THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



325 



Explanalor) .— Tliu figures before the 

 names iiuliciitc llie number of years that the 

 person has kejit bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonics the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This raarl< © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 i north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^^ northwest; 

 o« southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Beautiful Spring Time. 



.1. C. STOIJDAKD. 



Birthday of the seasons, welcome! 



To nie, three score and ten, 

 Thv hapi»y charms revive us, 



With the cheer of the twittering wren. 

 Vernal heauty reifins supreme, 



Fraerance tioats in every breeze, 

 Wavy zephyrs chant in chime 



Their salute to all the trees. 



Sunbeams tjlint on wavy ferns. 



Piercing through the thickest shade, 

 Warming well the dark, cold pines. 



Kissing the wild tlowers of the glade. 

 Nature's hosts hold high parade— 



The trumpeters are on the wing. 

 The oriole pours forth its joy. 



And all the birds proclaim the spring. 



Welcome the spring! thy sounding joy! 



Welcome time of budding bowers. 

 Welcome are thy storms and shines 



That usher in the reign ot t3owers. 

 Wild geese pipe their songs o'er head, 



Their trombones are all in tune; 

 Arbutus flings his fragrance up, 



A bouquet of sweet perfume. 



The honey-bee, God's gift to man. 



Is out in force each lovely day. 

 Kissing each sweet and lovely flower 



Until the daylight dies away. 

 Pile it in! four pounds each day. 



Dear little busy honey-bee! 

 So when you've got your house brimful 



We'll share with you, and taste and see. 



The frogs have held their breath so long, 



Down in the mud so deep, poor things,— 

 A cheerful racket now they make. 



They, too, would fly— had they the wings. 

 Maidens out in helds and dells; 



Children shout with springlike tone. 

 Decked with flowers and sweet bouquets, 



For Spring is queen upon her throne. 



The dandelion's Golden eyea 



With seeds of downy feather, 

 Starring hills and pretty lawns 



In summer's showery weather. 

 Little tl.shes in the frolicking brooks. 



And sportive grassy glens, 

 And foaming waterfall— their Minnehaha— 



Where aslant the shady elder bonds. 



Violets catch the dew-drnps clear, 



Daisies proud in silver frills. 

 Star flowers innocent and bright. 



King cups drink the dews of hills. 

 Spring hath wrought her wedding-veil. 



For Summer hath engaged her- certain. 

 In Flora's beauty she's now decked. 



Gracefully she retires behind the curtain. 

 —Springfield, Alass. 



For the American Bee Journal 



What Causes Bee-Diarrhea? 



IG— G. M. DOOLITTLE, (40—80). 



On page 246, under tlie above head- 

 ing Mr. W . Z. Hutchinson writes and 

 closes by saying that " perhaps it is a 

 mistake in attempting to Iseep bees 

 out of their native clime." In this 

 sentence he gives just the cause of 

 bee-diarrhea. His first proposition, 

 " Bee-diarrhea is the result of an 

 overloaded condition of the intes- 



tines," is certainly correct, and his 

 last, as applying to the cause, is 

 equally correct ; while wliat he assigns 

 as tlie cause cannot be correct, at 

 least as it seems to me. The "native 

 clime " gave bees the chance of flying 

 every few d;iys, thus preventing the 

 " overloading of the intestines," and 

 the thing which took this privilege 

 of flying away from them is the cause 

 of our Northern wintering trouble. 

 In the language of Mr. H., I think 

 that " the stupidity e.xhibited by 

 some" regarding this conlineinent 

 part of it "is truly amazing." I say 

 (using Mr. Hs words again), "let 

 some one produce a case of bee diar- 

 rhea without the use of "—confine- 

 ment. It seems to me to be perfectly 

 plain that liringing bees into our 

 Northern hititude is the cause of all 

 our trouble, and that all matters of 

 food, ventilation, dampness, etc., are 

 only secondary causes; for Mr. II. 

 tells us that the reason why " bees in 

 warm climates are free from diarrhea 

 is because they can enjoy frequent 

 flights ;" lience the taking away of 

 these frequent flights mitst be the 

 cause. 



On page 244, Mr. G. W. Demaree 

 says, " The trouble is wholly incident 

 to long, cold weather ;" while Dr. 

 Tinker says, on the same page, 

 " When bee-keepers shall recognize 

 the fact that cold is the prime cause 

 of our winter losses, we shall get 

 down to successful wintering, and not 

 before." So, then, as the cause of 

 diarrhea, we liave first the bringing of 

 bees from a warmer clime to a cold 

 one ; second, cold the cause of con- 

 finement; and third, confinement the 

 cause of bee-diarrhea. Although Mr. 

 H. says there can be confinement 

 without diarrhea, I wish to put it on 

 record as saying that if that confine- 

 ment is long enough, every colony of 

 bees thus confined will perish with 

 diarrhea no matter what their food 

 may be, providing they have enough 

 so they do not starve. 



To those who claim that the food 

 has all to do with it, I wish to quote 

 still farther from Mr. G. W. Demaree, 

 where he says : " Of course many 

 things may "conspire to shorten or 

 lengthen tiie struggle for existence. 

 Bad food, damp, unwholesome quar- 

 ters, weak constitution, etc., may 

 make the struggle short, and the re- 

 verse of these may make the hanging 

 on to life long and tedious. But the 

 end will come if there is no return of 

 the sunshine— no ' flash ' of the ' wing' 

 in the balmy air." Four years ago 

 (after our great loss), I placed on re- 

 cord, in the Bee Journal, a proph- 

 ecy " that after every long, cold win- 

 ter we should liear of great mortality 

 of bees," and the reports of to-day but 

 confirm that prophecy. 



Now I wish to notice one other sen- 

 tence in Mr. li's article, where he 

 says, " It will be seen that there can 

 be no diarrhea if there is no pollen." 

 While Prof, Cook found, by the use of 

 the microscope, a few grains of pollen 

 in the bottom of the cells of the piece 

 of comb which I sent him (as I gave 

 on page 197), still it will be remem- 

 bered that not one bee in five, which 

 had the diarrhea so badly as to foul 



and besmear the liive and combs, had 

 any pollen in its intestines. Since 

 thiit colony died, I have also lost ,3 

 more with diarrheii, which had only 

 sugar syrup for stores; at least that 

 was all I could detect by a careful ex- 

 amination hist fall. I'nif. Cook's find- 

 ing pollen grains under the syrup, 

 a few in each cell, only sliows that 

 there is sticking to the combs which 

 all would pronounce absolutely clean, 

 a little pollen. It also proves to a 

 certainty that no experiment can be 

 conducted by wliich no pollen can en- 

 ter into it, except by shutting up the 

 bees, after which they are to be given 

 sheets of foundation and fed sugar 

 syrup. Hence, I say that I have 

 proven that bees can have the diar- 

 rhea and die with it, where they 

 procliciilli/ have no pollen, and that 

 with 4 different colonies — 2 wintered 

 in the cellar and 2 on the summer 

 stands. 



Dr. A. B. ilason (on page 249), 

 wants all who have honestly tried to 

 winter bees with sugar syrup and no 

 pollen and have failed, to give the 

 minutia of the exi)eriraent ; in this 

 article and the one on page 197, he 

 will find one who has failed : who, if 

 I know my own motives, tried hon- 

 estly, because I certainly would not 

 have taken all the pains I did to kill 

 some of my best colonies, say nothing 

 of my most valued queens. 



Again, Mr. W, N, Howard, on page 

 261, reviews my article on page 197, 

 and after making some wrong con- 

 clusions, which could not be deduced 

 from my article, says : " How the 

 facts of this case can annihilate the 

 pollen theory, I cannot see ;" but he 

 forgot to add that I said it was the 

 practical part that was annihilated. 

 The theory is of no value only as it 

 can be made practical by the yearly 

 use of it by the bee-keepers of the 

 United States. The reasons why it 

 cannot be made practical are these : 

 1. The author of the theory claims 

 that there can be enough floating 

 pollen in the honey to cause the bees 

 to have the diarrhea. This makes it 

 impractical to the majority of bee- 

 keepers, for whatever else" may be 

 said, the bee-keepers of the United 

 States are not going to take away all 

 stores of honey and replace it with 

 stores of sugar. 2. By the latest rea- 

 soning on this theory, it would seem 

 that if i^^-dozen cells of pollen should 

 happen to be left in a hive, the bees 

 would be liable to get the diarrhea 

 and perish, even from that small 

 amount, say nothing of bees perish- 

 ing by tlie disease where the amount 

 was so small that it took the micro- 

 scope to discover the few pollen 

 grains in the cells under the honey. 

 Hence it is not practical to the masses, 

 for few of us have the time to look 

 thus closely for pollen. 3. All of our 

 most practical bee-keepers tell us that 

 the montli of September is the time to 

 prepare our bees for winter, which I 

 claim to be correct. As bees in most 

 localities can get pollen for several 

 weeks later than this, it makes it (the 

 theory) of no practical use on account 

 of the bees being liable to get a taste 

 of pollen after we have carefully ex- 

 cluded every bit, even using the 



