THE BEB-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



263 



I never have any difTiculty in diagnos- 

 iiii; a sample of real foul brood. The 

 symplonis of that disease are so marked 

 tiiat it is very easy for one who is at all 

 actiuainted with its characteristics to de- 

 termine whether or not it is a case of 

 /niii/lus alit'i {iow\ brood ); but to decide 

 between a case of black anil pickled 

 l^rood is not so easy, fi>r the two lot)k 

 very much alike, and under some con- 

 dilions they uiy alike so far as external 

 a])pearances are concerned. Knowing 

 that a good many bee-keepers had sent 

 sam])lesof diseased brood to Dr. Howard, 

 I felt that we could hardly ask him to 

 make such diagnoses without compensa- 

 tion, for he is not in any way connected 

 with an experiment station or any govern- 

 ment work; and a man of his attainments 

 as a bacteriologist ought not to be asked 

 to perform a difficult service of this kind, 

 requiring years of preparation and study, 

 for nothing. .As yet, I know of no one in 

 this countrv who has been able to dis- 

 criminate between one and the other 

 absolutely. Black brood, as we know, is 

 decideilly contagious — perhaps more so 

 tlian foul brood, and (juite as destructive. 

 Tickled brood is a mdd form of disease, 

 but so far as I know it is not very de- 

 structive. Very often it will disappear of 

 itself, and in any event a mild treatment 

 will eradicate it entirely. 



We will suppo.se that a bee-keeper dis- 

 covers something in one of his colonies 

 that looks suspicious to sa)' the least. If 

 he can know absolutelv, by sending a 

 .sample to some competent expert, that he 

 h's neither black brood nor f^ul brood, 

 this knowledge may be worth to him 

 hundreds and possibly thou.sands of 

 dollars. 



\ery recently a f|ueen breeder, who has 

 some .srm nuclei, and who is carrying on 

 the business of cjueen-rearing very exten- 

 sivelv. sent a sample of disea.sed brood, 

 desirinir us to wire him at once what it 

 was. The sample came duly to hand, and 

 I immediatelv wired back, " Not foul 

 brood — possibly bhick or pickled brood." 

 At the time of sending a sample to me he 

 sent one to Dr. Howard also, and the 

 latter verv proni])tlv wired him that it 

 was nothing worse than pickled brood. 

 This information was worth to him hun- 

 dreds of dollars; otherwise he would 

 ha\e withdrawn his advertising, broken 

 up his nuclei, practically throwing away 

 a .splendifl trade in rpieens. at the same 

 time ruining his business perhaps for all 

 time to come. He had onlv one case in 

 his yaM, and that was jiromptly dis- 

 posed of. 



While we are perfectly willing to per- 

 form such services as far as we are able, 

 Dr. Howard can not aflFord to do them for 

 the mere love of the pursuit. I wrote 

 him. asking him what it would be worth 

 to diagnose diseased samples of brood, 

 and he replied that he thought he coidd 

 afford to do it for ;f2. 00; and this I re- 

 gard as very reasonable, considering that 

 he may have to spend hours with the 

 microscope; .so I would suggest that 

 doubtful samples be sent to Dr. W. R. 

 Howard, Fort Worth, Texas, with a let- 

 ter of explanation, and don't forget to 

 send the monev. 



In a letter recently received from Dr. 

 Howard, he gives specific directions bv 

 which every bee-keeper can diagnose to 

 some extent for himself. Of the three 

 particular brood diseases he gives the 

 following diagnostic signs: — 

 roi'L UROon. 

 Gn'n-LiKE consistence of the mass, and the 

 offensive smell. 



Bl.ACK UROOD. 



JELLV-LIKK consistence of the mass, the absence 

 of ropine.ss noticed in foul brood, and the peculiar 

 sonr-like smell. 



I'ICKLEI) BROOD. 



Always watery, turning black after being 

 attacked with the mucor fungus — a 1)lack mould — 

 and by lacing the lar\':c in a sterilized chamber, 

 keeping warm and dark, in three or four days 

 the white fungus of pickled brood appears, " I 

 nearlv always place a new larvte of every speci- 

 men of all kinds of dead brood. Foul brood and 

 black brood are attacked with a fungus, though 

 kept for months. 



INTRODUCING OUEENS. 



The Use of Tobacco Smoke in This ()])eratii)n. 



Since I published what I did last month 

 in regard to introducing queens, several 

 have written me in regard to their suc- 

 cess in using tobacco smoke. The follow- 

 ing query that stands at the head of a 

 short editorial in Oleanings reminds me 

 very much of the ones that come to me. 

 It reads as follows: — 



Last summer I lost six queens in intro- 

 ducing according to directions .sent out 

 by breeders; but I quit that method and 

 took .\. I. R.'s method, hinted at in an 

 old edition of the A B C, u.sing tol acco 

 smoke at sundown. Out of 36 I never 

 lost one. Why don't you recommend it 

 more? B. F. JoNES. 



Idaho Falls, Idaho, May 7. 



The editor of Oleanings re])lies as 

 follows: — 



