1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI/rURE 



509 



in his vicinity bee-keepers, instead of follow- 

 ing his instructions, will follow those made 

 by Mr. Stewart; and if that treatment is not 

 effective it will only delay the elimination 

 of disease or its control. We admit that 

 there is some force in his argument. On 

 the other hand, it is the province of a trade 

 journal to discuss some of these new meth- 

 ods of cure; otherwise we should make no 

 progress. Henry Stewart is one of the best 

 bee-keepers in the country; and he claims 

 to have given his treatment a thorough 

 trial. The old McEvoy treatment is some- 

 what expensive, and involves a large amount 

 of work, and under some conditions it in- 

 terferes with securing a crop of honey. In 

 every case it means the loss of a lot of good 

 brood. The Baldridge treatment and the 

 Stewart treatment will save all this brood. 

 At the same time, the bees go on uninter- 

 ruptedly securing a crop of honey. 

 ■ On page 5r>l Mr (ieo. M. Steele questions 

 whether Mr. Stewart really had American 

 foul brood. Mr. Steele and a good many 

 others who have had experience with brood 

 diseases, are very emphatic in saying that 

 larvse diseased with American foul brood 

 can not be cleaned out of the cells, nor can 

 the combs be made safe to use again. E. W. 

 Alexander was also of this opinion. Mr. 

 Stewart then stands alone, apparently, in 

 his belief. We should be glad to hear fur- 

 ther from Mr. Stewart as to whether he is 

 positive that the disease in question is 

 American and not European. 



Right here the question may be raised 

 whether we did the wise thing in publish- 

 ing the Alexander treatment for European 

 foul brood. Alexander claimed that he 

 drove the disease entirely out of his yard. 

 In looking over his apiary of over 700 colo- 

 nies a year after we can j^ersonally testify to 

 the truth of the statement. Buit the ques- 

 tion has arisen in the minds of some wheth- 

 er the disease had not already run its course 

 in that vicinity. Possibly. But Dr. Mil- 

 ler, in some recent correspondence, is inclin- 

 ed to feel that there is a great deal of merit 

 in the Alexander treatment, and says there 

 is no European foul brood, or at least very 

 little of it, in his yard. 



Now, then, through careful and wisely 

 conducted discussions and experimentation 

 on the part of those competent to do the 

 work we may get hold of some simpler and 

 cheaper treatment for these diseases. The 

 facts are that European and American foul 

 brood are spreading over the United States 

 in spite of the McEvoy treatment. One 

 State inspector, with an excellent law back 

 of him, wrote us a few days ago, stating that 

 he was somewhat discouraged over the out- 

 look; that, do every thing he could with his 

 corps of inspectors, the diseases were raging 

 as strongly as ever. Then incidentally he 

 mentioned that the McEvoy treatment was 

 expensive, and many bee-keepers were dis- 

 inclined to follow instructions, and others 

 made bungling work of it. If we can get a 

 treatment (hat is better, should we not 

 make the effort to do so? 



CROP REPORTS. 



The reiiorts of the honey -crop that have 

 come in since our last issue have been more 

 and more conflicting. The fact that wide- 

 ly differing reports are recei\ed from the 

 same State shows that local conditions af- 

 fect the honey-llow considerably, and that 

 only a few hundred miles from a locality 

 visited by a drouth there may be bountiful 

 rains. We realize that two or three reports 

 for a whole State do not tell the whole story 

 by any means. The ideal way, perhaps, 

 would be to have local a-sociations, pos- 

 sibly the State associations, collect re- 

 jiorts from their members, and then send 

 summaries of these reports to the bee-jour- 

 nals for pul)lication. In this way a much 

 more accurate and true statement of actual 

 conditions could be revealed. A good many 

 bee-keejiers do not seem inclined to make 

 public the extent of their crop; but al- 

 t hough we do not believe it is a good plan 

 to exaggerate the prospect for a crop (see 

 )>. 526), we believe the only fair way to all 

 concerned is to make public the extent of 

 the honey crop over the country as soon as 

 it can be determined with any degree of 

 accuracy. 



It now looks as though California would 

 have a very light crop. In Idaho and Ne- 

 vada there will probably be good average 

 crops. In certain sections of Colorado there 

 will be a fair to average crop; but as a State, 

 Colorado's crop will be light. In New York 

 the reports, most of them, indicate a good 

 crop. We will let the reader draw his own 

 deductions from the following somewhat 

 scattering reports that have been received 

 during the last two weeks. A part of them, 

 as will be seen, are in answer to the follow- 

 ing questions: 



1. Condition of bee.s? 



2. Climatic conditions (favorable or not) ? 



3. Are bee-men suirering from drouth or wet 

 weather? 



4. Prospects for honey crop? 



5. Compare prospects with last year, same date. 



6. Percentage of full crop harvested to date? 



7. Compare yield with last year, same date. 



8. Kind of honey produced in your locality, comb 

 or extracted? 



9. Color of honey produced this year? 



10. Price local dealers are paying for honey? 



11. Price bee-men are holding (or? 



12. Is the crop moving readily? 



Honey crop a total failure this season. Last year 

 my two yards gave an average of 208 lbs. per colony, 

 90 per cent of which was extracted and the rest 

 comb honey. 



Paicines, Cal. 



No rains this season, but honey Is being extract- 

 ed just the same. Can not tell where it comes from. 



Cranbrook, B. C. Can. 



1. good; 2, favorable: 3, yes: 4. good for this partic- 

 ular locality: 5. better: (i. 100 lbs. per colony: 8, ex- 

 tracted: 9. light: 10, 10 cts. per lb.: 11, don't know: 

 12, local trade good. 



Bobcaygeon, Ontario, ( 'an. 



1, fair; 2, too wet: 3, wet weather: 4, rather poor: 

 5. not half as good as last year; 6. 50 per cent of 

 comb: 7, same as last year; 8, both comb and bulk 

 comb honey; 9, white to dark. 



Lawrencevile, Ga. 



Average honey-flow here, but in some parts it 

 wilt be much below. 



Parma, Idaho. 



