198 



THE AGRICULTURAL Ne;vS. 



June 18, 1904. 



BEE KEEPING. 



How to get Worker Comb built. 



Ill Gli'iutiiujn in Hei' Cultuir lor ]\[;vy 1, lilO-i, an 

 interesting article appears in which suggestions are 

 given for preventing spaces in incomplete fhunes, 

 or spaces caused by cutting out queen cells, etc., 

 Injin being utilized by the bees for building drone 

 instead of worker comb. For the benefit of those 

 concerned in bee culture in the West Indies, we make 

 the following extracts : — 



All colonies which are too weak to store honey to 

 advantage at the beginning of the honey-flow may be treated 

 thus : Their i-ombs are generally all taken from them 

 excepting two, one having a little brood and consideralde 

 honey in it, and the other one being as nearly full of honey as 

 possible, giving all the other combs having brood in them to 

 other colonies so that they will be still stronger for the honey 

 harvest. Now put in one, two, and sometimes three frames, 

 having starters in them, or /nnneii ^fhichare jnirtly Jillfd with 

 comb. These are any combs w hieh may have been started at 

 any time and not completely tilled. Or they may l)e frames 

 once filled with comb, a part of which may be drone 

 comb, which has been cut out, or holes, which have come 

 about by some accidents to the combs, such as mice gnawing 

 them, or the bees tearing them down to get out mouldy pollen 

 or something of that sort ; or the bees may have been allowed 

 to build comb when they were not in the condition to build 

 worker comb conclusivel_v. 



If not too strong, the bees will generally build comb of 

 the worker size of cells till the brood begins to emerge from 

 the eggs first laid in the newly built combs by the queen ; 

 but as soon as many bees emerge they are liable to change to 

 the drone size of cells; or if the little colony is ipiite .strong 

 in bees they may change the size of cells sooner than this, if 

 honey is coming in very rai)idly, 



As soon as the first frames are filled with comb, find out 

 how many bees they have : and if they are still well 

 stocked with bees, or are in a shape where a change of the 

 size of cells may be expected before they reach the bottom of 

 any frames started with worker comli, take away any full 

 frames they may have already built. This will put them in 

 almost the same condition as when first started, except that 

 it would be well to give them, at the same time, a comb 

 containing mostly honey with some emerging brood (if they 

 have such a comb it is left with them, which is more often 

 the case than otherwise) from some other colony, when they 

 are ready to work the same as before. 



If not so strong lait that they will build worker comb 

 still longer, instead of taking the brood away, spread apart 

 the combs now built, and insert one or more frames with 

 starters, between, when these will generally be filled with 

 worker comb liefore enough young bees emerge for them to 

 change the size of cell. Should they have changed the size of 

 cell into drone comb, the combs they then have, all except 

 the one mostly filled with the honey, are to be taken away so 

 that they may feel their need of worker brood again, when 

 they will build cells of the worker size once more. 



PREVENTION OF TROPICAL DISEASES. 



In his lecture at the West India Committee 

 Kooins (in 'The Disease Probioiii of the West Indies,' 

 Sir Patrick JIanson sinnmed up his suggestions for the 

 ])revention of tropical diseases as follows: — 



I have two suggestions to make. The first is that a 

 well-equipped laboratoiy, with an alile and experienced 

 director with suitable assistance, be established at some 

 central and otherwise suitable point in the AVest Indies. 

 The director is of more imiiortance than the laboratory. This 

 is a fundamental iirinciple too often lost sight of in establish- 

 ing such institution.s. More money is spent on the bricks 

 than on the brains. The result is "a splendid building that 

 looks well but yields nothing. I would suggest, then, a first 

 class director, a sufficient statt', and a modest laboratory to 

 be devoted to the study of the causes and [irevention of the 

 diseases of man and the domestic animals in the West Indies. 



The other suggestion I would make is one tliat I have 

 urgetl on more than one occasion. Hitherto, I am sorry to 

 say, I have been crying in the wilderness. The suggestion 

 has reference to the application of the knowledge we already 

 possess about tropical diseases, and of such additional 

 knowletlge as we may become i)ossessed of in the future. It 

 is that every lioy and girl in every .school in our West Indian 

 Colonies be taught the leading facts on which a rational 

 system of tropical .s-jnitation might be founded. The idea is 

 a perfectly jiracticable one. To carry it out would cost 

 next to nothing. The good that would ensue would be 

 immense. The educational machinery in the shape of 

 teachers and schools already exists. All that is required 

 would be a short course of instruction to the teachers, a few 

 diagrams and two or three additional pages in the current 

 school books. It ought not to be difficult to put into simple 

 language the story of malaria, of filariasis, of yellow fever 

 and their relations to the mos<puto, the story of the 

 ankylostome of the tubercle bacillus and of other important 

 disease germs. If well done liya skilled litterateur, it would 

 read like a fairy tale and sink into the mind.s of the children 

 to be a guide to theni in their future lives. It is only bj 

 catching the negro young that you will ever wean him from 

 his silly traditions about disease, far less get him to believe 

 in and act on the great facts to which I have alluded. Instil 

 these facts and ideas into the young negro mind, and he will 

 stick to the truth as obstinately as he now sticks to nonsense. 

 You might la-each for ever to the growu-uii man negro 

 about the virtues of fresh air, he will stuff the keyhole°as 

 soon as your back is turned : you might preach forever to 

 the old grannie negress about the merits of a clean house 

 and a dry compound, she will still pin her faith to dirt and 

 bu.sh medicine and sturt' the babies with paji. It is usele.ss 

 to attempt the sanitary reform of the adult negro. He is 

 more wedded to his old ways and more obstinate and stupid 

 than even an average Englishman. firing the child up in 

 the way it should walk is ad\ ice just as good for the body 

 as it is good for the mind. The end and i)urpose of 

 education is the benefit of both. 



AA'ere these suggestions carried out, I feel convinced that 

 in a few yeiirs incalculable benefit would result to the West 

 Indies. Not only would much sutt'ering lie avoided and 

 many lives saved, but energies at present repressed by 

 l)reventible di.sease would be free to assist in the develo[imen"t 

 of countries whose natural resources might Ion" ai'o have 

 placed them in the fore-front of our colonies. 



(Jther extracts from the lecture have already 

 appeared in the A<jriridtui'i(l Xru-x (Vol. Ill, pp. 189, 

 1.57 and 16(3). 



