Phoenix weekly herald. [volume] (Phoenix, Maricopa County, Ariz. Territory) 1896-1899, 1898-11-10


be welcome
-. s:e.:s.s1K citizenship and
49, receive every facility and induce
11nent TO emigrate to the United States
and engage in the skilled labor in
which it has no peer. This is the
Giant East Indian honey bee, whose
| immense capacity for making honey
and wax has interested the Depart
ment of Agriculture in the considera-
ton of an early effort to introduce it
| in the United States. To science
| this bee is known as Apis dorsata. 1t
| is common throughout the tropical re
| @ions of the east and in the Philippine
| Islands the very largest of the species
| is TO be found. 1t is nearly one half
larger than the American native hon
| ey bee and builds a comb heavy with
wax and honey. five or six times as
| large as those found in American or
chards and forests.
The question of acclimatizing these
Inhabitants of the Philippines in the
colder ATTITUDES of America is not dis
couraging. The giant bees are found
in the mountain 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 mountains. as
the unceasing quests of the natives for
their honey combs has driven them
from the UNPROTECTED fatIands of the
coast to the less thickly inhabited and
more heavily wooded mountain re-
@ions- The Filipinos find their daily
bread rather easy proposition. but |
they are fond of honey on the staff of |
life. Tere is also large demand for |
WAX for use in dyeing
The big bees build their hives on tall |
forest trees or on the oyerhangino |
Lodges of cliffs. When undisturbed. |
branch Swarms build near the parent
colony. so that in few years an i'm
mense bee settlement often grows UP
in the forest. The bees build a comb
five or six feet long. four feet wide
and from seven Fights to one and one 4
half inches in thickness. The largest
combs of American honey bees are not
of more than one fifth these dimen-
sfons. In annearance the giant bee is
a smoky. glittering. irideScent black
wasp like figure. with orange bands
its body There have been
reports that this bee is most ferocious
and on account of its great size ex-
tremely dangerous. but Prof. Frank
Benton of the Department of Agricul-
lure has seen and handled them in
their jungle haunts. and he tells a diff !
SiSHt SlOTy. 1ney are SucN DuSH ana
workers according to Prof
Benton's account that they have lost {
ieXterity wit their singing apparatus.
md though they may alight full of
wrath and evil intent. upon human
land or neck. they do not handle their
offensive weapon with skill. and it G
axes them 20 to 80 seconds to get c
heir sting in working order. They t
re quiet as compared to American /
lees. /
Petitions have been coming into the a
department. of Agriculture asking that V
he government introduce these giant
'ees into the United States. No at p
empt at bringing them here has ever O
,een successful. Prof Benton tried V
o bring TO the United States swarm v
f these honey makers. which he cap s
ured in the jungle. While he was Q
ick in bed on his way home. no one t
lse on the vessel would attend to
hem, and they all died.-New York n
TN. b