1917 



AMERICAN BF.F, JOURNAL 



155 



riend Dr. Phillips, who is better placed 

 than any of us for such work. After 

 reading it the reader will conclude, as 

 we had done already, that there is after 

 all a great benefit in apiary inspection 

 but that that benefit is mainly educa- 

 tional. The practical apiarists who, 

 like myself, kept bees for half a century 

 without ever seeing any foulbrood and 

 all at once found themselves surround- 

 ed with it, have a very deep conviction 

 that, if no fight had been made, the 

 disease would have swept the country 

 before becoming extinguished. 



Although far from eradicated every- 

 where, it is so nearly controlled that 

 beekeeping is thriving in spite of an 

 occasional show of the disease. Foul- 

 hrood has been a blessing in disguise, 

 for it has compelled more attention to 

 the business of beekeeping. 



Sacbrood 



Dr. G. F. White, the scientist who has 

 first established the bacteriological dif- 

 ference between the two kinds of foul- 

 brood and who has also named " sac- 

 brood" because of the appearance of 

 the dead larva and its resemblance to a 

 sac full of liquid matter, is now giving 

 us a thorough description of sacbrood 

 in Bulletin No. 431 of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Decoy Hives 



The Editor not long ago met an ex- 

 perienced beekeeper, Mr. S. L. Cork, of 

 Peru, 111., who has had considerable 

 experience with the securing of ab- 

 sconding swarms by the use of decoy 

 hives. Mr. Cork says that he has suc- 

 ceeded best by placing the decoy hives 

 in the forks of trees. During the sea- 

 son of 1916, a notable year for natural 

 swarming, he fastened 11 hives in trees 

 in this way, six feet or more from the 



ground, and in each of these a swarm 

 volunteered to locate. Three hives 

 placed on top of a shed secured only 

 one swarm. It is creditable and easy 

 to understand that bees would naturally 

 look for tree hollows some distance 

 above ground rather than for lower 

 abodes. 



The Queer) i.s Coming' 



Here is a story which went the 

 rounds of the European bee magazines 

 some 15 years ago. It may not be true, 

 but " se non e vera, e ben troi'alo " (if 

 not true, it is likely). 



" Lord Cecil is a lover of bees, but 

 his pet pursuit was the cause of a little 

 trouble to the folks of the city. He had 

 a queenless colony once and wrote to 

 a breeder for a queen, asking to l>e in- 

 formed by telegraph when she was to 

 be sent. To satisfy him, the shipper 

 wired: 'The queen will reach your 

 station at 3:40 p.m.' On his arrival 

 at the station at the indicated hour, he 

 was much astonished to see a crowd of 

 people in their best clothes. The mayor 

 was there in a frock coat, and a band 

 was playing its finest tunes. Upon en- 

 quiry he ascertained that one of the 

 telegraph operators had I)een indiscreet 

 enough to give out the announcement 

 of the arrival of the Queen of England 

 at that hour. A few words of explana- 

 tion dispersed the disappointed crowd." 



ginger, rosemary and other tonics was 

 beneficial. We believe these things 

 may do good, but such severe epidem- 

 ics as the Isle of Wight disease would 

 probably not yield to a treatment of 

 this sort. Who knows, however, but 

 that the initial appearance of the dis- 

 ease may be prevented by the use of 

 tonics in the food of the bees ? 



Pepperniiut for Adult Bee L)is- 

 ease.s 



Mr. C. W. Aeppler transmits to us 

 the translation of a letter from an east- 

 ern Switzerland apiarist recommend- 

 ing the use of peppermint in diluted 

 honey to be sprinkled over the bees in 

 diseased colonies which are suffering 

 from diarrhea, paralysis, May disease 

 and similar troubles. 



In Italy, in the Province of Ancona, 

 in 1916, similar remedies were recom- 

 mended by apiarists who claimed that 

 a preparation of honey with lavender, 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SAME QUEEN-REARING APIARY 



I'resident Wil.sou on Production 



The address of President Wilson to 

 the people published on Monday, April 

 16, has been sent to all publishers of 

 agricultural magazines. We cannot 

 give it in full, but we should give em- 

 phasis to a few points of this memor- 

 able appeal. 



"The supreme need of our nation 

 and of the nations with which we are 

 cooperating is an abundance of sup- 

 plies, and especially of food stufTs 



The world's food reserves are low 

 Every one who cultivates a gar- 

 den, helps, and helps greatly, to solve 

 the. problem of the feeding of the na- 

 tions." 



Not only is it well to heed the appeal 

 of our President to all producers to 

 work as earnestly as possible in the 

 production of food stuffs; it is also 

 well to urge the people to economize 

 their resources. 



America has been — and is yet a 



wasteful nation. Let us remember that 

 the time may not be very far when 

 some one may need that which we care- 

 lessly waste. Let us not only produce 

 all we can, but save all we can. What 

 we waste might be useful to some one 

 else, if we do not need it ourselves. 



Bees and Pollination 



For an evidence of the usefulness of 

 bees in prune pollination, read Bulletin 

 No. 274 of the California Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, l)y A. H. Hend- 

 rickson. It is quite interesting. It is 

 another rivet in the evidence favoring 

 bees in plant fertilization. 



This Season'.s Crop and Its Price 



We call our readers attention to the 

 page of Crop and Market Reports in 

 the back part of this magazine. Re- 

 ports of offered prices and contracted 

 prices for 1917 are beginning to filter in. 



Just what the price on honey will be 

 when fall comes is exceedingly hard to 

 determine. We are passing through 

 an unusual period which is subject to 

 change in a comparatively short time. 



One thing which we would urge upon 

 our customers, however, is to make 

 some distinction between their retail 

 and wholesale prices of honey. Too 

 many beekeepers in the past have sold 

 honey locally for 10 cents or even less 

 for extracted per pound and then be- 

 wailed the fact that they were offered 

 only 6 or 7 cents in a wholesale way. 



