A Collection of Papers on Bee-keeping in India The Honey-Bee: its Nature, Homes, and Products

Abstract

THE thin folio issued by the Indian Government is very redolent of red-tape, since it contains not only a large number of reports from forest and district officers, and other persons in various parts of India, but also the whole of the official correspondence, memoranda, and indorsements connected with the same. Moreover, it is almost a misnomer to call it a collection of papers on “Bee-keeping,” since at least nine-tenths of the reports state that domesticated bees are quite unknown in their districts; and the bulk of the matter (nearly a hundred pages of close print) is occupied with accounts of native methods of taking the combs of wild bees and preparing the wax, and with very imperfect descriptions of the various kinds of honey-producing bees in each district. The general result of the inquiry, as stated in a “Resolution” of the Revenue and Agricultural Department, is the following:—

A Collection of Papers on Bee-keeping in India.

Published under the Orders of the Government of India, in the Revenue and Agricultural Department, 1883. (Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1883.)

The Honey-Bee: its Nature, Homes, and Products.

By W. H. Harris With Eighty-two Illustrations. (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1884.)