July, 1914. 



American l^ee Journal 



Our next trip from Boudry, the fol- 

 lowing day, took us to Peseux, a sub- 

 urb of Neuchatel, at the apiary of Mr. 

 Bonhote, mentioned already in the Oc- 

 tober number. His family castle is 

 a building typical of the Fifteenth 

 Century, remodeled for modern usage, 

 with hot-water heating, bath room, etc. 

 He has both out-of-door and indoor 

 apiaries, and prefers the latter, of which 

 we give a view. Since our visit he has 

 paid us the compliment of inscribing 

 its date upon the front wall. Ratlier a 

 staggering blow to what little modesiy 

 we might possess ! 



Mr. Bonhote is one of the few men 

 who have succeeded in eradicating 

 foulbrood by the method of fumigat- 

 ing with salicylic acid, a la Bertrand. 

 The reason why so few succeed is that 

 it requires excessive care. Perhaps 

 also there is new vigor imparted to the 

 swarm by the McEvoy method, as 

 claimed by Dr. Carton. Another api- 

 arist, Mr. Chausse,'who is the local bee 

 inspector, assured me that in his prac- 

 tice the only positive method was to 

 transfer the bees, burn the brood and 

 render the combs into wax. This same 

 party, questioned about the May dis- 

 ease, ventured the suggestion that it is 

 caused by the honey from dandelion. 

 But the May disease exists in countries 

 where the dandelion does not appear. 

 ■ We have had it previous to the bloom- 

 ing of this plant. There are countries 

 where the bees harvest a surplus of 

 very bitter honey from dandelion, and 

 there does not seem to be any extra 

 amount of May disease there. 



After bidding adieu to our old friend, 

 Mr. Gubler, we went to Bern, passing 

 through Bienne (Biel) where we visited 

 for a few hours, met half a dozen bee- 



keepers, saw some apiaries and visited 

 the " Lacustrine Museum " under the 

 guidance of Mr. Wartniann, a local 

 apiarist. The wonders of this museum, 

 which have been gathered from the 

 bottom of the Swiss lakes, belong to 

 the era of the " Lake Dwellers," in pre- 

 historic times. The outlet of the lakes 

 of Bienne and Neuchatel was deepened 

 so as to lower the level of those lakes 

 some 8 or 10 feet. This permitted the 

 discovery, at the bottom of the lakes, 

 of tools of the stone, bronze and iron 

 ages, and of canoes dug out of trees by 

 the lake dwellers, which are gathered 

 in the Bienne Museum. We were also 

 much interested by the sight of the old 

 city fortifications which have been 

 changed into dwellings by piercing 

 windows in the walls. 



From Bienne we reached Bern late 

 in the afternoon, and were met at the 

 big station by Mr. Leuenberger, the 

 editor of the Schweizerische Bienen- 

 Zeitung, who readily recognized us in 

 a crowd of tourists, though we had 

 never met. We were very sorry to 

 have only the evening and a small part 

 of the forenoon at Bern, for we had 

 wanted to visit some apiaries and call 

 upon Dr. Burri, the noted bacteriolo- 

 gist. We had miscalculated our time 

 and had to leave for Zug. Our itiner- 

 ary, made beforehand, compelled us to 

 go on. 



We were informed that the Swiss Bee 

 Journal, above mentioned, has a circu- 

 lation of 907.5 among the beekeepers of 

 German Switzerland. We will give 

 more information concerning their 

 powerful association when we get to 

 Zurich, the home of its president. 



Before starting away, the next morn- 

 ing, we made a hurried visit to the 



Capitol, the Museum, the high bridges 

 which unite the two shores of the Aare 

 in the city, and the bears after which 

 the city is named. We also saw the 

 monument, erected some 15 years ago, 

 to celebrate the L'niversal Postal Union. 

 It is in one of the parks and represents 

 five women— the five continents — hand- 

 ing mail to each otheraround the globe. 

 Our young men, who have been born 

 since the organization of this Union, 

 the seat of which is at Bern, do not 

 realize what it has meant for the 

 growth of international relations. It 

 may be sufficient to tell them that, be- 

 fore the Union existed, or previous to 

 1874, the rates on letters between the 

 United States and most countries of 

 Europe varied between 15 and 64 cents 

 per half ounce. 



A reform which we are going to need 

 and to which our attention was first 

 called when in Bern, is the placing of 

 telegraph, telephone and electric-power 

 wires under ground instead of on 

 poles. They told us that our system of 

 poles throughout American cities is 

 laughed at. But a still greater Ameri- 

 can nuisance is the smoke. None of 

 that in Switzerland. We could travel 

 day after day without having to suffer 

 from cinders, smoke, and the dirt they 

 cause. Coal slake, there, is made into 

 bricks of which we saw piles at every 

 station. Slake is one of the main causes 

 of smoke. But in the shape of bricks 

 it burns like hard coal. I believe that 

 they also educate their firemen to a 

 judicious use of fuel, while any man 

 who can handle a shovel is acceptable 

 for an American fireman. 



In a previous letter I spoke of the 

 dog nuisance. In Bern and in several 

 other places, we saw the dogs at work. 



House Ahiarv of Mr. E. Bonhote in Switzerland. 



