306 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Martinique, Antigua, 

 Nevis, St. Kitts, and Redonda, were visited; 

 but the last and most interesting was Montser- 

 rat. I was here enabled to make an interest- 

 ing observation as to the quantity of beeswax 

 produced in a given area. The island is quite 

 a small one — 30,000 acres — with a population of 

 9000. Bees are kept to some extent, but I im- 

 agine a quantity of the wax is got from the 

 wild bees in the forests on the mountains. I 

 had the good fortune to be provided with a let- 

 ter of introduction to a gentleman who is prac- 

 tically the sole buyer of all the beeswax that is 

 exported. The whole appears to be brought to 

 him with the exception, perhaps, of a little that 

 the chemist gets for local use. The average 

 quantity is about 1120 lbs. per annum, or about 

 1 lb. to every 27 acres. This island is in a better 

 position than any other I visited, for the pro- 

 duction of comb honey, owing to the vast plan- 

 tations of limes, the property of the Sturgis 

 Montserrat Lime-juice Co. The honey is very 

 superior, being much like the South-European 

 orange-bloom honey, and commands quite a 

 high price locally— about 5 cts. per lb., being 

 put up in empty whisky-bottles, which, I com- 

 pute, hold about 2}>4 lbs. each. The surplus 

 honey finds a ready market in Trinidad. 



I here found my time was exhausted, and was 

 hence obliged to givfe up any extended visit to 

 Cuba. Hayti, and Jamaica, which, of course, 

 are the great bee-keeping islands, and I am 

 writing this at Barbadoes, on my way home. 



[I will explain to onr readers, that Mr. Blow 

 is one of the leading-supply dealers in England. 

 He has traveled extensively throughout Con- 

 tinental Europe, and to some extent in the 

 United States.— Ed.] 



with the ability to sting, it can make its pres- 

 ence felt, and its memory a "possession for 

 ever." One species is frequently two feet in 

 diameter, and moves about in schools, or shoals, 

 which oftentimes are sufflcient to interfere 

 with the progress of boats. Irridescent in the 

 sunlight and phosphorescent in the twilight 

 and darkness, their course is a path of light. 



The jelly-fish is the glass-umbrella of the sea, 

 and in place of the handle are numerous deli- 

 cate filamentary tentacles. By the contraction 

 and expansion of the muscular umbrella-like 

 body, the creature makes its way through the 

 water. Its tentacles, however, contain a sting 

 and a poison-cell, so that, while admiring its 

 beauty, one must remember the maxim, " Do 

 not touch me." 



All animals' bodies are partially water; but 

 the jelly-fish contains only about thirty grains 

 of solid matter out of a possible ten pounds of 

 weight. Many a person who has admired the 

 beauty of the floating jelly-fish has been sur- 

 prised to find it almost vanish after it had been 

 caught. A story is told of a thrifty farmer who 

 collected loads of jelly-fish, thinking to fertilize 

 his land therewith, but found that he had 

 rather discovered a new method of salt-water 

 irrigation. 



JELLY-FISH. 



AN INTEKESTING DESCRIPTION OF THEM 



By J. W. Bud. 



The Discophera (disk-bearers), such as jelly- 

 fish, sea-nettle, etc., are a very numerous, at- 

 tractive, and (under some circumstances) trou- 

 blesome community in the waters of the ocean. 

 They seem restricted to no temperature or clime. 

 They exhibit the most infinite variation in size, 

 form, and color. Many of them add to their 

 personal charms the phosphorescence which is 

 so charming a feature of evenings at the sea- 

 side. Their delicate tissues assume all imag- 

 inable forms, and rival the magic of the kalei- 

 doscope. The arms proceed from beneath the 

 umbrella-like disk, and resemble the four posts 

 of some grotesque arbor. The mouth, when 

 existing, is placed in the lower wall of the disk, 

 and is furnished with tentacles. A common 

 species has a multitudeof filamentary tentacles 

 which resemble a fringe dropped from tlie seat 

 of a chair; these it entwines about any object 

 of contact. As each one of them is endowed 



DRUGS FOR FOUL BROOD. 



WHY THE OPPOSITION TO THE DRUG METHOD. 



By F. L. Thomjjson. 



At various times in the past you have said 

 that you took no stock in drugs for the cure of 

 foul brood. I differ with you, if you meant that 

 drugs never cured foul brood. We have had 

 cases enough, with three dlff'ereut drugs, to 

 prove that they do. Cheshire and others (among 

 them one of our county inspector.^) have suc- 

 ceeded in curing foul brood with carbolic acid; 

 Ed. Bertrand cured 37 colonies with salicylic 

 acid; and others in Switzerland have recently 

 succeeded with formic acid. In the face of 

 such evidence we are justified in simply disre- 

 garding the assertion which Mr. McEvoy and 

 others make, that foul brood can not be cured 

 with drugs. 



But it seems a little singular to me that en- 

 ergy should be wasted in these fruitless asser- 

 tions when there is another evident loop-hole by 

 which the drug cure (for that is the proper 

 term) can be attacked; namely, its great slow- 

 ness. Even lysol, for which so much is claim- 

 ed, took three weeks to effect a cure. Now, if 

 one man's sick colonies were all he had to look 

 out for, the drug cure would be the thing, 

 though it needs skill and thoroughness, as many 

 have failed with it; but when there is danger 

 that not only his remaining healthy colonies, 

 but also his neighbors' bees, will be infected, 

 while he is puttering over his drug cure, it is 

 evident that we, as a community of bee-keep- 



