No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 515 



of which — bee paralysis — attacks the old bees but does very little 

 harm, for a change of queens seems to settle the matter generally. 

 The other three are more serious and are bacterial in form and 

 attacks the larv£e or undeveloped brood. 



No certain remedy has as yet been found although much progress 

 has been made by private individuals; but the State should take up 

 this matter just as it has done with tuberculosis in cattle and the 

 San Jos^ Scale in orchards; for we know Foul lirood, (Mack liiood 

 and Pickled Brood exist to an alarming extent in the State and 

 should be exterminated by law, and we ask the Department to 

 bring this matter to the attention of the next Legislature. There 

 are in the State 161,670 colonies of* bees, which produce 2,526,202 

 pounds of honey annually, which it is safe to say can easily be 

 quadrupled without crowding. During the year I purchased some 

 empty hives from a neighbor and now have some well developed 

 cases of some bee disease which can only be determined by examina- 

 tion in the spring, with the danger of having all the rest exposed 

 to the disease, hence the necessity of some protection becomes ap- 

 parent. 



Next, its management. This is the most important point of all. 

 The honey-bee has a language of its own easily understood when 

 you get used to it. The past season has been unfavorable in 

 many respects. The fine weather in March stimulated brood-rear- 

 ing only to be followed by cold in April and part of May. The sum- 

 mer was generally cool and not fa^vorable for the secretion of nectar 

 in flowers, which process requires w^arm nights wath moist but not 

 wet weather. If I get two weeks of good warm nights in buck- 

 wheat bloom I count the season a success, as in my section we get 

 very little surplus early in the season. Buckwheat, though plenty 

 and full of bloom, did not produce much surplus this year; but a 

 warm September made up in part by giving us a fine flow of moun- 

 tain or wild honey; fine white in color and No. 1 in flavor, its only 

 fault, its liability to granulate, which it will do either extracted 

 or in the comb. 



The report of the Committee on Floriculture having been called 

 for, was read by Mr. Engle for Mr. Edwin Lonsdale, chairman, which 

 is as follows: 



