88 DISEASES. 



wintering bees, does not appear. Information con- 

 cerning it, from either of them, would doubtless throw 

 important light on the subject. There can be no 

 doubt, however, that in wintering bees in the above 

 mariner, if a single hive in the lot has the disease, 

 the vitiated air arising from it would infect many of 

 the adjoining hives, with as much certainty as if they 

 had obtained infected honey. 



It has been supposed by some that foul brood was 

 caused by shipping bees across the Isthmus to Califor- 

 nia. Having made two shipments myself, I am prob- 

 ably as well qualified to judge of this matter as any 

 other person. And I can safely say, that I have never 

 seen anything to indicate such a result. Neither 

 have I found it to exist in any bees when brought 

 into this State from healthy districts in the East. 

 Consequently, I am forced to the conclusion that 

 every hive having the disease when landed in Cali- 

 fornia, had it previously to being shipped from the 

 Atlantic States, and that it has been spread from 

 those, to large numbers of hives previously healthy. 



" In the year 1848, a fatal pestilence, known by 

 the name of ' foul brood/ prevailed among his (Dzier- 

 zon's) bees, and destroyed nearly all his colonies 

 before it could be subdued, only about ten having 

 escaped the malady, which attacked alike the old 

 stocks and his artificial swarms. He estimates his 

 entire loss that year at over five hundred colonies. 

 Nevertheless, he succeeded so well in multiplying by 

 artificial swarms the few that remained healthy, that 



