lEnlered as second-class inatu-r at Ihe Post-office at Hamilton. 111., under Act of March ?. iSrg 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., SEPTEMBER, 1914 



Vol LIV.— No. 9 



Editorial 



Comments 



CariDg for Super Coiiib.s 



Under this title, our practical and 

 able Canadian correspondent, Mr. 

 Byer, favors leaving piles of supers in 

 the yard during the summer, to have 

 the spiders protect them against the 

 moths. However well it may succeed 

 in Ontario, it has been a failure with 

 us. The least little crack in which the 

 moth may be able to lay its eggs is 

 sufficient to insure a big crop of fat 

 worms on the inside. 



We prefer to keep the empty comb 

 supers in the honey house, using either 

 sulphur fumes or a rag dipped in bi- 

 sulphide of carbon, from time to time. 

 If the bee-house is allowed to become 

 as cold as possible during our cold 

 winters, little is to be feared from the 

 moths unless the combs have been ex- 

 posed outside afterwards. 



"A Modern Bee Farm" 



We are in receipt of a copy of the 

 5th edition of this work, by Samuel 

 Simmins. This author, living in Sus- 

 sex, England, is well known to many 

 of our readers, for he is the writer of 

 several works on the bee, the most 

 prominent of which is probably his 

 "Non-Swarming System," 1886, which 

 is embodied in the present work. This 

 contains 479 pages and 15 plates. 



Space forbids our going into details 

 concerning the book. We wish, how- 

 ever, to take notice of one or two 

 statements. Mr. Simmins concurs with 

 Dr. Carton (A. B. J., .-Kpril, page 127) 

 in the assertion that " the presence of 



foulbrood in a hive is an evidence of 

 low vitality." He asserts that "the 

 spores of foulbrood need not be dread- 

 ed, as they may be destroyed by a most 

 simple and efficacious process, which 

 is that of causing them to germinate 

 where such germs find no congenial 

 soil; as also where a suitable antisep- 

 tic then immediately acts upon the 

 successive germs so that they have no 

 power of reproduction, or of maintain 

 ing their own existence." 



His method is to keep the colony 

 queenless until all diseased brood has 

 been cleaned out and treating it with 

 "Izal solution." As Mr. Simmins does 

 not seem to differentiate between 

 American and European foulbrood, we 

 wonder whether the numerous cures 

 he reports did not refer to the latter. 

 Izal is also recommended by him for 

 Isle of Wight disease, besides chang- 

 ing queens and adding healthy brood. 



As the word "Izal " is not found in 

 any dictionary or encyclopedia that we 

 possess, or even in the United States 

 Dispensatory, we took the trouble of 

 writing Mr. Simmins to enquire about 

 it. We were then informed that "Izal 

 is a disinfectant, an emulsion of izal 

 oil — obtained in the coking of coal in 

 especially constructed coke ovens, at a 

 low temperature with a certain propor- 

 tion of air." It is a British proprietary 

 drug, also kept for sale in the United 

 States. 



Regarding Isle of Wight disease, Mr' 

 Simmins makes the assertion that it is 

 not a disease of the bowel, because it 

 is generally found only in the adult 



workers and in neither the queen nor 

 the drones. He calls it "infectious 

 paralysis." He asserts it can be cured 

 and gives his methods. 



In the British Bee lournal of July 16, 

 page 286, in a reply made by the editor 

 to a correspondent who claims to have 

 cured this malady, the editor replies: 

 "At present there is no known cure 

 for Isle of Wight disease." Who is 

 right? 



Were it not that Mr. Simmins is an 

 old and experienced apiarist, we should 

 have hesitated to mention these state- 

 ments, especially as we have very little 

 faith in the vilue of any disinfectant 

 for brood diseases. But it is the func- 

 tion of a bee journal to bring these 

 matters before the public. "A Modern 

 Bee Farm " is worthy of a place on our 

 shelves, even if Mr. Simmins' cure 

 methods should not prove sufficient in 

 all cases. 



The Temperature of the Colony 



Bulletin No. 96, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, with the above title, is 

 before us. It is the account of a study, 

 made in 1908, by Prof. Burton N. Gates, 

 now President of the National Associa- 

 tion, at that time Apicultural Assistant 

 at the Washington Bureau of Ento- 

 mology. 



This account gives not only the dif- 

 ferent temperatures recorded on a 

 colony of bees at different seasons of 

 the year, it also gives the amount con- 

 sumed by a colony during winter, from 

 day to day. The colony which served 

 for the experiment consumed 11 pounds 

 of honey in four months, November to 

 February inclusive. The daily average 

 was 43 5 grams, or nearly 1% ounces, 

 .-^n interesting fact is that at three dif- 

 ferent dates in November the colony 

 gained instead of losing. The gain, 

 which was of 20 to 40 grams, was evi- 



