THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



377 



grees, which makes it easy to judge of 

 the amount of honey or water that must 

 be added to make the solution the right 

 strength. You can make a hydrometer 

 of a homeopathic vial, or any tall bot- 

 tle, corked and weighted so that it will 

 stand upright in the solution. Mark 

 with a file where it stands in a solution 

 of known strength. Or make a ball of 

 beeswax with a small piece of lead 

 imbedded, so that it will just float in a 

 solution of the right strength. Or you 

 can use a fresh egg, which should float 

 or show a spot not larger than a dime 

 above the surface. I have always used 

 rain water, and this is usually recom- 

 mended. 



Put your barrel in a place where a 

 temperature of as near 80 degrees pos- 

 sible will be maintained. If the place 

 is too hot, alcohol is wasted; but if too 

 cool, fermentation is retarded. 



Never add fresh solution to vinegar 

 partly made. I think this is a very 

 common cause of poor success. If you 

 want to make additions to your vinegar 

 stock, keep them by themselves until 

 they have passed through the alcoholic 

 fermentation. 



For the alcoholic fermentation a bar- 

 rel with one head out is best; if a clos- 

 ed barrel is used, there should be a 

 hole in each end, and the barrel should 

 not be quite full. All openings, of 

 course, must be covered with cheese- 

 cloth or very fine screen, to keep out 

 insects, and yet admit as much air as 

 possible. If fermentation does not be- 

 gin promptly, add about a quarter of 

 a cake of yeast, softened in warm wa- 

 ter, to a barrel of stock. When the al- 

 cohol fermentation is finished, which 

 should be in from two to six weeks, you 

 can use your old vinegar-barrel to 

 good advantage. Or it will be well to 

 add a few gallons of good vinegar, con- 

 taining a little mother if you have it. 

 Usually this is not necessary, but it 

 hastens matters and insures good re- 

 sults. Give it plenty of air, keep it as 

 nearly as possible at the right temper- 

 ature, and you should have good vine- 

 gar inside of a j'ear. When the vinegar 

 is strong enough, pour it off from the 

 mother and bung it up tightly, other- 

 wise a degenerative fermentation may 

 set in that will spoil the vinegar en- 

 tirely. 



I have just received from the Arizona 

 experiment station a bulletin on the 

 subject of honey vinegar, in which 

 some ideas that are new to me are ad- 

 vocated. The writer. Prof. A. E. Vin- 



son, considers hard water preferable 

 to soft, if not too salty. He likewise 

 thinks that fermentation is greatly aid- 

 ed and hastened by the addition of 

 small amounts of ammonium chloride 

 and potassium phosphate. In place of 

 the latter, which is rather hard to pro- 

 cure, as well as somewhat expensive, 

 we may use sodium phosphate and 

 potassium sulphate. As the latter is 

 likewise sometimes hard to get, we may 

 use potassium bicarbonate in its place 

 with nearly asgood results. Theform- 

 ula he recommends is as follows: 

 Honey, 40 to 45 lbs; water, 30 gals. ; 

 ammonium chloride, 4 oz. ; potassium 

 bicarbonate, 2 oz. ; sodium phosphate, 

 2 oz. ; yeast, % cake. 



BROOD DISEASES OE BEES. 



Something from a Reliable Source. 



It is doubtful if one man, in the same 

 length of time, has ever rendered bee- 

 keeping better services than has Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, since he became con- 

 nected with the Bureau of Entomology 

 at Washington. He has thrown his 

 whole soul into the investigation of 

 brood diseases of bees. He has not 

 been contented to sit in his office and 

 tell of what others have done, but he 

 has been out in the field investigating 

 all over the country from ocean to 

 ocean, and the result is a Bulletin or 

 circular (No. 79) which I consider of 

 sufficient value to copy entire. It reads 

 as follows : 



In view of the widespread distribu- 

 tion of infectious brood diseases among 

 bees in the United States, it is desir- 

 able that all bee-keepers learn to dis- 

 tinguish the diseases when they 

 appear. It frequently happens that 

 an apiary becomes badl3' infected be- 

 fore the owner realizes that any disease 

 is present, or it may be that any dead 

 brood which may be noticed in the 

 hives is attribu'ed to chilling. In this 

 way disease gets a start which makes 

 eradication ditficult. 



There are two recognized forms of 

 disease of the brood, designated as 

 European and American foul brood, 

 which are particularly virulent. In 

 some ways these resemble each other, 



