June, '16] PHILLIPS: PROFESSOR GOSSARD'S THEORY 363 



of cases. The method of sterilizing and its action on the honey are 

 not specified, although these may be of vital importance. 



4. Bacillus amylovorus lived in artificially inoculated unsterilized 

 honey in one case 47 hours and when this honey was injected into 

 twigs, blight resulted in 52 per cent of cases. 



5. The longer the time the organisms remained in unsterilized honey, 

 the less the percentage of resulting infection. It is indicated that these 

 organisms ultimately died in honey but the data are not presented on 

 this point. 



6. There is no evidence of growth of the organisms in honey. How- 

 ever, the author speculates that they may grow. 



According to the evidence presented, there is no proof that the bac- 

 teria even enter the hive. No person will be inclined to deny the 

 possibility that they do, but so long as all proof is lacking for the theory 

 that the hive is a distribution center, w^e are justified in refusing to 

 accept it. The fact that the organisms lived in honey for a time and 

 then died is interesting, but the value of these facts as support for the 

 theory is at best slight. 



Since honeybees are often more abundant than other insects in the 

 orchard during the blooming period and since a bee often visits dozens 

 of blossoms on one trip and makes dozens of trips a day, it is only 

 necessary to show that honeybees actually carry blight from flower to 

 flower to account for a wholesale distribution. In the face of the 

 evidence presented by Merrill (Jr. Ec. Ent. VIII, p. 402) that there 

 is a relation between the number of green aphids and the amount of 

 blight, it is evident that there is still room for investigations as to the 

 office of the bee in this distribution. Waite showed that the honey- 

 bee can carry the blight organism from artificial^ inoculated blossoms 

 on their mouthparts. What is now needed is additional evidence as 

 to the relative importance of flying insects and piercing aphids in the 

 transmission of the disease. 



Gossard incorrectly assumes a rather general mixing up of the honey 

 in the hive during the ripening process. The young bees of the hive 

 do this work and the possibihtj^ that these bees will become field bees 

 before the blooming period closes is most remote. While bees some- 

 times touch each other with their mouthparts, this is not sufl^iciently 

 common to account for wholesale distribution of the organisms. 

 Furthermore, nectar from fruit blossoms is usually consumed imme- 

 diately and if not needed at once is ripened and stored in a few hours. 

 The behavior of bees inside the hive seems to offer no support for the 

 inferences drawn for this theory. It is pertinent to suggest the de- 

 sirability of trying to isolate Bacillus amylovonis from the mouthparts 

 of bees leaving the hive. 



