1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



311 



for three years with various remedies, such as 

 phenol, starvation, melting up all combs, scald- 

 ing hives, killing queens, caging all queens 21 

 days to stop breeding for a time, v/hile new 

 combs were being built out, come to the con- 

 clusion that a new and more effectual remedy 

 will have to come along before much foul brood 

 in the tropics is eradicated except by total 

 annihilation, which surely follows if the disease 

 is not checked each year by melting all combs 

 and putting the bees on new foundation. 



I have lost 350 colonies by the disease — worth 

 in Cuba not less than 11000, and all my neigh- 



never uses German script, but plain English 

 letters, so his writing is read as easily as the 

 printed page. But here's his letter, which 

 loses by the translation: 



My experience agrees with yours iti the matters 

 you mention, except tlie case in which you saw a 

 queen kill a worker. To balance tliat, I once had a 

 young- queen sting me, which I had taken out of an 

 after-swarm, and held in my closed hand. The 

 sting did not remain in the flesh, and it was less 

 painful than that of a worker. Since then I have 

 had in my hand thousands of queens young and old, 

 but have never again been stung by one. 



FIG. 3.— CASANOVA APIARY, CUBA. 



bors around have shared my fate, or their bees 

 have. 

 Navasota, Tex. (at present). 



BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN GERMANY. 



WHY THEIR MEMUERSHTPS ARE SO LARGE. 



By Dr. C. C. Miller. 

 I have a letter which I esteem very highly, 

 not only because it clears up a matter concern- 

 ing which I have for a long time been curious — 

 the reason why the Germans have such large 

 bee-conventions — but also because it comes 

 from one whom I am proud to number among 

 my friends, the able editor of the Deutsche II- 

 lustrierte Bienenzeitung (German Illustrated 

 Bee Journal), who is already well known to 

 the readers of Gleanings through his contri- 

 butions to its pages. I wish I could show to 

 all of you his writing. Although past his 

 threescore and ten, the address on the envelope 

 would easily be taken for copper-plate. Al- 

 though his letters are in the German language, 

 in pity for my lack of familiarity therewith he 



I have read in Gleanings for January 1 your 

 statement concerning the number of members of 

 the German Central Association, as also the remark 

 of Ernest Root. Now I will impart to you the 

 secret why it happens that the Centralverein (Cen- 

 tral Association) has such a large membership, and 

 if you wish you can betray the secret to Ernest. 



In thickly populated Germany there are minis- 

 ters and teachers wlio form about them little 

 Vereine (societies or associations) wliose members 

 generally meet monthly or quarterly. Every one 

 wlio has bees, even if only a couple of colonies, al- 

 lows himself to be enrolled, without attending each 

 meeting tliat is appointed. These small Vereine 

 obtain at a very low price one of the reasonable 

 bee-journals, as the Coitralhlatt or Lcipzlger Bienen- 

 zeitung for 1 mark (26c), or 6.5 pfennig (about 13c) a 

 year. Many of these small Vereine have their own 

 bee-journals, wliich then cost more, but never more 

 than 50cents. These small Vereine (Special-Vereine) 

 are united to tlie Centralvereine of the different 

 provinces or small states. For example, in Mark, 

 my province of the kingdom of Prussia, the Mark- 

 ische Centralverein consists of 77 Specialvereine, 

 with 1539 members, who, in the fall of 1894, put into 

 winter quarters 15,000 colonies. 



Now comes, however, the principal thing, which 



