December, 1914. 



413 



American IBac Joarnal j 



such conditions. Personal experience 

 has taught me that not one farmer out 

 of a dozen will keep bees and give 

 them attention unless every year be a 

 good one — even then many will neglect 

 them. But let a few years like the 

 present one come along nearly all will 

 become disgusted with the bees, and 

 in many cases they become a menace 

 to other bees near, especially if disease 

 is in the neighborhood. While not ad- 

 mitting that I am getting more selfish 

 as I grow older, I certainly have 

 dropped the slogan, " Encourage the 

 farmers to keep bees." 



Kight Have Been Worse 



While the past season was the worst 

 that I have experienced here in York 

 county, it was practically a total fail- 

 ure — yet after reading in the last issue 

 of the American Bee Journal what our 

 Editor and his staff had to contend 

 with in the vicinity of Hamilton, 111., 

 we felt that it might have been worse 

 with us. To be forced to feed in July, 

 August and September is something 

 we have never yet had to do, but our 

 Illinois friend's experience shows that 

 such a thing is a possibility. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



Bv C. 1' Uadant. 



On the morning of Sept. 5, our kind 

 old friend, Dr. Triaca, came after us at 

 the hotel with an automobile. We were 

 tospend the day with him at the Villa 

 Visconti, some 15 miles from the city 

 of Milan. Dr. Triaca had already taken 

 upon himself the task of securing for 

 us round-trip railroad tickets for our 

 tour of Italy, so as to save us possible 

 annoyance in making ourselves un- 

 derstood. We were much abashed at 

 so much kindness. But when we re- 

 monstrated, he replied: ''Would you 

 not do the same for me, if I came to 

 America .'' We are doing but our duty 

 to our guests." It is a delightful thing 

 to be so kindly treated, and by people 

 whom one has never met before. 



Dr. Triaca and Count Visconti are 

 old friends and very intimate. They 

 were in the Austrian war together and 

 there Dr. Triaca was crippled for life. 

 He wears a wooden leg. 



The only counts we know of in 

 America are the "no-count" counts 

 who come here to marry millionaire 

 heiresses as worthless as themselves. 

 Take these out of your reckoning. The 

 count whom we will have you visit to- 

 day is one of those noblemen who are 

 not only noble in their ancestry, but 

 who are >iol>/i- wc«, because their leisure 

 is spent in useful pursuits. 



We reached Cernusco-Sul-Naviglio 

 towards 10 a.m. A mile or so from the 

 village, we were met by Count Visconti 

 riding a bicycle and dressed in spotless 

 white, from his cap to his gaiters and 

 his shoes. He made us take a direction 

 from whence we could see his villa in 

 its best appearance. (See cut.) We 

 were looking for a country seat and 

 not for a palace. Yet we could com- 

 pare this immense home only to a cor- 

 ner of the palaces of Versailles, both 

 in the magnificence of the decorations 

 and the vastness of the rooms. 



The daughter, and only child of Count 

 Visconti, Mile. Valentine \'isconti, a 

 lady versed in art, who speaks several 

 languages, has, like her father, and 

 even more than he, devoted herself to 

 industry. They have interested them- 

 selves, for years, not only in bee cul- 

 ture, but in silkworms as well. The 

 silkworm industry is the main resource 

 of Lombardy. Silkworms are subject 

 to diseases which play havoc among 



them, just as foulbrood does among 

 bees. A number of years ago, a disease 

 now known as "pebrine" began its 

 ravages among the silkworms, through- 

 out France and Italy, and destroyed 

 them to such an extent that the silk 

 industry threatened to disappear. The 



loss was so great that it was estimated 

 at $20,000,000 for France alone, an 

 nually. The matter was referred to the 

 famous Pasteur, the founder of practi- 

 cal bacteriology and discoverer of the 

 cure of hydrophobia. Through his 

 bacteriological studies, the corpuscles 

 of "nosema bombycis " which produce 

 the disease were discovered. Soon a 

 remedy was suggested by him and, 

 under the treatment indicated, estab- 

 lishments which had not been able to 

 produce silk enough for the cost of the 

 eggs were reaping large profits. The 

 trouble arises from eggs laid by"cor- 

 pusculous moths." In other words, if 

 the mother moths which furnish the 

 eggs for the next crop of silkworms 

 are infected with the bacteria causing 

 the malady, some of their eggs are un- 

 able to hatch or are sterile. Those 

 vvhich hatch are unhealthy, and the 

 little worms die early instead of grow- 

 ing and spinning their silk cocoons. It 

 proved necessary to inspect every 

 female moth. This is done after the 

 egg-laying. 



First, the best cocoons are selected 

 for reproduction. The heavy ones are 

 females, the lighter ones males, so they 

 are weighed on very sensitive scales so 

 as to retain the proper number of each 

 After the hatching of the moths and 





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PARK AT VILLA VISCONTI 



