126 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



riated. This consideration also indicates the extreme care that should 

 be used to prevent robbing" in a locality where the disease is known to 

 exist, as well as the care that must be given to secure from bees the combs 

 and honey taken from diseased colonies. Their immediate and complete 

 destruction by tire -would be the safest course for many to pursue, but 

 the honey and wax are sometimes of considerable value, and this ex- 

 treme course need not be pursued if one is careful and has proper con- 

 veniences for disposing of the honey and comb. When there is but little 

 honey in the combs, it is best to boil the combs at once and secure the 

 wax. If there is honey which it is desired to save, first cut out all parts 

 of the comb containing brood and boil or burn them, then extract the 

 honey, which may be used for the table or boiled with one or two parts 

 of water and used as food for the bees. Boil at least fifteen minutes. 

 The comb must then be boiled and the wax secured. Or if the honey is 

 only desired to feed the bees, the combs, honey and all, may be boiled in 

 just the amount of water necessary and the bee food and wax secured at 

 the same time and with less labor and trouble. It is to be borne in mind 

 that all honey from these combs is dangerous for bees unless it is thor- 

 oughly boiled. 



Not a few, I fear, will exclaim at my intimation a little ago that foul 

 brood could only come from foul brood germs, and begin to assert that it 

 can come equally well from brood that has been chilled to death. In 

 Virgil's time, swarms of bees were bred from the carcass of an ox; when 

 good Izaak Walton lived, the fish called tlife pike bred from pike weed; 

 lately chess grew from wheat, and now foul brood grows from something 

 else. 



Well, bees, and fish, and chess, have now come to increase normally, 

 and if foul brood has not yet, it very soon will. 



No, it is still true that men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of 

 thistles. 



E. L. TAYLOK. 



Lapeer, Mich., Nov. 17, 1897. 



