360 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



beekeeper well known to our readers, con- 

 ducted some experiments to ascertain wheth- 

 er the spraying of fruit trees with poison- 

 ous mixtures while in bloom had any effect 

 on either the bees or the brood. The re- 

 sult of their experiments is sumjnarized as 

 follows : 



At the Burnley apiary, the beehives are right 

 under the fruit-trees, and at the time of spraying 

 with Bordeaux mixture the ground had not yet been 

 plowed, so that the spray fell not only on any fruit 

 blossoms that were open, but also on the Cape weed 

 then abundantly in bloom. 



Neither the spraying with Bordeaux mixture nor 

 the subsequent one with arsenate of lead had any 

 effect whatever upon the bees, the colonies develop- 

 ing normally, and without any checks. There was 

 not at any time dead brood in the hives. There is 

 no doubt that under the atmospheric conditions pre- 

 vailing at the time the spraying of the trees proved 

 quite harmless to the bees. Observations will, how- 

 ever, be continued in future, to demonstrate wheth- 

 er spraying is injurious to bees at all; or if so, un- 

 der wliat conditions. 



ROBBER CAGES. 



On page 383 of our Heads of Grain de- 

 partment in this issue is an illustration of a 

 l^ortable robber cage mounted on wheels to 

 set over a hive. Practically the same thing 

 without the wheels, and much smaller, or 

 just large enough, to set over an ordinary 

 hive, we And a very serviceable tiling to 

 have in the apiary. The advantage of the 

 smaller size is less weight with correspond- 

 ing greater portability. In the cage shown 

 on p. 383 the operator can be caged with 

 the hive of bees. 



We use also aa'obber cage (lar^-e enough 

 for operator and hive) that is very light. 

 It has a cross rail or handles on each side, 

 and a convenient screen door. One can 

 step inside, lift the cage up by its cross- 

 rails, walk over to the hive that needs atten- 

 tion, and set it down. 



In our judgment, wheels only add to the 

 weight and to the inconvenience of getting 

 sucii a cage from one "art of the apiary 

 to the other. Our large cages for setting 

 over the hives are made of strips of bass- 

 wood % iiicti square, and do not weigh 

 over 5 lbs. 



WILL IT BE AN OLD-FASHIONED HONEY YEAR? 



Indications in our locality (and we hope 

 it is a fair criterion of what it will be in 

 other clover districts of the North) point 

 to an old-fashioned honey year. While 

 there is, perhaps, not as much white clover 

 out as we have some years, yet what we do 

 have seems to be yielding nectar. Both red 

 and alsike clover are very abundant in our 

 locality, and the growth is luxuriant. Ap- 

 parently the severe winter did not hurt ei- 

 ther very much if at all; and that reminds 

 us that years ago, wlien we used to have a 

 yield of clover honey every year, we had 

 cold winters. Is it possible that a cold 



snappy winter like we have just had causes 

 nectar to be secreted more readily the fol- 

 lowing summer? In the language, of Dr. 

 Millqr, we don't know. 



Another thing that is encouraging is that 

 basswoods look more promising than they 

 have before in a decade. While the indi- 

 cations are for a good honey-flow, we fear 

 that not every one else will be as well fa- 

 \ored with bees as ourselves. 



In the mean time there are some reports 

 from California that look rather encourag- 

 ing. How reliable our information may be 

 we do not know ; but several clippings have 

 been sent us that would indicate that there 

 will be 500 carloads of honey in California. 

 We do knoAv this — that many carloads 

 of bees are being sent from the bordering 

 States into California to catch the flow, 

 after wliich they will be sent back to their 

 respective States. 



Our representative in Texas wrote us a 

 short time ago, saying that he thought the 

 crop in his State was going to be light. 

 While the early indications were good, the 

 flow did not materialize. We hope it will 

 not turn out this way in our northern 

 States. 



THE CAUSE OF EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



It will be remembered that Dr. G. F. 

 White, of the Bureau of Entomology, Ex- 

 pert in Bacteriology, and working under 

 the direction of Dr. E. F. Phillips, Apicul- 

 tural Expert, has been investigating the 

 causes of bee diseases for several years 

 back. After devoting something like a year 

 or more to the special study of American 

 foul brood he definitely located the bacillus 

 responsible for that disease; namely. Bacil- 

 lus larvae. Pie proved beyond any question 

 that Bacillus alvei, supposed to be the cause 

 in former days, had nothing to do with it. 

 But he did find Bacillus alvei in samples of 

 European foul brood. It seems that he has 

 been working upon this type of the disease 

 for the last two years; and wliile he will 

 not as yet make any positive statement it 

 would seem to us that he has come pretty 

 near locating it. He finds among other mi- 

 crobes in the dead brood from the Euro- 

 pean foul brood. Bacillus alvei and Strep- 

 tococcus apis. He also found the old Bacillus 

 Y, which he discovered some time ago, and 

 which he at the time suspected might be the 

 cause of Eui'opean foul brood ; but before 

 he could get more evidence he came to no 

 conclusion. 



Circular No. 157, by Dr. White, just out, 

 gives some interesting information. Among 

 other bacilli he finds Bacillus Y, or Bacillus 

 pluton, as he now designates it, and under 



