No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 673 



From a recent report from Canada we have statistics that eighty 

 per cent, of bees of that country were lost through winter killing. 

 In this State every person who has attempted to keep bees knows 

 that we are below the possible accurate estimate when we say 

 that one-third of the bees of Pennsylvania have died by "winter 

 killing," or as man}' as 33 1-3 per cent, are lost from this source 

 each winter. This means at least 16,000 colonies, with a value of 

 |3.00 per colony, making about $84,000 loss by "winter-killing." 

 Nearly all of this can be prevented by up-to-date methods. Bee- 

 keepers who understand modern methods lose but few from this 

 source, while farmers generally lose at least one-half of their bees 

 during each winter. This shows that a knowledge of the methods 

 of keeping bees is very important. 



Also, a very destructive bee disease, known as Foul Brood or 

 Black Brood has broken out in some parts of this State, and has 

 destroyed no less than 10,000 colonies of bees, and possibly three or 

 four times as many. The least value of the bees annually lost by 

 diseases, moths, etc., must be as much as $30, 000, and this makes 

 the grand total of loss of bees and honey in this State as much as 

 $1,200,000.00, upon a basis of computation that will not be denied 

 nor challenged by persons who are really familiar with the subject. 



Bee-keeping in the State of Pennsylvania is seriously neglected, 

 while in other states it is receiving a considerable amount of atten- 

 tion and is developing accordingly. For example, in the State of 

 New York there are several State inspectors for the disease known 

 as Foul Brood, and a very active New York State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, which annually holds a series of Institutes in Bee- 

 Keeping in various portions of the state, which are maintained by 

 state appropriations, the same as Farmers' Institutes. This is 

 resulting in greatly increasing the production of honey within the 

 region embraced. Pennsylvania has the fruits, blossoms and cul- 

 tivated and wild flowers holding nectar for far more than the annual 

 production of honey than is now obtained, and she has sufficient 

 persons engaged in bee-keeping to make her honey production very 

 remarkable; but there are two things that are neglected: (1) Knowl- 

 edge of the real principles of bee-keeping, and the methods of honey 

 production, marketing, etc., and (2) failure of our bee-keepers to put 

 such knowledge into practice; or in other words, negligence of the 

 bee-keepers to follow scientific instructions and apply the princi 

 pies involved in the science of Apiculture. 



The papers published in this Report are those presented at the 

 First Annual Meeting of this Association, held at Harrisburg in 

 December, 1904, and as they are by persons who fully understand 

 their subjects, and pertain directly to bee-keeping in the State of 

 Pennsylvania, it is quite appropriate that they should be published 

 by our State Department of Agriculture. 



43— G— 1905 



