THE AMERlCAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



519 



Stewart's bis stones that lie freights 

 his hives down vitli, might take a 

 ride and lieep company witli liis hives 

 in mid-air, but we hope for better 

 luclc for him and all other bee-men. 



I feel like expressing my sincere 

 thanks to my many friends in the 

 bee-fraternity for the good things 

 they have written of me, and for the 

 counsel, sympathy, and assistance 

 protlered me. I feel that I am in good 

 company, and that bee-keeping has 

 its joys as well as its sorrows. 



Ithaca, P Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Bee-Poison, Diarrhea, Pollen, etc. 



JAMES HEDDOK. 



With much interest I have just 

 read Father Langstroth's article on 

 bee-poison. So far as I know I am 

 the most sensitive to that poison of 

 any of our bee-keepers. Many of the 

 symptoms he there delineates are just 

 the ones I suffer with when I come 

 within the odor of the hives, especially 

 in the after-part of the season. Droop- 

 of the eye-lids, itching and burning 

 about the eyes and throat, a dull, 

 gloomy feeling, are all common symp- 

 toms \vith me. I may also add an in- 

 tense itching far into the ears, ex- 

 tending through to the glands of the 

 mouth. Some nasal symptoms simi- 

 lar to hay fever. Sometimes the 

 itching sensations reach down the 

 air-channels as low as the lungs, and 

 it is a queer sensation to itch in- 

 ternally. 



All these are produced without 

 stinging. I believe that constant 

 stinging is productive of feelings that 

 may be termed neuralgic-rheuma- 

 tism. When, for a time, I keep away 

 from the liives, I recover from these 

 symptoms, but upon a return, they 

 always recur. My experience is dif- 

 ferent from Mr. L's, for I always 

 have the most trouble when near the 

 bees. For the past two months I 

 have worked with the bees most of 

 the time, and I am again suffering 

 much from the old tioulile. I have 

 little faith that I shall ever wear out 

 the effects of this venom. I know of 

 others who are troubled somewhat as 

 I am, but not to quite the same degree. 



FIRST CAUSE OF DIAKEHEA. 



I wish to correct Mr. Stewart's 

 statement that I claim that anything 

 acts the part of " first cause " in the 

 production of bee-diarrhea. " Prime 

 cause " is not first cause. I will once 

 more, and I ho^ie for tlie last time, try 

 to describe what I mean by " prime 

 causes " and " adjunct causes."' A 

 prime cause will produce the effect 

 alone ; an adjunct cause will fail to so 

 produce the effect that is only becom- 

 ing a cause when in company with 

 the prime cause. 



Cold is a great adjunct-cause of 

 fecal accumulation. It is not the 

 prime cause, because such accumula- 

 tions take place independent of cold. 

 Pollen is the prime cause, because 

 fecal accumulations take place with 

 it alone without the aid of a low tem- 



perature. Cold (so to speak) cannot 

 produce fecal accumulations alone, 

 as 1 proved last winter by freezing to 

 death nearly 100 colonies that had no 

 fecal accumulations. If Mr. Stewart 

 will come to the North Western Con- 

 vention next October, we can each 

 hold the other to the point, and dis- 

 cuss the matter without misunder- 

 standing. 



BEE-DIARRHEA AND POLLEN. 



If Mr. Gresh is of the opinion that 

 Prof. Cook thinks there is any genuine 

 bee-diarrhea common to our bees, 

 that does not come from pollen, I feel 

 certain that Mr. Gresh thinks wrongly. 

 Mr. Gresh thinks it is unjust for me 

 not to have read a certain old article 

 of Mr. Doolittle's. However, accord- 

 ing to Mr. G's statement, Mr. D's old 

 article gives no systematized summer 

 and winter management. I mean a 

 system of contraction that at the 

 same time works to both summer and 

 winter advantage. If I am in error, 

 the records will show it ; and Mr. 

 Gresh's last few years' practice should 

 also show it. 



If Mr. Doolittle has also systema- 

 tized the same management cotem- 

 porary with or prior to me, all well 

 and good. That only adds proof to 

 the value of the system. All I said 

 was that, "so far as I have read, I 

 have not seen it systematized as a 

 summer and winter management;" 

 and that is true. 



For three seasons I have success- 

 fully practiced the contracting 

 method for the combined purposes of 

 crowding the bees above with their 

 surplus to such an extent as to leave 

 the brood-chambers in a condition to 

 feed syrup for winter, and in a com- 

 pact form tor the bees and for other 

 wintering purposes; and during all 

 this time I have seen nothing more 

 than fragments of the method dis- 

 cribed and hinted at by any one. I 

 would like to please Mr. Gresh, but 

 while I would be satisfying him, I 

 might dissatisfy many others. 



Dowagiac, 9 Mich. 



For the Americun Bee Journal. 



Horticulturists vs. Apiculturists. 



W. A. PUYAL. 



In casually reading the July num- 

 ber of the Oardner''s Magazine, I 

 chanced to notice where a lady cor- 

 respondent of that journal seemed to 

 be in great distress about her grapes, 

 of which she has many fine varieties, 

 and complains that although she has 

 tried her best, she is unable to get 

 any fruit for table use. She attributes 

 her loss to her neighbor's bees ; he 

 having some 12 colonies of them. She 

 has been enclosing the bunches in 

 paper bags, and, though the experi- 

 ment is a success, still she considers 

 it too laborious and costly to warrant 

 its use to any great extent. She en- 

 (juires of the editor if he knows of 

 any way to prevent bees from doing 

 her grapes further damage. To this 

 the editor replies that he has made 

 the bee and grape subject a special 



study, and he is firmly convinced that 

 bees will destroy grapes every time, 

 and to prevent their depredations, he 

 advises the trapping of them. 



As the editor, Prof. Mecham, is a 

 recognized authority on the topics 

 whici) he treats upon in his magazine, 

 the above is pretty strong evidence 

 against the " busy bee," who, the 

 Professor thinks, is so much of a 

 "busy body" that he breaks felon- 

 iously, so to speak, into his neighbors' 

 grapes. All the apicultiiral editors 

 and writers and bee-keepers have held 

 otherwi.se, while the fruit growers 

 and many of the horticulturalwriters 

 and editors haye taken the same side 

 as the Professor, though perhaps not 

 so emphatically. 



It does really seem that the evi- 

 dence against the bees is accumulat- 

 ing, and that in a short time the tight 

 against bee-keepers will be com- 

 menced "all along the line," and it 

 will be in order for apiarists to " tight 

 it out," if it takes all— not summer ; 

 but all — the defense fund, and more 

 too, if bee-keepers do not join the 

 defense promptly. 



We, too, have studied this question 

 — that is, the bee and fruit controversy, 

 but have had no experience with 

 grapes, as they do not grow here near 

 the Golden Gate, as the nights are 

 a little too damp and cold. But with 

 all kinds of small fruits and apples, 

 apricots, cherries, pears, plums, 

 peaches, nectarines, etc., we have 

 had as much experience as any one in 

 the State, and our place is run as a 

 fruit farm, and we, and many of the 

 folks in the vicinity, have bees— there 

 being, perhaps, over a hundred colo- 

 nies within a radius of a mile of us. 

 We have never known a bee of its 

 own accord to damage any of the 

 large fruit. Our great annoyance is 

 caused by linnets, these birds and the 

 jays will often, in a few days, destroy 

 hundreds of dollars' worth of cherries 

 and apricots, to say nothing of other 

 fruits. When the birds commence on 

 the apricots, the bees just" sail into " 

 tliem, too, and hastily suck up the 

 rich juice of this most very excellent 

 fruit. 



The only fruit that we can accuse 

 the bees of playing havoc with, is the 

 raspberries. This fruit is grown by 

 the acre on our place, and the J. Lusk 

 Canning Co., of this place, has nearly 

 a hundred acres of them close by. 

 During the last two weeks there has 

 been a scarcity of flowers, which is 

 unusual in this section, and the bees 

 who are proverbially known to be in- 

 dustrious, have to "improve each 

 shining hour" or die — so finding 

 plenty of ripe raspberries overflowing 

 with juice, they make haste to gather 

 it, which is an easy matter when the 

 fruit is a little over ripe. Always 

 many Ijerries will be in this condition 

 unless they are picked daily. Firm, 

 ripe berries the bees do not harm. 

 We have seen the bees swarming on 

 the berries when they were allowed 

 to go a day over time, or when they 

 would ripen a little sooner than was 

 expected, and were left for awhile 

 unpicked. All the juice would be 

 sucked out and nothing but the pulp 

 would remain on the stems. 



