August 13, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



137 



to my feet and saw two snakes, one of which I caught : it 

 is about 12 inches long. They were making directly for the 

 chickens with their heads about 4 inches from the ground. 



POULTEY-FANCIEK. 



GOSLINGS WASTING AWAY. 



A FEW weeks ago I purchased twenty -four Geese, fourteen 

 of which have since died. These I found to be infested with 

 insects (lice, I presume), as per enclosed specimens. Never 

 having had any similarly alfected, I am at a loss to account 

 for them, and am desirous to know how to get rid of them ; 

 also, the after-treatment to strengthen tlie birds. They 

 seem daily to grow y,reaker and less disposed to take either 

 food or exercise ; in fact they become quite toi-jjid, and at 

 last die fi-om apparent exhaustion, complete skeletons. — 

 J. G. 



[All Geese are subject to lice. They are confined to no 

 age, condition, or sex. They seem to have been made for 

 them. Being ijerfectly flat, they bestow themselves cai-e- 

 fully between two feathers and the water has no effect ; but 

 if it should peneti-ate they take refuge in the down. If the 

 down should get damp, instinct prompts the bird to leave 

 the water directly if possible. If you were to go to Leaden- 

 liall at Michaelmas and look at the best, largest, and fattest 

 Geese, and if you were to examine them attentively you wotdd 

 find, that although they were plucked some lice remained 

 sheltered in the wings and those parts that were still fea- 

 thered. There is no Goose without them. They do not, there- 

 fore, cause the death of yoiu' goslings. If you bought in youi- 

 immediate neighbourhood, either you have been imposed 

 upon or your feeding has been bad. If you bought in Lon- 

 don there is no knowing where they were bred. Goslings 

 come in flocks from France, Holland, and Belgium. Of our 

 own countrymen, Scotland and L-eland help us. The history 

 of Geese is a history indeed. Stratford in Essex had formerly 

 the mouoiioly of feeding. Thither all the floclts of Geese 

 wended. From the begmning of Jidy till the end of August 

 all the roads leading to Stratford were full of Geese, tended 

 by one man who kept all in order and stayed any wander- 

 ing propensities on the part of any of his charge by catching 

 the offender by the leg, not with his hands, be it under- 

 stood, but by means of his crook. A long, very long rod, had 

 a stout wire at the end, twisted something like a crook, but 

 more elaborately. It was widely open at the mouth, but 

 nai'rower at the end, and held the leg so fast that the Goose 

 gave in and laid down. " Nous avons change tout cela." Where 

 there are no commons there will be few Geese bred, and 

 commons are fast disappearing throughout England. The 

 consumption of oats in Stratford during the months of 

 August and September was incredible to a stranger, and 

 the slaughter the same. These are, however, the records of 

 past ages and have little to do with our present question. 



If the Geese were in good condition when you bought 

 them, ascertain how they had been fed and feed the same. 

 If in doubt, shut them in a pigstye, fill a trough with 

 growing sods of grass half full; on them put some gravel, 

 then a layer of oats, and then fill by pouring water gently 

 in one corner till it is full. Tour Geese will feed and thrive.] 



FOUL BEOOD NOT AN AETIFICIAL DISEASE 

 It is with regi-et that I perceive so high an authority 

 among bee-keepers as my fiiend Mr. Taylor pronouncing the 

 disease which has recently devastated my apiary to be " an 

 entirely artificial one" — regTet, not on my own account 

 (for to me personally it is of no importance), but for the sake 

 of others, since, if such a mistaken notion obtain currency, 

 farewell at once to all the benefits which I had hoped might 

 have arisen from giving publicity to my misfortune, whilst 

 the cause of progi-ess amongst English bee-keepers wiU 

 receive a check which may long keep them immeasui-ably 

 'behind their continental and American contemporaries. 



With the view, thei-efore, of removing this false impres- 

 sion, I will describe two instances which have come under 

 luy observation in which foul brood has manifested itself in 

 hives managed in the usual way. 



Last spring I received a lot of comb procured for me in 

 the county of Wilts through the kindness of a brother 

 apiarian. Among these were some which had died of fovil 

 brood, that I now know oame from a colony, Ijut which there 

 is no reason to believe had been in any way interfered with. 



The other case came more immediately under my own 

 observation, and may be deemed perfectly conclusive on this 

 point. Last autumn I turned up a common straw hiv« 

 belonging to an " old dame " who resides at about three 

 miles distance. There was some honey, but very few bees, 

 and I confidently pronounced the queen to be defunct. In 

 this, however, I was mistaken. When the bees were after- 

 wards expelled by driving a living queen was found, but the 

 colony was nearly extinct from the effects of foul brood. 

 This I now know to have been the case, although at the 

 time the affau- appeared perfectly inexplicable, and an in- 

 spection of the combs did not then enhghten me — now I 

 should recognise them at a glance as having belonged to a 

 foul-breeding stock. — A Devonshibb Bee-keepee. 



FtTRTHER EEMAUKS ON EXPEEIMENTAL 

 BEE-MANAGEMENT. 



I CANNOT help making a few remarks on the opinions and 

 theories put forward by some of the writers in No. 123 of 

 your Jom-nal. I fully admit that Mr. Lowe lays down the 

 general principles of apiculture coiTectly and well ; but I 

 cannot perceive that he has solved the mystery of the origin 

 of Mr. Woodbirry's foul brood. I do not mean its intro- 

 duction into his apiary — Mr. Woodbury himself has told us 

 how that occurred — I mean its original cause. I have no 

 theory of my own on the subject, and shall Ije ready to 

 believe that it arises from too much experimenting, or fi-om 

 anything else, when good evidence of the fact is forth- 

 coming ; but I cannot think of leaping to such a conclusion. 

 I know that experimenting may be carried too far ; what 

 cannot? A merely experimental apiary can never be a 

 thoroughly prosperous one ; but it does not, therefore, follow 

 that it will become diseased. It wiU. become weak from tha 

 constant interruption of breeding, and paucity of numbers 

 wiU cause poverty of stores ; but are weak hives more Habto 

 to disease, j^roperly so called, than strong ones ? I think 

 not. I have had more or less of dulled brood under various 

 ch-cumstances, but never knew it to become corrupted in 

 the hive, nor do I think that it ever would, so long as there 

 were bees enough to perform the usual routine duties. 

 Even if it did, I do not "think that it would be so virulently 

 contagious as this foul brood appears to be. Mr. Wood- 

 bmys opinion — nay, assertion, that it was introduced to his 

 apiary in purchased combs, no doubt gives the immediate 

 cause in his case. I expect that he will conquer the enemy 

 without departing fi-om his own line of tactics, and go on 

 his way rejoicing ; but I fear that he will have to leave the 

 abstract cause of foul brood as much a mysterj- as it now is. 

 Mr. Lowe is right in maintaining that forced swarms 

 should only be made in "accordance with the natural 

 instincts and habits of bees, and with a due regard to time, 

 cu-cumstances, and condition." When so made, the opera- 

 tion is not, as Colonel Newman expresses it, "fighting 

 against Nature ;" but the exercise of man's undoubted 

 right to make Nature subservient to his wants and wishes. 

 Dominion was given to him over the brute creation, in its 

 entirety, bees being no exception. He cannot change the 

 operations of nature ; biit he may and does modity and 

 adapt them to his requirements. The sheep's wool woidd, 

 no doubt, fall off naturally without the assistance of sheaj:s. 

 but not in a convenient form for our cloth-makers. The 

 cow would give spontaneously as much milk as was necessary 

 for the sustenance of her calf; but the farmer finds it to his 

 advantage to manage these mattere in his own way. Nor 

 does it appear that the cow is in any way injm-ed by pro- 

 longing her natm-al period of giving milk, or the sheep by 

 the premature loss of its fleece ; though I dare say there 

 were antique men who protested against both these modifi- 

 cations of nature wlien first introduced, using much tho 

 same arguments as tlieir representatives of the present day 

 use against the rational management of bees. 



That "di-i\-ing" does not alw.iys succeed is scarcely a 

 good argument against its general usefulness. No great 



