THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



3T 



Farmers' Call. 



Thoughts in January. 



MAMIE S. PADEN. 



I want you, Summer ! North winds blow cold, 

 The white snow shroudeth wood and wold ; 

 The keen frost blteth, chill sleet doth fall, 

 Shivering Icicles cllni! close to the wall. 



In the drear city, trampled and trodden 

 Out of all whiteness, the snow lies sodden ; 

 Darkened the frost-gleam, the loicle-Klow. 

 Hiding the blue sklea wind-driven clouds go. 



This is proud Winter I hastened to greet ! 

 Summer, O Summer, come back to me, sweet ! 

 I will not weary, I will be true. 

 Summer, warm-hearted, forever, to you ! 

 Cincinnati, O. 



ror the American Bee JoumaL 



The Cause of Bee-Diarrhea. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I think that Mr. Doolittle is mis- 

 taken both in his uiiderstandins of 

 my meaning by tlie words on page 

 773 of the Bbk Journal for 1884, and 

 his ideas of the consumption of pollen 

 by matnre bees, and where it is logi- 

 cally proper to use tlie term " primary 

 cause." I am quite confident that how- 

 ever true it may be that cold, conhue- 

 ment, breeding, or any other secondary 

 or aggravating causes or adjuncts are 

 needed in the production of bee-diar- 

 rhea, that it the nitrogenous pollen is 

 the cause of the intestinal irritation, 

 it properly ranks as the prime cause. 



It has been always known that if 

 the bees could fly and unload the fecal 

 accumulations daily, such accumula- 

 tions could never reach the disease- 

 producing point ; so, of course, con- 

 finement of greater or less duration is 

 a necessary factor. We also have 

 -witnessed that a low temperature 

 greatly favored the development of 

 the disease— thus cold is a factor or 

 secondary cause or adjunct, but not 

 the primary cause. We have always 

 noticed tliat breeding in couHnement 

 in some way aided the prima- y cause. 

 Now, as many of us have known colo- 

 nies to perish" with this disease when 

 exposed to no low temperature, to no 

 long confinement, and wliere no breed- 

 ing was attempted, we certainly are 

 correct in saying that none of them 

 are primary causes. Confinement 

 should not be ranked or spoken of as 

 should cold and breeding. Confine- 

 ment is the opposite of frequent 

 flights, which simply stop all proceed- 

 ing of the disease, by unloading the 

 accumulations. 



While my observations have not 

 been very extended, yet I have formed 

 the conclusion that mature bees do 

 and must eat pollen for their own 

 physical support, whenever they are 

 exercising ; and that they do partake 

 of it when they need not. and at their 

 peril 



We take their bee-bread and honey, 

 which in many cases may contain a 

 Iiarmful amount of floating pollen, 

 away from tliem, when they cannot 

 follow their instinctive inclinations 

 and put in their stead an artificial 

 food (sugar syrup), and one whicli 

 they will always leave wlieii they can 

 find honey equally accessible to gatlier 

 and store up for winter. We find as 

 a result that our reason and experi- 

 ments are safer for the life ot^our 

 bees than their own instincts, llns 

 is the plan upon whicli we manage 

 our breeding mares and setting hens, 

 and the one proven to be correct. 



I look upon Prof. Cook as being so 

 situated that he should be our best 

 autliority upon tliis part of the suIj- 

 ject ; anil on page 7 he says : '• It is 

 folly to say that mature bees do not 

 eat pollen; unless they are breeding." 

 This accords with the pollen theory 

 and my former statements. 



I have no hesitation in asserting 

 that at the time of the severe loss in 

 Indiana, as referred to by myself, and 

 re-referred toby Mr. Doolittle on page 

 .5, large numbers of their colonies had 

 made no attempt at brood- rearing; 

 and we have all witnessed cases lately 

 where no breeding had yet been at- 

 tempted. But if Mr. D. could prove 

 that all cases of bee-diarrhea were in 

 the presence of breeding, tlien if such 

 disease grew out of the consumption 

 of pollen, because they were using it 

 for breeding, and tlie accumulations 

 were of pollen particles, then I arttrm 

 that it is quite clear to the reason of 

 all, tliat pollen would correctly be 

 called the direct cause. If I have ttie 

 blues and shoot myself, what does the 

 coroner's jury report? " Died of 

 blues V" No. " Came to his death by 

 a ball from a pistol." Now I assert 

 tliat when we find that where we fix 

 a colony so that they cannot get pol- 

 len in any form, that thougii they are 

 closed in a long time and exposed to a 

 low temperature, no diarrhea develops, 

 and when they are supplied with pol- 

 len, tliey have the disease in reposi- 

 tories where no low temperature can 

 come, and after a confinement not 

 one-third as long as has heretofore 

 been passed with no disease, and tlien 

 an analysis of the excreta proves it to 

 be most all pollen, we have a right 

 and an obligation to call the prime 

 cause, pollen. 



In my remark on page " 773,' I had 

 reference only to a possible mistake 

 in the pollen theory, and a thought in 

 regard to the depleting effect of the 

 law of procreation. For years I have 

 protested against the theory of " late 

 breeding to get young bees to winter." 

 I am now glad to have Mr. Doolittle 

 come out on the right side. 



A neighbor who had one colony (a 

 last season's captured swarm) re- 

 cently notified me that tliey were 

 dead. I went and made an examina- 

 tion, and found it a case of combined 

 bee-diarrhea and starvation. Tliere 

 was not one drop of honey or bee- 

 bread in the hive ; many bees were 

 deep in the cells, starvation style ; and 

 there were no signs of young bees or 

 breeding. I examined tliis colony in 

 the fall, and told the owner that they 

 were short of stores. They then had 



bee-bread; but it is now all gone. 

 What has become of it V The tops of 

 the frames are covered witli diarrlietic 

 excreta. Tliis excreta will, upon ana- 

 lysis, show pollen. I am not sure that 

 there is not enough nitrogenous sub- 

 stance in pure cane-sugar syrup to 

 cause a slight accumulation when 

 cold forces the consumption of large 

 quantities, and long conlinement pre- 

 vents any partial discharge of it ; but 

 that this food is eminently better 

 than ordinary honey, and destined to 

 practically settle the wintering prob- 

 lem, I do feel confident. My present 

 experiments are such as I hope will 

 settle it in my own mind. 

 Dowagiac,p Mich. 



Kead at the Michigan Convention. 



The Cause of Foul Brood. 



I'KOF. T. J. BUKUILL. 



This disease is caused by the in- 

 jurious operations of a minute organ- 

 ism properly classed among the so- 

 called "disease-germs" or bacteria. 

 All allied organisms are exceedingly 

 small creatures, only to be seen with 

 higlily magnifying powers; but all are 

 veritable plants, consisting of e sen- 

 tially the same chemical elements and 

 the same organic structure as the 

 higher and larger members of the 

 vegetable kingdom. Some writers 

 class the bacteria with animals, be- 

 cause they usually have the power of 

 moving freely in the liiiuid im^dia in 

 which they live ; but tliesn authorities 

 cannot be well posted upon the char- 

 acteristics of low vei,'etable forms, 

 for the power of spontaneous motion 

 belongs to the most of tliem, as indeed 

 it does to niany of tlie liigliest plants, 

 in one way or another. 



But as plants, the bacteria are very 

 simple in structure— .in indivi liial 

 possessing all the ciipaliilities of ab- 

 sorbing food, living, growing and re- 

 producing its kind— being composed 

 of a single cell, and this o*^^ very 

 minute size. The cell has, however, 

 a wall of cellulose (wood substance) 

 inclosing a semi-fluid material known 

 as protoplasm, and this is true of all 

 living and active vegetable cells trora 

 which all plant-structures are de- 

 rived. The only appendage or other 

 structural peculiarity of the bacterium 

 cell or individual, is in some species a 

 very fine whip-lashlike filament, 

 which, being capable of rapid vibra- 

 tion, serves as an organ of locoinoiion. 

 There are no limbs, no sense organs, 

 no special digestive apparatus, no 

 heart, no veins, no nerves. They gam 

 their nutrition by absorption ot fluid 

 materials through the cellulose wall, 

 without any special opening for pas- 

 sage of anything in or out. 



Propagation takes place by a spon- 

 taneous division of the single cell, so 

 as to make of tliis, two cells. Some 

 times the two new cells remain at- 

 tached, and these may again divide, 

 always transversely, making four cells 

 in a chain-like row. Thus any num- 

 ber of cells may exist attached to 

 each other in a thread, but each cell 

 lives altogether independent of its 

 neighbors, and may at any time be- 



