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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLH^AL. 



Nov. 19, 1903. 



the troubles of winter as we have. But I do know in Wis- 

 consin, and other Northern States, we need not fear bee- 

 trees, and we never have bees in rocks in our locality, so 

 that from that source we are practically free in the North- 

 ern States. 



I had the complaint brought that if we treated all the 

 apiaries in the vicinity where we found it, there were bee- 

 trees there, and what was the use treating the disease when 

 the bees from the trees would come in and inoculate every- 

 thing ? I had had some experience in hunting bee-trees, 

 and I went out immediately and examined in regions badly 

 infected with foul brood. In only one tree, where the 

 swarm was not over a year old, did I find any disease, and 

 that was in the last stages. But I did find trees where bees 

 had gone from infected hives, and gone into the tree. I 

 got permission to have those trees cut in my presence, that 

 I might examine the brood, and in not one of" them could I 

 find a trace of foul brood. As an illustration, in this case 

 where the bees had no comb foundation, and had to build 

 comb for themselves, we found the bees had treated them- 

 selves. Tha!t tree I consider practically safe. The only way 

 a bee-tree could become diseased would be where it had 

 accumulated combs and then robbing diseased hives. 

 In that way it might become infected. But in our North- 

 ern States we know that they can not stand the win- 

 ters, and they soon perish, and the squirrels and bee-moth 

 get rid of everything inside that hollow tree in a short time 

 afterward. But in these localities it may be another subject. 



Now the old treatment, the McEvoy plan, has come so 

 near perfection, when followed in close detail, that I doubt 

 if we can improve upon it at the present date. A little care- 

 lessness in any part of it, and we may spread the disease. 

 Early this season there was considerable writing in our bee- 

 papers of the treatment of infected combs by the use of 

 formaldehyde. Of course, I was interested immediately, 

 and got material together, and as early as possible went at 

 it to test that treatment. As a final result of that, treating 

 a good many combs in various parts of my own State, I will 

 say the results are simply this : 



Where the cells are open, where the gas can penetrate 

 into the open cells, where there was dry larvK, in every 

 case where they were fumigated, the bees carried out the 

 disease, and they continued to be free from infection. So 

 much, I say, where the gas can reach it. But I have been 

 unable to kill the germs of the disease under the capping. 

 It doesn't seem to go through it. In fact, I have found, in 

 capped brood-combs where there were bees apparently 

 healthy, said combs fumigated, and the next day the little 

 bees could crawl. If it would not kill the live bees it would 

 not kill the germs of disease. It had the same ropiness, the 

 same odor after fumigating. In one case I grafted some of 

 that kind of comb into a colony, and had to treat it later. 



I would recommend, if you have any doubtful combs, 

 and have any cells capped over, before you use any 

 formaldehyde treatment, that you uncap those cells, allow- 

 ing the gas to get in there, because the walls of the cap- 

 ping are almost impervious to the gases. I do believe, in- 

 stead of trying to save all black brood-combs by this for- 

 maldehyde treatment, that we would better make wax of it, 

 and put in a new sheet of foundation. It is poor economy. 

 Last year I became disheartened with the saving of 

 old combs. There were parties whose bees seemed to 

 lack energy, but when the old combs were taken away, and 

 they had new ones, there was a new ambition. If, however, 

 we do save the old combs, give them a double dose of for- 

 maldehyde treatment. I should be very cautious in trying 

 to save these old combs. 



At the Chicago convention, last December, the very 

 best part of it was, after I had finished, those who had 

 had experience, or were afraid they might have, asked 

 questions, drawing out the vital parts. And to_those that 

 wanted questions answered, that was worth more to them 

 than the cost of attending the meeting. This is your con- 

 vention, and I feel I am encroaching upon your valuable 

 time if I do not give you such an opportunity. 

 (Continued next week.) 



Why Not Help a Little— both your neighbor bee-keep- 

 ers and the old American Bee Journal — by sending to us the 

 names and addresses of such as you may know do not now 

 get this journal 7 We will be glad to send them sample 

 copies, so that they may become acquainted with the paper, 

 and subscribe for it, thus putting themselves in the line of 

 success with bees. Perhaps you can get them to subscribe, 

 send in their dollars, and secure for your trouble some of 

 the premiums we are constantly offering as rewards for 

 such effort. 



c 



Contributed Articles 





An Improvement in Honey-Cans Needed. 



rj 



U 



OOD, old, black Johnny Parker, when I was a boy, used 



to rattle off his prayers in boysterous eloquence, with 



the saliva spattering from his thick lips along with his 

 earnest words, and he seldom failed to use one climax ex- 

 pression, " Oh, Lawd, speak wid a bois ob sebben peal ; a 

 bois like t'under." I don't know that I have recalled that 

 expression before for 40 years, till this very evening, while 

 reading the American Bee Journal, on the first moment of 

 its arriving, about a larger opening for honey-cans ; and 

 then I felt like invoking Editor York (Johnny Parker fash- 

 ion), to let his columns ring on the the subject till the im- 

 provement asked for is granted. 



The retailers all over the country, who out-number the 

 producers ten to one, if not a hundred to one, should have 

 the first right to be considered in this question of conveni- 

 ence, for it is getting the honey out, and not putting it in, 

 that is the matter. A producer can fill his cans, no doubt, 

 through a small hole just as easily as he could through a 

 large hole, and just as cheaply with the same honey-gate. 

 Why should he care for the difference one way or another ? 

 For he is not the man who is to be tortured by this short- 

 coming in the honey-business, in getting that same honey 

 out after it is candied down solid. While he, with a merry 

 tune, can put the liquid honey in the cans, a hundred dif- 

 ferent men may have it to peck out — with occasion for tears, 

 possibly. Now, whose happiness should be weighed in this 

 case, the one man or the hundred 7 



In the last two years, on account of shortage with my 

 bees to supply my home demand for honey, I have had, each 

 year, to send for several shipments of honey from New York 

 and Cincinnati, in which the S-gallon can full of solid 

 honey always figured largely. If the cans are not burst, or 

 cut, or eaten through at the bottom by aciduated honey, or 

 no nail-holes punched in them by the donkey that crates 

 them — shame on him ! I am not exaggerating a particle, for 

 I have never yet received a shipment of honey without too 

 many of the cans being exactly as I am describing. Then 

 if they are sound, I like to set four or six of them into a 

 liquefying tank a foot deep, and boil water around them 

 till the honey is in a hot, liquid state. 



And now comes the experience with the small-mouthed 

 cans, which does not improve a man's happiness a single 

 bit. No sooner is the honey hot than it begins to swell, 

 and a scum rises thick upon it, and the cans, if they have 

 been honestly filled, will refuse to hold their contents, and 

 they will all be taken with the dyspepsia. Hurry up quick 

 with a bow! and spoon ! I grab a tablespoon, and behold it 

 won't go into the mouth of the can, so I am compelled to 

 putter away as fast as I can with a teaspoon to save some of 

 the honey, while the cans are running over and some of the 

 honey is wasting. A hole large enough to admit a cream- 

 ladle lYz or 3 inches wide w6uld put an end to this waste, 

 and with some men, no doubt, save hard words. 



What did you say 7 " Dig a little out before melting 

 it ? " I have tried that, and it is impossible to do it success- 

 fully, because the hole is insuflScient ; and, even then, in 

 some cases I have had them run over because I couldn't get 

 out enough. And if I should take an inch auger, and bore 

 it out in chunks to make room for the froth, that would not 

 liquefy what I would take out. 



What is that 7 " Cut the top out of the can 7 " Well, I 

 have to do that in most cases now, but it spoils the can, you 

 know ; and, besides that, it is not a funny job to lift out of 

 a boiling-hot liquefier a 60-pound can of honey, without 

 handles, brimful, breast high, boiling hot, and burning 

 one's fingers with a possible slop-over, with a woman stand- 

 ing by to say, " You must not use such language.'' We 

 leave out the flowery language at our house ; but I know 

 human nature well enough to guess what most men would 

 say ; and I would not waste the gospel on those poor fellows, 

 either, till I went first and secured the reformation of the 

 honey-can makers, for to prevent an evil is much better than 

 to cure. Here is a good chance for A. I. Root's evangelism. 



If the narrow-mouthed men should try my liquefier a 

 few times, and it did not put prayers in them for a bigger 

 hole, and two handles to each can, I am mistaken. For I 



