1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



47 



ascenario on a large scale of the nat- 

 ural history, anatomy and embryology 

 of the honeybee; manipulation, comb 

 and extracted honey production, queen 

 rearing, diseases and enemies, manu- 

 facture of supplies, beekeeping in dif- 

 ferent countries, etc. In short. Mr. 

 Coleman would propose to supply col- 

 leges, schools and beekeepers' conven- 

 tions with all sorts of moving pictures 

 of the bee work. 



This is an immense undertaking, but 

 we wish success to the project. Sooner 

 or later things of this kind will be in 

 vogue in all lines of business. 



Apiary at Michigan State Prison 



Mr. O H. L. Wernicke has our 

 thanks for a copy of the Michigan 

 State Prison Report, containing a 

 pretty picture of their house apiary. 

 West Prison farm. This is probably 

 a unique experiment. The teaching of 

 beekeeping at the Michigan State 

 Prison farm has already been men- 

 tioned in our September number, page 

 311. 



Nosema Apis in Australia 



The Journal of Agriculture of Vic- 

 toria, Australia, contains in its October, 

 1916 number, page 629, a very interest- 

 ing article on Xosema afis. It appears 

 that this parasite is found in many 

 healthy bees. 



"Bees from 88 widely-separated api- 

 aries were examined and the presence 

 of the Xosema parasite proved in all 

 but two, one of which was the depart- 

 mental apiary at the Burnley School of 

 Horticulture. In several instances the 

 bees which showed Xosema infection 

 came from apiaries in which no mor- 

 tality or dwindling ever occurred, and 

 it appeared, therefore, doubtful whether 

 the presence of the parasite in the bees 

 be in itself necessarily fatal, or whether 

 it greatly interferes with the produc- 

 tiveness of the hives excepting under 

 certain conditions due to climatic in- 

 fluences." 



Something similar has already been 

 noticed elsewhere. Although the pres- 

 ence of Xosema may have influence in 

 helping to cause disease, it is quite 

 probable that only under unfavorable 

 conditions does the parasite have an 

 ill influence on the health of the bees. 

 This need not astonish any one, since 

 we are told that the germs of tubercu- 

 losis have no effect upon healthy indi- 

 viduals. 



Those Local Markets Again 



In our January issue we urged bee- 

 keepers to keep their local markets 

 supplied even if it was necessary to 

 purchase honey from outside to do it. 



If other extracted honey is not pur- 

 chasable, there is still one loophole 

 left so as to keep your customers sup- 

 plied. Induce as many of them as you 



can to take a little comb honey. Comb 

 honey is easily obtained. In fact, the 

 market on it is dull. You can help re- 

 lieve this by using a few cases locally, 

 and at the same time you can prevent 

 the substitution of something else for 

 honey by your customers. 



Granulation ot Honey— Prevent- 

 ing it iiy Solarizatiou 



At the Toronto meeting in December 

 last, Mr. J. F. Dunn, president of the 

 Lincoln and Welland Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation, spoke of the success which he 

 has in keeping honey from granulating 

 by exposing it to sun heat. He would 

 like to know whether there is any 

 chemical change in honey thus exposed 

 and what the change is. We believe 

 that there must be some evaporation of 

 moisture, and that alone might be suffi- 

 cient to prevent gianulation. However, 

 it is an open question. If honey can 

 be prevented from granulating by sun 

 heat without too much loss of time and 

 in large bulk, there may be some ad- 

 vantage in making use of the method 

 for the benefit of customers who do 

 not like granulated honey. There is 

 probably no loss of flavor in such a 

 method, as the heat would not be great 

 enough to cause the evaporation of the 

 volatile essential oils which give the 

 flowers their fragrance and the honey 

 its exquisite flavor. 



We would like to have Mr. Dunn tell 

 us his method, for publication. It should 

 be tried and the exact amount of evap- 

 oration ascertained. Reports on this 

 subject from different sources, next 

 summer, will be interesting. 



Mr. Dunn suggests to us that samples 

 of solarized honey be forwarded to Mr. 

 Alin Caillas, the Paris Agricultural 

 Chemist, for analysis. But Mr. Caillas 

 is at the front, in the trenches, and very 

 little of this kind of work can be ex- 

 pected of him before peace comes. We 

 must have in this country some capa- 

 ble analysts who can make the test. 



Attend the National 



Make your plans if possible so that 

 you will be able to enjoy the three day 

 session of the National Association in 

 Madison, Wis., Feb. 6, 7 and 8. It will 

 be worth your while. 



Isle of Wight Disease in Liguria 



Regarding the bee-disease in Liguria, 

 mentioned on page 372 of November, 

 1916, we have received a letter from 

 Engineer Capponi. He says : 



"The disease of our bees was the 

 Isle of Wight disease, for I have ascer- 

 tained it through an English apiarist 

 who lives in the infected district and 

 who visited my apiary. He states that 

 the disease has stopped in his district 



and we hope it will be the same here. 



"The maximum of infection was dur- 

 ing July. August and September. At 

 present, Nov 5. it seems to have stopped. 

 If it starts again, I shall send you some 

 sample bees. But do you not think we 

 should seek for the germs of the dis- 

 ease in the honey ? If so, it would be 

 well to heat it. 



"In case of further trouble, I will 

 have some of the honey analyzed and 

 will let you know the result. But I 

 hope the disease will not occur again." 



Engineer Capponi, whom we men- 

 tioned in our " Notes from Abroad," in 

 May, 191.'), lives at San Remo, on the 

 Riviera, where they raise roses and 

 carnations, by hundreds of acres, dur- 

 ing the winter, for shipment to the 

 capitals of northern Europe, in peace 

 times. During our visit of 1913, Mr. 

 Capponi offered Mrs. Dadant a beauti- 

 ful bouquet of carnations, almost an 

 armful. As we reminded him of this 

 in our last letter, he adds : 



" If the signora Dadant were here at 

 present, I could offer her much prettier 

 flowers than then, especially General 

 McArthur roses, American roses which 

 grow in my garden and are magnifi- 

 cent." 



Value of Beekeepers' Meetings 



The value of an exchange of ideas at 

 beekeepers' meetings is probably un- 

 derestimated by a majority of beekeep- 

 ers. The quotations following are from 

 the "System" Magazine, clippings 

 from which were kindly forwarded to 

 us by a reader: 



"I was tol 1 just the other day that a 

 certain automobile manufacturer is ar- 

 ranging to send an efEciency engineer 

 to the plants of his competitors — some 

 of them manufacturers of the same 

 priced car — to gather up ideas that 

 might be profitably applied in his own 

 plant. The engineer is to go. not as 

 an 'industrial spy,' but with a letter of 

 introduction of the manager, requesting 

 the courtesy and offering to recipro- 

 cate. 



"If there are a hundred concerns in 

 business and each one keeps its origi- 

 nal ideas to itself, each has the original 

 ideas of one. If general exchange is 

 the rule each has the original ideas 

 of one hundred." 



So with our business of producing 

 and marketing honey. One of us may 

 have an excellent idei.but how much 

 better will it become if we add the 

 original ideas of a dozen or hundred 

 other beekeepers. 



Bees Wintering About Xormally 



Indications so far are that bees are 

 wintering well. Those left out-of-doors, 

 in the central West at least, have had 

 good flights at intervals in January. In 

 the northern half of the country the 

 snow has helped to protect the clover. 

 Unfortunately, in this immediate vicin- 

 ity the ground is very dry — not con- 

 ducive to the best wintering of clover- 



