APKIL 1, 1915 



the unsealed larvaa right in the middle of 

 March, during oraujie bloom. 



The above reminds me of an incident of 

 perhaps thirty years ago. A prominent, 

 judge came to me one morning during fruit 

 bloom, saying his bees seemed to be " sick," 

 for thej' were crawling about listlessly in 

 front of the hive, instead of working on the 

 apple bloom, etc. 



ITe said, " Mr. Root, I reasoned that, if 

 there was any disease that atllicts bees, you 

 would be the man of all others to diagnose 

 it, and you would also be more likely to 

 know the specific remedy, if there was one." 

 As soon as I lifted his hive I replied : 



" My good sir, I am glad to tell you I do 

 know all about the trouble, and the proper 

 medicine, and that I can cure your bees in 

 a few minutes. Get me a teacupful of 

 sugar and some hot water." I sprinkled 

 the warm sugar and water on top of the 

 combs, and also a little on the almost lifeless 

 bees in front of the hive, and in a few 

 minutes there was a glad uproar. The 

 learned judge said he never before heard of 

 sugar as a medicine. 



Again, when Mrs. Root and I were in 

 Califortiia, one morning a young man with 

 a fine span of horses and buggy drove up 

 to our boarding-place. He said I must go 

 out in the country and look at his bees, for 

 he was in trouble. He insisted that Mrs. 

 Root should go also; but when we got there 

 his good mother was in a fluri-y because he 

 had not told her he was going to bring home 

 company to dinner. 



I am going to have two morals to this 

 story, and one of the two is this: Don't ever 

 bring company to dinner without first in- 

 forming your wife or mother that you wish 

 to do so. 



In spite of Mrs. Root's protest the good 

 woman would work hard to get up " a fine 

 spread." 



Well, I found fully 50 colonies of bees, 

 more or less, afflicted with the "disease"( ?) 

 we aie talking about. Some were too badly 

 " affected " to be fully restored ; but with 

 a pailful of sugar and a teakettleful of hot 

 water we soon had the whole outfit filling 

 the air, and rejoicing in health, and the 

 owner and his mother both happy and 

 wanting to pay us for ju.st telling them the 

 bees were simply all starving. 



Once more, when your hives are full of 

 brood, especially unsealed brood, it takes 

 a pile of honey and pollen to fill the hungry 

 mouths. Right in the midst of a honey-flow, 

 or what should be a honey-flow, I have 

 often found populous colonies without a 

 cell of honey in the whole hive in the morn- 

 ing, when the combs seemed, the night be- 



fore, to be fairly supplied. Now, if cold 

 rainy weather comes on, say for a day or 

 two, the honey crop is often curtailed to a 

 greater or less extent, and yet the owner 

 may never know nor even guess what caus- 

 ed his disappointment. Just a temporary 

 check on brood-rearing at a critical time 

 results in less. This is my second moral, 

 and if it shall cause yoti to be more watch- 

 ful I will try to think my blunder was prov- 

 idential, inasmuch as it caused me to give 

 you this warning. 



" WATER-WITCHING," ETC. 



I wish to write a few words on the subject of 

 water-witching, in which you have often expressed 

 disbelief. I never believed it, and can't say that 

 I do yet, but wish to tell you of what happened in 

 this neighborhood, where water was apparently found 

 by this method on a farm two miles from here. The 

 farm was owned by two young men who, however, 

 did not live on it, but kept it for pasture. There 

 were two wells on the place, but they always went 

 dry when there came a dry time. The summer and 

 fall of 1913 were exceptionally dry in Ontario, and 

 I believe it was so in many parts of the United 

 States. In the early part of August these two wells 

 went dry, and it was very inconvenient, especially 

 as the owners did not live on the place. Their 

 brother's hired man, who lived five miles away, heard 

 of this, and said he would find them a well by 

 witching providing there was any water on the 

 place. He came over one day and " located " a 

 well 20 or 25 rods from the other wells. He said 

 they would have to go down 30 or 35 feet; or if they 

 got water any sooner it would be a very strong 

 spring. As soon as they got their harvest off toward 

 the beginning of September they started to' dig. I 

 often talked with them, and laughed for trying to 

 get water by this means. At 23 or 24 feet they 

 struck a very strong spring which rose to within 

 nine feet of the top ground. The well is as good as 

 ever to-day, and seems to prove something in favor 

 of water-witching. 



Brucefield, Ont., Can. Hugh McGregor. 



My good friend, in the above case two 

 wells were dug (you don't tell the depth), 

 and no permanent water ; but a third one, a 

 little distance away, gave a good continuous 

 supply. This often happens, as we all know. 



Let me repeat : God and nature are " no 

 respecter of persons." Evei*y real discovery 

 in the realm of science works alike with 

 everybody. In all the reports that have 

 come to me, I have never j-et found an edu- 

 cated scientific man (say like our college 

 professors) who could locate wells as above. 

 It is conceded by all that the subject will 

 not bear the searchlight scrutiny of up-to- 

 date science. It won't even " work " when 

 the operator is blindfolded. 



Possibly you may be interested in knowing that I 

 had a colony of leather-colored Italians (propagated 

 from nuclei bought of you) in a ten-frame sectional 

 hive that produced 70 shallow frames of comb honey 

 la.st .season — just a little over 280 lbs. of surplus 

 honey. The queen was one year old last July. All 

 mv bees did well, a few colonies averaging consider- 

 ably over 100 lbs. 



Lynchburg, Va,, Dec. 2. A. P. ROBBRTg. 



