738 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



work is properly done, no sagging or breaking of 

 combs will occur in extracting-. I have thoroughly 

 tested this method, and believe it superior to any 

 other; besides, it is inexpensive, simple, and speedy. 



Of course, there are some "drawbacks" to Amer- 

 icans carrying on business in Cuba, but they are 

 not so serious as many suppose, and these we may 

 notice in some future number. A. J. King. 



New York, Aug., 1889. 



Well, I declare, old friend, you have really 

 worked up almost a system of bee culture 

 specially for Cuba. Your plan of placing all 

 the brood in front of a strong colony, so as 

 to have a regular storehouse of young bees 

 from which to draw them, by the pint, 

 quart, or bushel, is a new idea, at least to 

 me. I3y this means we get all the brood, 

 and get rid of transferring old combs into 

 frames that would be only a detriment. I 

 think if I should do any transferring I would 

 adopt a similar plan ; viz., save all the bees, 

 but melt up every square inch of comb from 

 the old hive. Your plan of wiring frames, 

 I presume, applies particularly to the Amer- 

 ican frame, about a foot square. For this 

 frame it will no doubt answer nicely. With 

 the Langstroth frames, two diagonal wires 

 work very well in a similar way. We should 

 be very glad indeed to receive further re- 

 ports. 



COAL OIL AND SULPHUR NO REMEDY 

 FOR FOUL BROOD. 



SOMETHING FROM OUR OLD FRIEND .JOHN G. COREY, 

 OF SMOKER FAME. 



TN a late issue of Gleanings, I see that Bro. 

 ||£ Mercer, our foul-brood inspector, has gone 

 W back ten years and is novv actually going over 



"*■ the same ground that some of our old Ventura 

 County bee-keepers did during our foul-brood 

 panic, commencing in 187V. 



lam sorry this old coal-oil and sulphur remedy 

 has been revived, and doubly so because it re-ap- 

 peared in this county, where we, like a band of 

 brothers, united in reading up on the subject, and 

 finally united, and, I can safely say, stamped it out 

 of existence among the progressive bee-keepers of 

 this county. 'Tis true, we had bee-owners who 

 would experiment with coal-oil and sulphur, the 

 same as the celebrated African " medico," who 

 prescribed " rosum and shot" for a broken leg, and 

 foul brood stuck to them like a brother as long as 

 they owned a single colony of bees. Hut our wide- 

 awake bee-keepers accepted the well-established 

 theory that the disease existed in the honey; and 

 that, as long as there was a drop of that diseased 

 honey in a hive, foul brood was liable to re-appear 

 whenever that drop of honey was used to feed 

 brood; and as Bro. Mercer is our inspeotor, we feel 

 a pride in having him both practice and teach the 

 true and accepted theory, namely, that foul brood 

 is a fungoid disease, and exists in the honey; that 

 the diseased, dead, and putrid brood is only the ef- 

 fect; that to cure the disease we must remove the 

 cause. Still, 1 am willing to hear Bro. Mercer de- 

 fend his coal-oil and sulphur remedy, but I can not 

 feel otherwise than that any such nonsense is mis- 

 leading, and eventually works a great wrong. 

 When beginners in bee culture read the discussions 

 on this disease, and examine the best authorities 



on the subject, and afterward find a large bee- 

 keeper advocating so simple a remedy as Bro. Mer- 

 cer proposes, he is liable to say, " What a set of old 

 fools those old beekeepers were, to make so much 

 ado about such a trivial affair as foul brood ! " 



I can tell Bros. Mercer and Mclntyre how to 

 make a queen-excluder for one-third of a cent, if it 

 would not be considered too cheap, and be an inju- 

 ry to the perforated-zinc trade. 



Jno. G. Corey. 



Santa Paula, Cat, Aug. 13, 1889. 



Eriend Corey marked the following " pri- 

 vate;" but as it contains the good news 

 that he is about to enter into our ranks 

 again, he will excuse us for using it. 



P. S.— Bees came and entered some of my old cast- 

 away hives on my lot. I have cared for them, and 

 imported some queens, and am preparing to go 

 back into bee-keeping this winter. I have been 

 lonesome since I sold my apiaries, and I can't live 

 without bees. J. G. C. 



Perhaps I should explain to our readers, 

 that friend Corey is the one who first 

 gave us the idea of the cold-blast smoker. 

 I had quite a visit with him while in Cal- 

 ifornia, and he explained to me that, as 

 his life has been mostly spent with machin- 

 ery, making him necessarily conversant 

 with the principles of steam, air, and liq- 

 uids, it was no very great invention for him 

 to suggest making the smoker on the in- 

 jector principle — at least he so states it. 

 But we can thank him none the less. He is 

 a man well informed, and well calculated to 

 detect and throw out any so-called false sci- 

 ence. If he uses a remedy or any thing at 

 all for foul brood, it would have to have the 

 stamp of common sense on it before it could 

 pass him. I entirely agree with him in re- 

 gard to the coal oil and sulphur — that is, I 

 can not see by any process of reasoning how 

 it should be an antidote against foul brood. 



WHAT IS AN AVERAGE CROP OF HON- 

 EY, COMB AND EXTRACTED? 



E. FRANCE BRINGS UP A PERTINENT QUESTION. 



TN answers to the third question in the statisti- 

 |flp cal report in Aug. 15th Gleanings, for the 

 W present year, there appears to be a big differ- 



■*■ ence in opinion as to the amount of a full crop 

 of honey. We base our calculations on a full 

 crop of extracted honey as 100 lbs. per colony, 

 spring count; and for comb honey, 51) lbs. per colo- 

 ny. This year we got about 50 lbs. average, which 

 we call half a crop. My report for this vicinity was 

 75 per cent; but my neighbors got more honey per 

 colony than I did. Mr. Freeborn, of Ithaca, Wis., 

 gives 1(10 per cent ; his crop 32,000 lbs. from 300 colo- 

 nies, an average of 107 lbs. per colony, besides 200 

 lbs. of comb honey. Mr. F. McNay, of Mauston, 

 Wis., gives in his report 100 per cent; his crop 20,000 

 lbs. from 350 colonies. His average was a trifle 

 over 57 lbs.; but still he reports 100 per cent. See 

 the difference in opinion about percent. McNay 

 must think he got a full crop, while Freeborn 

 doesn't appear to think he got over a full crop. Mr. 

 J. L. Clarke, of Florida, reports nearly 5000 lbs. 

 from 08 colonies, an average per colony of 73)4 lbs., 

 and he reports :200 per cent. Mr. C. Dadant, of Illi- 

 nois, reports 35,000 lbs. from 400 colonies, 87'/2 lbs. 



