542 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1 



or winter. While the bees are cleaning up, 

 one can work in the house, leaving it ojjen 

 if he likes, because robbing at that point 

 will be eliminated. 



Of course, if one has foul brood in the vi- 

 cinity, such wholesale cleaning-out of combs 

 is dangerous in the extreme, for practically 

 every colony in the yard will have a hand 

 in robbing out the combs; and should they 

 contain any germs of disease, foul brood will 

 be spread right and left. 



A NEW PAPER ON BEE DISEASES. 



Dr. Walter Malden, of the Patholog- 

 ical Laboratory of Cambridge University, 

 Cambridge, England, has recently publish- 

 ed an interesting article entitled "Diseases 

 of Bees." in the Journal of Economic Bi- 

 oloffy. Vol. v., pt. 2, pp. 41-48. Dr. Mai- 

 den's chief previous work in the interest of 

 bee-keei)ing has been his investigation of 

 the Isle of Wight disease, which has been 

 known since 1904. 



The iiaper is divided into two parts, the 

 diseases of bees being discussed as those of 

 the larvcP and those of adult bees. In his 

 discussion of larva^ diseases it is interesting 

 to know that he accejits and uses the names 

 American foul brood and Eurojiean foul 

 brood, which are now in general use in this 

 country, although they have not been ac- 

 cei)ted"by most English writeVs. He also 

 states that Bacillus larvce of Dr. White is 

 the cause of American foul brood, and calls 

 attention to the fact that Dr. Maassen later 

 named the same organism Bacillus Bran- 

 denburgensis. In the case of Kluropean foul 

 brood he calls attention to the fact that 

 Cheshire's experiments are not quite con- 

 clusive, and that the cause of the disease is 

 not known, although Bacillus alvei is pres- 

 ent. 



Under adult diseases Dr. Maiden discusses 

 the two forms of dysentery as described by 

 Dr. Zander, May sickness, paralysis, and 

 Isle of Wight disease. Since these diseases 

 are not well understood it could not be ex- 

 pected that this paper could clear up the 

 present confusion entirely. 



In the jKirtion of brood diseases particu- 

 larly, this paper is valuable, as it will help 

 greatly in clearing up the confusion now 

 existing among writers of different coun- 

 tries in the matter of the causes of disease. 

 The clear analysis of work which has been 

 done is much needed, and Dr. Maiden's 

 paper is very welcome. 



THOSE forest FIRES AND BEE-HIVE LUM- 

 BER. 



Can't something be done to stop these 

 awful fires, says every one? There is plenty 

 of legislation, both State and national; but 

 somehow during every year, when a drouth 

 is on, there are millions of i)roperty wasted, 

 to say nothing of valuable lives lost. 



While in Northern Michigan recently we 

 investigated the cause of these disasters, 

 and found that the majority of them were 

 not due to the Indians and hunters, as we 



had supposed, but to the railroads and to 

 the farmers. The latter, finding they are 

 unable to burn out a clearing on some of 

 these waste lands (where the lumber com- 

 panies cut out all the valuable material) ex- 

 cept during a drouth, with the best of in- 

 tentions they start a fire, and before they 

 know it it gets away from them, carrying 

 death and destruction in its wake. 



We asked if something could not be done 

 to stop such work, and why stringent laws 

 were not passed so no man could be allowed 

 to burn any thing even on his premises ex- 

 cept under the supervision of the State au- 

 thorities. "We already have such laws," 

 said our informant; "but through the laxi- 

 ty of enforcement, or defects in the laws 

 themselves, the forest fires go on just the 

 same." The deplorable thing is that irre- 

 placeable property is destroyed. Millions of 

 feet of beautiful timber are ruined; and the 

 straight shafts of burned trees stand out as 

 mute evidence of barren wastes that were 

 once worth millions. 



The awful destruction that has taken 

 place, and is still going on as we write these 

 words, in Idaho, is only a sam])le of what 

 the country has suffered for many years 

 l)ast. These things occur so often that we 

 become hardened. In the mean time the 

 price of lumber goes soaring after each fire; 

 and, unluckily for us bee-keepers, bee-hive 

 lumber is getting to be so scarce that it is 

 hard to get it at ant/ price. 



No wonder the i)ublic is so tremendously 

 interested in the conservation of our forests; 

 and no wonder it is getting tired of Balling- 

 er. While it would be unfair to saddle on 

 him our forest fires, the public believes, 

 whether justly or not, that somehow he has 

 favored private interests at the expense of 

 the people. 



CROP reports. 

 Reports from all sections of the country, 

 except in certain areas, would seem to indi- 

 cate that a severe drouth has been holding 

 sway over a large part of the land. This, so 

 far, has not done any permanent damage to 

 the clovers. If we should get fall rains the 

 clovers would be very much in evidence 

 next year. Reports continue to show that 

 some Western extracted honey will be se- 

 cured, and that there is a good crop in some 

 sections and a poor one in others. This is 

 also true to a great extent in the large area 

 east of the Mississippi. In some sections 

 of the eastern part of the country there has 

 been a bumper crop of clover honey, and in 

 others a very light yield with all gradations 

 between. There will probably be enough 

 extracted honey, both clover and alfalfa, to 

 take care of the market needs; but there 

 seems to be a scarcity of comb honey. 

 the tendency toward the production 

 OF extracted rather than 



COMB honey. 



There is plenty of evidence going to show 

 a tendency on the part of comb-honey pro- 

 ducers to go into the business of raising ex- 



