pollen and the bee-keeper his honey harvest, and the fruit-grower in his turn is almost entirely dependent on the bee-keeper for his harvest of fruit. ietween bee-keepers, fruit-growers, florists, &e., there is a mutual provident association so strongly united that to repress the former is to destroy the profits of the latter.
Another interjection : "I have not the bees been the chief agents in the destruction of some of the best varieties of melons, pump-kins, cucumbers, and other members of _Cucurbulence_ or gourd order that have been introduced into the State?" If by this it is meant that certain varieties of these very useful vegetables have entirely disappeared, and have been replaced by inferior ones, the result of cross-pollenisation, the bee for a while must plead guilty, because the whole of the order _Cucurbulence_ is entomophilous, and the bee plays the chief part in the cross-pollenisation. The fertilisationof the whole of the gourd order is so easily controlled, that the bee must be acquitted, although he has pleaded guilty, on the ground that the growers have wholly contributed to the result by their indolence, carelessness, or ignorance. A little ignorance in these matters is far more dangerous than the proverbial little knowledge.
The essential organs of plant-life--that is to say, those organs wholly contributing to reproduction--are so prominent in the larger tpye of blossoms, such as pumpkins, fuchsias, the flowers of most fruit-trees, maize, &c., they can be seen with the naked eye and their functions easily demonstrated by or to anyone having the ''observing eye.'' There is no necessity for a costly set of microscopic appliances, nor scientifically fitted-up laboratories, nor years of apprenticeship ''to boot,'' to become an expert in the use Nature makes of the essential organs of flowers. The primary function of flowers, and, indeed, the only use flowers or blossoms are to the trees that bear them, is that of reproducing or perpetuating its species. The most essential parts of a flower are the stamens and pistil. These essential organs are most vigorous, healthy, and free from blemish in the earlier parts of the day. Just after the corolla bursts, these unfurl, the anthers become distributive--_i.e._, the pollen they contain is sufficiently matured to be wafted by the wind, or gathered by insects or other agencies for fertilising purposes--and later the stigma becomes receptive. The atmosphere during these early hours, in spring time, as a rule, is characterised by a dead calmness, or at the most by gentle breezes. This calmness is most beneficial, and is a highly necessary agent in ensuring successfully the fructification of entomophilous fruits. The more frequently the bees trip to and fro from home to orchard and orchard to home, the greater and better are the results that follow their labours.
I have used the terms bloom, flower, and blossom indiacriminately. They are synonymous. The two former are generally applied to the flowers en ornamental plants, and the last to fruit-trees.
To understand how the all-important work of fertilisation is carried on by bees and other insects, it will be necessary to glance over the accompanying diagram, and have a slight knowledge of the functicns each portion of a bloom has to perform.
The pistil (3), Diagram \(\Gamma\), is divided into ovary (4), style (2), and stigma (1). The stigma is the end of the style turned inside out. It has four very peculiar characteristics: First, it is skinless ;secondly, it is adhesive--if it be applied to down or a light feather it will adhere to it; thirdly, it is porous; and in the fourth place, it is covered with a lot of hair-like hooklets. These peculiarities in the stigma form important parts in the economy of fertilisationr, taken in conjunction with the offices performed by bees in relation to fruit and the reproduction of plant-life. The style is traversed internally by a canal forming a tube, which is the connecting link between the stigma with the ovary.
In this diagram the ovary (4) is said to be _superor_--that is, above or within the parts \(\approx\) or \(\approx\). Whilst the blossion is in bud-form it is enveloped by the coroll and envy, and cannot be seen until these parts are mature or fall.