584 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



apiary. Pieces of burnt bone or rotten wood should be kept in the vessels of brine, 

 and these A^essels should be j^rotccted from the rain. 



Another form of the so-called "qixaking disease" appears to result from hered- 

 itary causes; for, if the queen be removed from the colony in wliich the disorder 

 prevails, and a young, vigorous queen be substituted, in due time tlie disorder disap- 

 pears. In very rare instances bees also gather poisonous nectar from plants, such 

 as Fox-glove or Dijjitalis, the eating of which, it is reported, results in paralysis; 

 another manifestation of the so-called "nameless disease." 



THE FOUL-BROOD DISEASE. 



One of the most maligant diseases incident to bees is called the " foul-brood " dis- 

 ease. AVnat pleuvo-pneumonia and hog-cholera are to the dairyman and swine- 

 breeder foul-brood is to the apiarist. This disease is so stealthy and so virulent and 

 so widely distributed, no locality in the United States being assured of immunity, 

 that much apprehension is felt, and some of the States have enacted laws liaving for 

 their object its control and extirpation. In many States the ravages of this scourge 

 have resulted in ruinous losses to bee-keepers, and many on this account -have been 

 deterred from engaging in this profitable branch of husbandry. 



During the past year I have given much attention to the study of this disease and 

 to experiments for its prevention and cure. In making my investigations and ex- 

 periments concerning the origin and nature of this disease and the means for its 

 j)revention and cure, I have collected a great amount of information from my o'^ti 

 experience and from the exi^erience of many others. Concerning the origin of this 

 disease and its means of communication the evidence obtained is somewhat con- 

 flicting. 



Tliat the disease is actively contagious appears certain. That it is always com- 

 municated through the commonly accredited agencies is uncertain. That tlie dis- 

 ease is persistent and usually reproduces itseK whenever the germs find the proper 

 conditions for development is verified by experience. That the germs of this disease 

 may be carried upon the clothing of the apiarist and in and upon the bodies of bees 

 from one apiary to another, and that they may be borne by the wmd from one hive 

 to another in the same apiary, and that the disease germs may be liberated from the 

 decomposing bodies of other insects and scattered over other objects v.-ilh which the 

 bees come in contact, seem probable. 



That the disease is destructive to bees as well as brood, that live pollen is |he me- 

 dium through which the contagion is most commonly and most rapidly spread, and 

 that the disease yields readily to treatment which is simple, cheap, and easily ap- 

 plied, appear to be trae, in support of which I submit the following detailed account 

 of my experiments and observations: 



On the 1st day of June an apiarist having over two hundred colonies in his apiary 

 reported to me that he had discovered two cases of malignant foul-brood, and that 

 unmistakable evidences of its presence were apparent m twenty-five other colonies. 

 As I knew this man was not without experience with this disease, I could not hope 

 that he was mistaken. I knew that he had had unenviable opportunities, having 

 been a bee-keeper for many years where this disease had been prevalent, and two 

 years ago he himself had consigned one hundred and forty-eight colonies to the 

 flames as incurable. I at once gave him the following formula for a remedy: 



To 3 pints of soft water add 1 pint of dairy salt. Use an earthern vessel. Raise 

 the temperature to 90^ F. Stir till the salt is tlioroughly dissolved. Add 1 pint of 

 soft water boiling hot, in which has been dissolved 4 tablespoonfuls bicarbonate of 

 soda. Stir thoroughly while adding to the mixture sufficiejit honey or sirup to make 

 it quite sweet, but not enough to perceptibly thicken. To i of an ounce of pure 

 salicylic acid (the crystal) add alcohol suflicient to thoroughly cut it (about 1 ounce), 

 and add this to the mixture while still warm, and when thoroughly stnred leave 

 standing for 2 or 3 hours, when it becomes settled and clear. 



Treatment. — Shake the bees from the combs and extract the honey as clearly as 

 possible. Then thoroughly atomize the combs, blowing a spray of the mixture over 

 and into the cells, using a large atomizer throwing a copious spray; then return the 

 combs to the bees. Combs havmg considerable quantities of pollen should be melted 

 into wax and the refuse burned. If there is no lioney to be obtained in the fields, 

 feed sirup or the honey which has just been extracted. If sirup is used, add 1 ounce 

 of the remedy to each quart of the snup fed. If the honey is used, add 2| ounces 

 of the remedy to each quart of honey fed. The honey and sirup should be fed warm 

 and the remedy thorouglily stirred in, and no more should be furnished than is con- 

 sumed. 



Give all the colonies in the apiary one copious application of the remedy, simply 

 Betting the frames apart so that they may be freely exposed to the spray. This 



