296 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



has not been adjucated at home. The 

 excellent foul brood law in Wisconsin 

 does not help the bee-keepers in Illinois. 

 Mr. Moore said that if the thousands of 

 bee-keepers in Illinois had unitedly asked 

 for such a law it would have been on the 

 statute books ere now. Mr. John M. 

 Rankin told me at the convenlion that 

 the Michigan foul brood law was killed, 

 not by Mr. Harmon Smiih, but by the 

 apathy of bee-keepers. Laws are seldom 

 passed except at the earnest and con- 

 tinued solicitation of a large number of 

 people. 



n^wu'v'^i'u" 



INCREASE IN BROOD DISEASES. 



At the Chicago convention, President 

 Root called attention to the increase in 

 brood diseases among bees. Both black 

 brood and foul brood are certainly mak- 

 ing advancement in certain portions of 

 the country. A few years ago, if he re- 

 ceived, at the home office, more than one 

 sample of diseased brood in a month, it 

 was considered something remarkable — 

 now specimens are received almost daily. 

 Black brood, which Mr. Root regards as 

 more insiduous than foul brood, and 

 more to be dreaded, is thought by some 

 to travel through the air. The President 

 doubted this, but was compelled to admit 

 that it traveled much more rapidly than 

 foul brood. The prompt, energetic meas- 

 ures undertaken by the Slate of New 

 York should be recognized by bee-keep- 

 ers in every Slate in the Union; for with- 

 out such prompt action, bee-keeping may 

 be almost entirely wiped out of some im- 

 portant sections in other States, as it is 

 already in some localities in New York. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS BY THE USE OF 

 TOBACCO SMOKE. 



At the Chicago convention it was 

 asked if any one present had had any ex- 

 perience in using tobacco smoke for in- 

 troducing queens, and there was no re- 

 sponse, except some one, I think Dr. 

 Mason, said: "We don't use it." It 



would see:ji from this that it has not 

 been very generally used. 



In this connection, I might say that 

 Mr. John McKeon of Dryden, N. Y., has 

 sent me a private letter written him by 

 Mr. J. P. Moore of Kentucky, in which I 

 find the following: — 



"I have found by experience that a 

 colony which has been queenless about 

 five or six days, is the easiest of all to 

 which to introduce a queen. To intro- 

 duce a queen to such a colony, all I do is 

 to lay the cage at the entrance three or 

 four hours before sundown, and then 

 about simdown, or about dark, fumigate 

 them with tobacco smoke, and let the 

 queen crawl into the entrance, puffing in 

 a little more smoke after she crawls into 

 the hive. This has proved the surest 

 method 1 have tried. I have yet to lose 

 my first queen, where the colony was 

 quesnless not less than five days nor over 

 seven days." 



CO-OPERATION IN SELLING. 



If there is any one thing in which bee- 

 keepers can combine or co-operate to 

 better advantage than another it is that of 

 selling honey; especially when there is a 

 class, or bee-keepers of some particular 

 locality, with similar crops and aims. At 

 the Chicago convention a paper was read 

 from S. A. Niver, on the subject of sell- 

 ing Ironey, and from it I copy the follow- 

 ing paragraph: 



"Six years ago a number of honey pro- 

 ducers of Groton, N. Y., believing it bet- 

 ter to combine than to compete, pooled 

 their interests and sent the writer of this 

 article, 'armed and equipped, as the law 

 directs,' with sample case and power of 

 attorney to the grocers in the cities 

 reached by our line of railroad, to sell 

 and collect for all, and divide the expen- 

 ses in proportion to the amount sold for 

 each. This arrangement has worked so 

 satisfactorially that it has been followed 

 each year since, with growing acquaint- 

 ance and mutual dependance between 

 our customers and ourselves. True, there 

 are some drawbacks to this method, such 

 as bad debts, much bookkeeping, owing 

 to large number of small sales, and length 

 of time it takes to get collections in and 

 distributed, but the net results in prices 

 and security has, on the whole, been very 

 satisfactory. ' ' 



