THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



25 



always has brood in all stages of development. Now, if 

 you take all the bees away the brood must sutler before 

 enough young bees will be hatched out to go on with house- 

 keeping. And is it well to keep food from the unsealed 

 brood for so long ? 



"Then, even incur warm climate I do not believe it 

 would be warm enough for the brood. And last, but not 

 least with us, just as soon as the combs were freed of the 

 bees, the ants would start in and clean out all the brood 

 and honey." 



Dropping the Bee-Paper in Winter. 



Editor American Bee Jduknal — 



I received the notice last evening that my subscription 

 to the American Bee Journal expires the last of this mouth. 

 When my time is out will you kindly stop it until next 

 spring ? The winter is the only time I have to study, and I 

 am very remiss in my bee-knowledge, and I want to study 

 my " A B C of Bee-Culture" and also Prof. Cook's " Man- 

 ual of the Apiary." I have had them both for over two 

 years, and know but very little that is in either one. 



The Bee Journal is all right, and I would not be with- 

 out it when I am in my apiary, for every week there is 

 something in it that I want to know about. But this win- 

 ter I want to study my text-books. 



I have i4 colonies ; they went into winter quarters in 

 good shape, very strong. I will divide them in the spring. 

 We had a very good honey season this year. 



I like the Bee Journal very much, and I will read my 

 last year's book all over this winter. Mrs. Subscriber. 



I read "Subscriber's" letter over with a feeling of 

 genuine regret. I fear you are making a big mistake. 

 Your test-books you have with you, and you can study them 

 whenever you have a little spare time, but if you stop your 

 bee-paper that is so much that is lost entirely, and a single 

 number may contain just the information that you espe- 

 cially need, and that single number may be worth at least 

 ten dollars to you. I should certainly want my bee-paper 

 every week, and put in whatever spare time I could find on 

 my text-books. As I said, they will keep, and you are sure 

 you are not going to miss what is in them, although it may 

 take you a little longer to get through with them ; but if 

 you stop your bee-paper, that is so much gone for good. 

 That is the way I should feel about it. 



Surely, the long winter evenings, more than any other 

 time of the whole year, ought to afford leisure to become 

 familiar with the fundamental principles taught in the 

 text-books, and at the same time to keep pace with the 

 advance chronicled weekly in the " Old Reliable." 



Ants and Clipped Queens. 



Here is a bright and breezy bit of an article written by 

 Mrs. Sarah A. Smith, of Florida, in the American Bee- 

 Keeper. She says : 



" A funny thing happened to me last spring. I read, 

 one evening, G. M. Doolittle's article on clipping queens, in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, and as each point in favor of 

 clipping came up, I, like the three good school trustees, 

 nodded my head and thought, 'Them's my sentiments, too,' 

 and rather patted myself on the back and thought, ' Sally, 

 aren't you glad yours are all clipped ?' 



" Well, next morning my daughter reported a swarm. 

 I went out and looked to see where it had come from, and 

 soon I found the hive with the queen in front dead, with 

 about 100 meat-eating ants stinging her and trying to move 

 her to their nest. I looked and thought of the evening be- 

 fore, and could only sit down on a hive and laugh. As you 

 perhaps know, Mr. Editor, such subjects for merriment are 

 the only ones we Florida bee-keepers have had for some 

 years. 



" I still believe in clipping all queens, but scald your 

 antnests before swarming-time." 



Of course, conditions are somewhat different with us in 

 the North. We are not troubled with ants as they are in 

 the South. 



Our Wood Binder (or Holder) is made to take all the 

 copies of the American Bee Journal for a year. It is sent 

 by mail for 20 cents. Full directions accompany. The Bee 

 Journals can be inserted as soon as they are received, and 

 thus preserved for future reference. Upon receipt of SI. 00 

 for your Bee Journal subscription a full year in advance, 

 we will mail you a Wood Binder free — if you will mention it. 



\ % The Afterthought. ^ 



a 



The "Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Qlasset. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



NEW BELGIAN DOCTRINE OF FOUI, BROOD. 



I am not going to rage and pitch on the subject, nor to 

 be " Hasty " in any extreme way, but as to the new Belgian 

 doctrine about foul brood I just quietly don't believe it. We 

 happen to have evidence that the very highest of scientific 

 authorities sometimes disagree point-blank on bacterial 

 matters. We shall hear in due time, from some institute 

 just as high up, that bacillus mesentericus vulgaris, alone 

 and of itself, is not capable of starting a case of foul brood. 

 It occurs to me as possible that the real bacillus alvei may 

 have escaped observation hitherto. Observers looking at 

 b. m. V. while another and smaller microbe was doing the 

 mischief. In a number of diseases pretty well known to be 

 germ diseases it is freely confessed that the real germ can- 

 not be shown as yet. If we may suppose the same foul 

 brood it will help us out of our present trouble, and assist 

 in some old ones, also. We have been told pretty authorita- 

 tively in the past that there was little or no danger of in- 

 fection by means of honey — while practical experience is 

 peremptory and positive that honey is the main means of 

 infection — communicates the real microbe of the disease, 

 but not the Belgain chap with long name, mayhap. Same 

 (in the opposite direction) of the question whether beeswax 

 communicates infection or not — the laboratory says yes, 

 and experience says no. 



The great majority of high authorities say human be- 

 ings can take the tubercle bacillus (consumption) from the 

 cow ; but Prof. Koch, of Berlin, the highest single author- 

 ity of the lot, denies this, and sticks to it like a Trojan. 

 Don't be in a hurry to throw overboard all your previous 

 scientific lessons at one little heave of an adverse sea. 

 Page 787. 



OLD BROOD-COMBS. 



As to the dispute alluded to on page 755 there may be a 

 solution yielding somewhat to both parties. There are old 

 black combs atid old black combs. If they have never been 

 allowed to get filthy and moldy, and then dry as bones, 

 mere blackness and a little extra weight doesn't harm Ihem 

 any for use irr the brood-chamber. Manifestly they should 

 be warmer and tougher. The cocoons and adhering nitrog- 

 enous matter do not accumulate forever, but are torn out 

 from time to time. This serves as salad to go with the too 

 exclusive honey-diet of winter. But a heavy old comb once 

 permeated through and through with the fibers of mold, it 

 may well be that such a one is never again quite as highly 

 esteemed as a new comb would be. The mold fibers do not 

 die, probably, but are always in there waiting for a chance 

 to do more harm. Quite likely in some apiaries pretty much 

 all the black combs have been at some time too badly dam- 

 aged to recover fully. 



PUTTING DP HONEY FOR RETAILING. 



Five cents for honey and fifteen cents for other things, 

 eh ? What if thy brother, misled by the figures, should eat 

 the other things and leave the honey ? Or suppose that you 

 yourself lived a double life in the style of A. I. Root ; would 

 you put up honey that way in your country home to be used 

 by yourself in your city home ? And where does the Golden 

 Rule come in ? All right to supply the small demand of 

 those who really want that sort of thing. Then let's turn 

 in and do what we can, in the best way we can, for the 

 great mass of the people. Page 758. 



GRANUL.^TED HONEY FOR THE MARKET. 



As for Mr. York (Perhaps you're heard of him), when 

 he says he don't believe in feeding all creation with honey, 

 one begins to feel that his denial of being an Irishman can 

 hardly be accepted, he gives away his cause at such a rate. 

 Further on, where he intimates that it is not pleasant to 

 spend the hours explaining to everybody that our honey 

 isn't sugar, nor lard, nor yet goose-grease, why, then he 

 gets in a good weighty shot. But honey granulates in glass 

 as well as elsewhere. And the rogue who adulterates will • 

 have his stufl" looking well for the longer period — and so 

 please the grocer. Some hard old facts we have to face in 

 this hard old world. The man who'll invent a satisfactory 



