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GLEANINGS IN HkK GlU/rnHK. 



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A GOOD PLEDGE TO TAKE. 



I hiivt' fteeii looking!- over the Tobacco Column in 

 (!hEANiN(is, and thoujrht tliat somcthinji- like this 

 woiilfl look better: 



" Dear Sir:— I have left ofV th<> tllthy habit of 

 .sraokiDK and chewing- tobacco, and am saving about 

 two dollars a month by so doing. Inclosed is that 

 amount, the savings of' the last month, and [want 

 one of the best smokers made for that price. I not 

 only save my money, but my wife says it does not 

 make her sick every time 1 come into the house. 

 If I ever commence the use of the weed again I 

 hope that I shall have to handle cross hybrid bees 

 ivithout a smoker. I am giving- the amount I for- 

 merly spent for tobacco to my wife, and she will 

 soon have enough money to buy the best silk dress 

 in town. L. C. Whitney." 



Thanks, friend W. Your pledge is a capi- 

 tal one. By all means give the tobacco 

 money to her who has been so faithful. 

 Where is the good wife who will not make it 

 go farther than it formerly did ? We should 

 like to have some of the old tobacco-users, 

 who have quit for a year or more, tell how 

 much they have saved since — whether they 

 an' any better physically and morally. On 

 the other hand, if any" man is sorry he 

 tried to give up tobacco, and afterward re- 

 sumed its use, we should be glad to hear 

 from him likewise, and his reasons for so 

 doing. This column is open. 



CONDUCTED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



FOUL BROOD. 



SAID in the last issue I would have 

 something further in reference to car- 

 bolic acid as a bacteriacideforthe germs 

 of foul brood. Recent developments, 

 however, have been such that I deem it 

 unwise to say any thing further. In the 

 mean time we shall continue experiment- 

 ing, and when we have arrived at some- 

 thing definite we will report. Perhaps it 

 would be well to remark, that we have se- 

 cured the services of Mr. K. II, Sargent, a 

 graduate of the course in Natural History 

 of Cornell University, Mr. S. was one of 

 my old chums and classmates. He has had 

 considerable experience with bees ; and 

 when I told him about our experience with 

 foul brood he became at once interested. 

 He is familiar with the growths, such as 

 are found in diseases like cholera, yellow 

 fever, and certain others. Having a little 

 leisure time before going back to take a 

 post-graduate course in the University, I 

 asked him to try what he could do in culti- 

 vating foul-brood germs in gelatine. He 

 has done so, and has met with apparent 

 success. In due time he will send in writ- 

 ten reports from the University, where he 

 will continue his experiments. After he 

 has succeeded in getting what he knoivs 

 to be the real germs of foul brood, be- 

 yond any possibility of doubt, growing in 

 beef gelatine, he is then to experiment, 

 with the view of determining what agencies, 

 whether dilute or not, will utterly kill the 

 growth. If carbolic acid or absolute phenol 

 will kill it. what dilution is necessary V 



Mr. Sargent will have access to all the ap- 

 paratus of the University. He will also 

 hav<' the advice and assistance of one or 

 more of the professors. I am sure that a 

 nimibei- of our rcadeis will await the results 

 of his experiments in this line, with consid- 

 erable interest. 



OTIIKK USES OF CAHU(M.IC ACID, 



Wliiie experimenting, for the purpose of 

 disinfecting diseased hives and combs, I 

 have found that carbolic acid, when diluted 

 to not more than 200 times, makes a very 

 good apifuge — that is, the bees flee from it. 

 One day a swarm came out and persisted, 

 in sydte of all our efforts, in clustering upon 

 one particular limb, inconveniently situat- 

 ed. Again and again we shook the limb, 

 and succeeded in getting a portion of the 

 bees, at least, to cluster on the comb which 

 we held before them. The other portion 

 still directed their flight toward the afore- 

 said limb. Knowing that bees have a great 

 aversion for carbolic acid we sprayed some 

 of it, diluted 200 times, on the limb. Every 

 bee, as he approached the much-sought-for 

 place of clustering, on discovering it had a 

 very perceptible as well as disagreeable 

 odor, departed in evident disgust. Shortly 

 afterward, however, we had the bees clustei-- 

 ing just where we wanted them to cluster : 

 i. e., on the comb. During swarming times 

 the apiarist will find carbolic acid, at a dilu- 

 tion of 200 times, quite convenient. 



Something over a month ago the robbers 

 had a little taste of honey while one of the 

 boys was working over one of the hives. 

 After he had closed the hive there was quite 

 a swarm of robbers tuml)ling over each 

 other, as they endeavored to pass into the 

 crack where we afterward discovered one or 

 two be;^s could get in at a time. I sprayed 

 carbolic acid around that portion of the 

 hive. The robbers left it immediately. 

 Nor did they attempt to get near the crack 

 again until the liquid had evaporated ; and 

 even then they regarded the odor with evi- 

 dent aversion. In the British Bee Journal, 

 carbolic acid has been mentioned as an 

 agent for driving bees out of sections. I 

 have not yet tried it, but I believe, when 

 the acid is strong enough, and properly ad- 

 ministered over the tops of the sections, 

 that it will drive the bees down out of the 

 surplus deitartment into the brood-nest. 

 There was so little honey coming in this 

 year that I did not ha^'e an opportunity to 

 try this and other things I wanted to do. 



'Later.— Since writing the above, Mr. Sar- 

 gent and I have just viewed, through a pow- 

 ier of 1200 diameters, the microscopic growth 

 which infects tlie larva^. Although we are 

 not perfectly sure of it, yet we have good 

 reason to believe that they are the real 

 germs. That which we discovered is ovoid 

 and somewhat transparent. Wlien magnified 

 1200 diameters, or more than a million 

 areas, these microbes appear to be only 

 about half as large as a pinhead— so ven , 

 verv small are tliev- To-night Mr. Sargent 

 starts for thf University, where he will pur- 

 sue his investigations as mentioned above. 

 Still latfr.~lt seems that what we saw, as 

 above mentioned, was only the spore.t of foul 

 brood. 



