June, 1915. 



American "Bee Jonrnal j 



195 



imparted this information to me took 

 my card and promptly shut her door in 

 my face, as if I had been a burglar. 



So, aside from our visit with my old 

 comrade, our stay in Nice was not very 

 niir. We can't have everything always 

 as we would wish. But the weather 

 was delightful. 



We had a very graceful invitation 

 from the beekeepers of Marseille (in 

 English Marseilles) to stop there for a 

 couple of days. VVe had set the day 

 and they were e.xpecting us. Our mis- 

 hap delayed us 24 hours. So we sent 

 them a telegram. When we reached 

 the hotel in that city, we found two 

 letters informing us that they would 

 call upon us as soon as they were ap- 

 prised of our arrival. 



If you want to see whole-hearted, 

 enthusiastic people, go to Marseille or 

 Bordeaux. They welcomed us, they 

 overwhelmed us. We spent two days 

 in a whirlwind of enjoyment and en- 

 tertainment. 



They first took us to the "Canne- 

 bit-re," which is the " grand boulevard " 

 of Marseille. As the Marseillais are 

 choke-full of fun, and proud of their 

 city, they say: "If Paris only had a 

 Cannebiere, it would be a little Mar- 

 seille." They also inform the visitor 

 that the Cannebiere leads all the way 

 to New York, the only thing necessary 

 being to walk down to the port and 

 take a ship for the latter city. Luckily, 

 they told us, a large sardine, which en- 

 cumbered the entrance to the port, had 

 just been caught. 



A very interesting trip, which we 

 made at once, was a visit to the 

 "Frioul," an island about two miles 

 ; out in the bay, in which Mr. Barthe- 

 ' lemy, the manager of the experimental 

 apiary, has begun select queen-rearing, 

 by bringing there some choice colonies 

 of both queens and drones. However, 

 the experiment is yet in its initial 

 stage, only a few queens having been 

 fertilized thus far. The hives are 

 located in an old stone building close 

 to the water's edge. I suggested to him 

 the selection of a better spot, a little 

 more remote from the seashore. I 

 know by my experience along the Miss- 

 issippi, that queens easily become daz- 

 zled by the reflection of the sun in the 

 water and drown. As the island is 



hilly and has a little valley in its cen- 

 ter, it should be possible to secure a 

 number of good matings. The isola- 

 tion is complete, for the nearest shore 

 is a thickly built port. There can be 

 but little inducement for the bees to 

 cross the intervening space between 

 the cultivated suburbs back of the city 

 and this island. It is a more positive 

 isolation than that of the Swiss mating 

 stations. 



On the way to this island we passed 

 the "Chateau d'lf," renowned by the 

 fame of Alexander Dumas' novel, 

 " Monte Cristo." It is a barren, ugly 

 ruin, but is regularly visited by tour- 

 ists, while the Frioul, being a fortiiied 

 naval spot is not open to strangers. I 

 could not have visited it without the 

 escort of our beekeeping friends. 



The local association publishes a 

 "Revue d'Apiculture," and possesses 

 an experimental apiary, under the care 

 of Mr. Barthelemy, already mentioned, 

 who is also a teacher in beekeeping. 



On the second day of our stay, we 

 were offered an "informal lunch," 

 which turned out to be a great ban- 

 quet, with some 30 persons present. 

 There we had occasion to try the local 

 dishes, some "sea urchins" or echino- 

 derms, a round iish resembling a large 

 chestnut with its thorny outer shell; 

 also the famous " bouillabaisse," com- 

 posed of all sorts of fishes, with spe- 

 cial sauce. We might say here that in 

 each country we found new dishes and 

 made it a point lo try everything. 



After the banquet, speeches were 

 made and toasts offered. It was a 

 pleasurable occasion, at which a num- 

 ber of ladies were present. In the 

 afternoon an excursion was made to 

 an apiary, that of Mr. Vinay, some four 

 or five miles away, in the suburbs. 



A method of cure of American foul- 

 brood by the use of drugs was de- 

 scribed to me, by Mr. Barthelemy, and 

 I must say that I was, at first, very 

 skeptical on this subject. He asserted 

 that they had discovered very light 

 cases, only a few dozen cells being dis- 

 eased in each colony. But it was posi- 

 tively the ropy, coffee-colored disease. 

 They had treated it by injections of 

 formol, a 40 percent solution of for- 

 maldehyde, in each of the cells con- 

 taining diseased or dead larvs, besides 



spraying the diseased combs very 

 lightly with this solution and burning, 

 in the smoker, rags which had been 

 sprinkled with the same drug. They 

 also had fed the colonies affected with 

 a solution of honey containing 'A 

 gram (5 grains) of betanaphthol to 

 the quart. Several colonies in this 

 apiary had been treated as above in 

 May and June, and when I visited it, in 



VIEW OF THE CHATEAU D'lF AT MARSEILLES 



Mr. Barthelemy of Marseilles 



September, I wis unable to find a sin- 

 gle diseased larva, although we opened 

 three or four colonies which had been 

 diseased. 



However, these had been very mild 

 cases, and J would hesitate to recom- 

 mend the method for anything serious. 

 Several hours' work is required for 

 each colony, and it becomes necessary 

 to protect them efficiently against rob- 

 bers while the treatment is being 

 given, unless the honey crop is on. 

 During the honey crop is really the 

 best time to make any operations in 

 foulbrood treatment. 



The vicinity of Marseille is a good 

 honey-producing region. In the valley 

 of the Rhnne, they have fruit trees, 

 sainfoin and alfalfa. On the mountains 

 to the northeast, they have the heather 

 of which I have spoken already several 

 times. This plant gives very dark, 

 thick honey, strong in taste. Its pollen 

 is of light color, although the anthers 

 which envelop it are brown. The wax 

 produced from this dark honey is very 

 light in color, while that from the 

 white sainfoin is of deep yellow shade. 

 That the comb is usually colored by 

 the pollen of the plants harvested 

 during its production does not admit 

 of a doubt. The only question is 

 whether the coloring is due to the con- 

 sumption of this pollen by the bees or 

 to a simple mechanical action, due to 

 the fall of pollen grains upon the fresh- 

 built comb from the hairs of the 

 worker bees during harvest. This sub- 



