43 o BEE-KEEPING 



scientific lectures by specialists are given from time to time. The Government also 

 make a grant for pioneer work and promoting bee associations, which the British Bee- 

 keepers' Association is able to do by sending its certificated experts and lecturers all 

 over the country. Thirty-six county councils also make small grants in aid of technical 

 instruction in bee-keeping, ten of them at their own agricultural colleges. 



On the practical side progress has been made in queen rearing, and, by the adoption 

 of Mendelian methods, bees have been improved both as regards hardiness and working 

 qualities. The principal improvements in appliances have been for making old combs 

 render a better quality and a larger quantity of wax. 



The value of bees in the pollenation of fruit blossoms is now fully recognised, and the 

 importance of having a sufficient number of them for this purpose has been brought 

 prominently before the public, owing to a serious epidemic which has destroyed not only 

 whole colonies of bees, but has also devastated entire districts, causing fruit growers 

 anxiety with respect to their future crops. The United States of America, Canada, 

 New Zealand and many other countries have legislated with respect to the control of 

 bee diseases, and the British Government, realising the necessity for similar action, have 

 introduced in Parliament a " Bee Diseases Bill " which it is hoped will enable them to 

 cope with the two diseases which have caused such mortality among bees. 



Respecting the disease known as " foul brood," recent investigations by Dr. White 

 have shown that in one of the two forms of the disease, viz. the one known as " foul 

 smelling " in which Bacillus ahei is usually present, the cause of the disease is not this 

 microbe, as has hitherto been supposed, but one of several others found associated with 

 it, to which Dr. White has given the name of Bacillus, pluton. 



An epidemic disease broke out in the Isle of Wight in 1906, about which little was 

 known up to 1909. Since then it has spread to the mainland, and has caused great losses 

 of bees in many districts. The cause of the malady has been under investigation by the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and a full report has been recently issued, showing 

 what has been done and the nature of the disease. European bacteriologists have also 

 been investigating the cause of the great mortality among bees in various parts of the 

 continent, and Dr. Zander in Bavaria, who made a very careful study of bees suffering 

 from " infectious dysentery " in June 1907, discovered as the infecting agent a protozoal 

 parasite to which he gave the name of Nosema apis. His findings have been confirmed 

 by other scientists in Germany and Switzerland, and in England it has been found by 

 Dr. Graham-Smith and others associated with him that the same parasite is the cause of 

 " Isle of Wight " disease, which is now called Microsporidiosis, since Nosema apis is 

 a member of the group named the Microsporidia. Drs. Fantham and Porter had al- 

 ready observed a protozoan in the digestive tract of some bees obtained from the Isle of 

 Wight in 1906, and in subsequent years Nosema apis was found in bees from Hamp- 

 shire, Surrey, Middlesex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. By feeding experiments 

 they were able to reproduce the fatal disease, both in bees and in wasps. 



The life history of Nosema apis shows that it proceeds from a tiny germ which issues from 

 the resistant spore, and gives rise to uninucleate daughter forms known as planonts, because 

 of their migrating or wandering habit. They increase by division, and when they have 

 penetrated between the epithelial cells, they may remain there in a resting condition for 

 some time, or penetrate the gut direct from the lumen or from between the epithelial cells. 

 The parasite is now called a meront, and is at first uninucleate. It has now entered upon 

 the feeding stage, rapidly increases in size and multiplies by fission, ultimately forming 

 spores. The main alimentary tract of the bee, particularly the chyle stomach and intestine, 

 are the chief parts affected, although Nosema may occasionally be found in other organs. 



The disease is one of the adult bees, larvae and young bees remaining healthy. The 

 queen also appears to be exempt and is frequently found as the last survivor of a colony. 

 Bees suffering from the disease appear heavy and disinclined to move, the wings are frequently 

 dislocated, and the abdomens swollen. They lose their power of flight, large numbers drop 

 on the ground, and as the bees are unable to rise it is not long before they perish. The 

 disease is infectious, and is introduced into healthy colonies by infected foragers, or infected 

 foods. Affected bees void excrements which contain the spores, while on the wing. Infected 

 water grossly contaminated with excrement, and honey present in the hives in which bees 

 have died, are stated to be the most important infected foods. 



