The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-01
GIANTS AMONG HONEY BEES.
They Build Enormous Combs, 9 Feet
Long, A Feet Wide, 1 Inch Thick.
u,ro,, .bo NIauy YorIr World

They Build Enormous COMBS, reef
Long, Feet Wide, 1 Inch Thick.
From the New York World
The department of agriculture will make
on effort to introduce into the United
States the great East Indian honey bee.
which is found in the Philippines. He is
the most industrious inhabitant of those
islands.
To scientists this be is known as Apis
lorsata, a species common throughout the
tropical regions of the East. In the Phil
ippine Islands the very largest variety of
this species is found. 1t is nearly one-half
larger than our native honey bee, and
five or six times as large as the ones that
are found in American orchards and for
ests. In addition to the enormous manu-
featuring capacity of this particular bee
its introduction will have the important
effect of securing from some of the rich
est honey-bearing plants of the United
States the sweet juices which now remain
ungathered.
The propagation and increase of these
plants will also be UNNECESSARILY assisted
by other services the big bees viii render.
These results will be brought about for
the very extraordinary reason that the
giant of the East has a tongue nearly
twice as long as our native bees. All
these little workers get at the honey in
flowers with their tongues, but many
blossoms have such deep wells in which
their sugar treasure Is stored that our ma
tive bees cannot reach 1t.
The principal honeybearing flower
which our native bees find TOO hard a
problem for their limited honey pumps is
the red clover, a flower distributed all
over America. The long tongues of the
big Philippine bees would find these clover
blossoms a very mine of sweetness, and
a great amount OF honey would be
welded up to that long-tongued bee that
now is practically loss to the world. In
return for the honey these bees would
find i'm the red clover, their introduction
to that plant would prove an inestimable
assistance to its reproduction. Most plants
are fortified and reproduce through the
distribution of the fertilizing pollen Of one
plant upon the blossoms of another. Bees
play a most important part in this opera
ton. carrying, as they do, the pollen of
flower from which they have sucked the
honey of another, where they seek new
sweets, the fertihzing powder clings TO the
limbs and bodies of the little insects.
Secretry Wilson said last week in con-
uection with the proposed Importation of
these bees TO the United States that
special appropriation would be asked in
his coming report to Congress for the In
vestigation of the bees of the world and
swarm of the big Philippine honey
makers would be brought 10 America a
soon as the question of their value and
the possibility of their acclimatization
had been fully determined. An appro>
prlatlon will be requested also for the
study of the agricultural and kindred
products of the newly acquired territories
of the United States.
The question of acclimatizing these in
habitants of the Philippines in the colder
ATTITUDES of America is not dscouraging.
The giant bees are found In the noun
tain regions all through India, and have
been seen busily at work at attitudes of
5000 feet In the Philippine Islands their
colonies are most numerous in the noun
toins. as the quest of the natives for
their honeycombs has driven them from
the unprotected fiat lands of the coast to
the less thickly Inhabited and more heav-
ly wooded mountain regions The Fill
pinos find their daily bread rather easy
proposition but they are very fond OF
honey on the staff of life and wax is next
to gold in its popularity.
In the East wax Is a principal article
Of staple commerce, due to the manner in
which the cloth worn by the natives Is
dyed. This cloth when fresh woven is
covered with a thin layer Of wax, leaving
unexposed the pattern which Il is desired
TO dye. The cloth is then soaked in the