10 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



little tract or pamphlet, and I should be very 

 glad indeed to offer it for sale. Now, friend 

 W. Z. H., roll up your sleeves and give us 

 this little book. You can do it nicely, we 

 all know. Let us have it before commencing 

 another season's work. 



FOUL BROOD. 



STARVATION THE CAUSE. 



T NOTICE on page 947, 1886, where one T. F. Mc- 

 ^ Camant says, in his report under date of Oct. 

 ^i 18, 1886, that, " Early in the season foul bi'ood 



•*■ made its appearance, and, so far as I have 

 heard, there is no one who has not suflered 

 more or less loss." Now, friend Root, allow me, 

 in all justice, to enter a protest. I am living in the 

 same section of country as friend McCamant, and 

 have been corresponding- with some leading bee- 

 keepers living both east and west of San Antonio, 

 and a good deal nearer to San Antonio than I do 

 (and 1 am only 60 miles), and I have never heard 

 one single intelligent bee-keeper state that he had 

 had one case of foul brood; Ijut I did hear one old 

 box-hive man say that he bad lost some colonies 

 with foul brood; and when a man would come 

 along and say his hives smelied bad, this same old 

 bee-quack (who has been in the business 30 years, 

 to my knowledge), would at once tell him he had 

 foul brood, and no mistake. Now, friend R.. what 

 do you think this terrible disease was? Why, 

 simply starvation. I examined a number of col- 

 onies which liad died in this way, and I found that 

 they had starved to death and fallen to the bottom 

 of the hive, and, of course, smelied bad, like any 

 other decaying mass. My friend in San Antonio 

 evidently has not come fi-om the field of battle, but 

 has taken his information second hand. If friend 

 McCamant will kindly furnish me the name and 

 address of the leading bee-keeper who has lost ^o 

 many colonies, I will sift the matter to the bottom, 

 if it takes a trip to San Antonio to do it. I have 

 written to friend McC. about the matter; and if 

 the thing is a slander I will run it down, as it may 

 injure us bee-keepers if it is not corrected. All 

 this started last spring when bees were starving all 

 over the counti-y. so the story is not new to me; 

 but I had hoped that it would not get into the pa- 

 pers, so I explained to all in my locality that foul 

 brood is a disease of the brood, and not of the 

 mature bees. M. Broers. 



Gonzales, Tex.. Dec. 13, 1886. 



Friend 13., you are right ; but perhaps you 

 need a little more charity. Is it not possible 

 that friend McCamant intended to men- 

 tion only his immediate neighborhood — 

 say three or four miles from his home ? In 

 regard to the false alarm, I am sure there is 

 a good deal of it. At the Michigan Conven- 

 tion one young man was telling how terribly 

 frightened he was to find foul brood in his 

 apiary. When we asked him how he knew 

 it was real foul brood, he said he recognized 

 it by the taste of the lioney and by the looks 

 of the capped combs. When some of us smiled 

 at this test he said he would send a piece 

 of the honey to Prof. Cook, and see if Prof. 

 C would not pronounce it foul brood at first 

 sight. 



SEALING JELLY-TUMBLERS WITH 

 MELTED WAX. 



HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. 



f^ HERE, friend Root. I've found it. I knew I 

 W" liad seen it somewhere, and I was pretty 

 < sure it was in the Canadian Bee Journal. I 

 am not apt to say a thing is so till I can 

 prove it. Well, perhaps you want to know 

 what I am getting at. It is this: On page 974 of 

 Gleanings you speak of sealing honey-tumblers 

 Avith wax, and say you " feel like giving an Indian 

 war-whoop of exultation " when Mr. Cutting told 

 how to do it, at the recent Michigan Convention at 

 Ypsilanti; but he gave me the credit of the inven- 

 tion. I thought I had seen the suggestion either in 

 Gleanings or the C. B. J., but yourself and "our 

 genial friend McPherson " denied the "soft im- 

 peachment; " and that shows that nU editors don't 

 remember every tiling, any more than we "com- 

 mon mortals." 



Now, " Render unto Cesar the things that are 

 Cesar's," as you say, by calling attention to or 

 quoting from the bottom of the first and top of the 

 second columns on page :J8r>, ('. B. .T. for 1886. We 

 read as follows: 



SEALING .lELLV-TlNS. 



Here is a new way to seal jelly-glasses, witb tin 

 tops. Have a dish with hot wax; the wax maybe 

 kept at the proper temperature by allowing dishes 

 containing the wax, to float in iioiling water. 

 Then take the jelly-glasses, invert them, holding 

 them inverted, and dip them into the wax, just 

 down to the rim, about J4 of an inch; the wax coats 

 the outside and top of glasses, but not the inside, 

 for the reason that the air prevents it; besides, if it 

 is held in the wax a short time the heat expands the 

 air, causing the wax to settle down in the center 

 under the glass, so a hollow may be seen in the wax 

 under the glass; the lid is then warmed and pressed 

 on. It not only makes it air tight at the sides, but 

 the wax on the rim of the glass fits tight against 

 the lid, thus sealing it nicely. Try it and see if it 

 does not please you. These packages are becom- 

 ing so popular we find them in great demand. 



Vou speak of warming the tumblers. It seems 

 to me it is better not to warm them, for two rea- 

 sons: If warm, there will not so much wax remain 

 on them, and they will have to be held longer to let 

 the wax cool on them, but the covers should be 

 made quite warm. If you could have seen Mr. 

 Cutting and myself waxing and filling, and put the 

 covers on a lot of glass tin-top jelly-tumblers at 

 the Michigan State Pair at Jackson, last September, 

 you would have seen a very interesting as well as 

 instructive tableau. Friend Cutting was melting 

 wax in a basin, over one of friend Hutchinson's oil- 

 stoves, and I sat on a small box in front of a honey- 

 extractor, filling the tumblers with honey, and 

 W. Z. H. was leisurely walking about, enjoying the 

 Interesting scene, and, with Mr. Cutting, frequent- 

 ly warning as well as commanding me to be care- 

 ful and not get any of the honey on the edges of 

 the tumblers, or on my clothes. Cautious, weren't 

 they? They hated to lose any honey, you see. 



Auburndale, O., Dec. 3.5, 1886. A. B. Mason. 



Friend M., we own up and beg pardon. 

 The joke comes on friend McPherson, after 

 all. The point to it is, that it was on the 

 first page of the C. B. J. for July 7, under 

 the head of Our Own Apiary. Why didn't 

 you keej) still, old friend, "and carry the 

 credit V At any rate, we shall give you the 

 honor of bringing the matter prominently 

 before the public. 



