REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 587 



mercies of the bacteria, uiiless they be treated with an antidote. For obvious rea- 

 sons the queens in such colonic^s should in any event be superseded as soon as possi- 

 ble. Tliis method of treatin(>nt also conteiu})]ates the destruction or renovation of 

 all hives and frames, the destruction of all broods, and the melting of all combs; a 

 large percentage of the capital in honey-producing. 



Another reason for believing that, except in rare cases, the disease is introduced by 

 means of pollen is found in the fact that the larvae rarely ever exhibit any symp- 

 toms of disease until about the time when the process of weaning begins, at wliich 

 time the character of the food is changed from the glandular secretion, the pap, to 

 the partially digested and undigested food. Live pollen is then added to the larval 

 food, and with it the bacteria in greater or less numbers; gi-owth is arrested; death 

 ensues; putritication follows, and the soft pull), ^^ '-^ grayish-broAvn color, settles to 

 the lower side of the cell. As the mass dries up it becomes glutinous and stringy 

 and reddish-l)rown in color and emits an ofl'ensive odor. Some of the larvae will be 

 partially capped, some completely capped, and some left uncapped, the condition in 

 which the brood is left depending, I beheve, upon the virulence with which the dis- 

 ease attacks both bees and brood. The remedies prescribed appear to destroy the 

 bacteria and cure the bees of the contagion and restore them to natural vigor. The 

 worker bees tlien cleanse the hive of dead bees and brood and clean out and renovate 

 the cells, and the colony resumes its normal condition. 



That tlie contagion may sometimes be borne from hive to liive by the wind ap- 

 p(>ars to be ti'ue, as it was observed in one of the apiaries which I treated for this 

 disease during the past summer that of a large number of diseased colonies in the 

 ajjiary, with the exception of two colonies, all were located to the northeast of the 

 colony in which the (lisease first appeared. The prevailing ^vind had been from the 

 southwest. 



That the disease germs may be carried upon the clothing and hands appears i^roba- 

 ble, from the fact that in one neighborhood the disease appeared in only two apiaries, 

 the owTiers of which had spent some time working among diseased colonies at some 

 distance from home, while other apiarists in that locality who had kept away fi'om 

 the contagion had no troul)le from foul-brood. 



THE CONTROL OF REPRODUCTION. 



The improvement which has been made in mechanical devices and methods of 

 management by the scientific and practical apiarists of the United States during the 

 past twenty-five years has resulted in establishing the claims of the industry of bee- 

 keeping to a place among the various branches of rural husbandry wliich are the 

 acknowledged soiu'ces of the nation's wealth. Improvements in the art of bee- 

 keeping and in the devices by which the art is practiced are continuallj- being made, 

 and the degree of advancement made in the past is an earnest of the progress await- 

 ing development in the future. 



Improvements in devices and methods of management and importing races of 

 bees reported to possess desirable qualities and characteristics have chiefl\^ absorbed 

 the attention of American bee-keepers. It is not strange that rehance has been 

 placed upon these resources as the means by which the best results were to be real- 

 ized, rather than upon a persistent and skillful appMcation of the laws of heredity 

 and descent and dependence upon the uifluence of intelligent selection and skillfiil 

 crossing as a means for developing the higliest attainable standard of excellence in 

 the bee, the chief factor in permanent advancement. 



The difficulties attending the control of the process of reproduction, of applying 

 the laws of heredity and descent, and secm-ingthe influence of persistent, intelligent 

 selection in breetiin^ bees have appeared to be almost insurmountable. The very 

 persistent efforts which have been made to improve the bees of the Uniteil States by 

 yearly importations of the best races in then- purity has also been attended with 

 serious drawbacks and hindi-ances. These bees, bred for countless generations in a 

 foreign habitat and under cUmatic conditions widely different from ours, ai'e here 

 submitted to conditions of domestication for which they are ill adapted. Any modi- 

 fication and adaptation of habits, instinct, and physiological stru. aire which may 

 have been secured by breeding a few succeeding generations imder the altered con- 

 ditions and requirements incident to domestication in the United States have been 

 lost Avith each fresh importation of ancestral stock, and the work of secxrring the 

 variabiUty and adaptability of instmct, habit, physiological structure, and functional 

 cai>acity essential to domestication here must be" begun ab initio. 



That some practical method might be discovered by which the process of repro- 

 duction could be controlled has long been the hope of all progressive apiculturists. 

 With the control of fecundation assured, i:)rogi-ess in scientific apiculture would be 

 rapid and permanent. 



