90 DEBASES. 



black, putrid and emitting a disagreeable stench. 

 I learned why there was a scarcity 

 of bees in the hive ; what should have constituted 

 their increase had died in the cells ; none of them 

 were removed, consequently but few cells where any 

 bees could be matured were left." He further says 

 that the cause is uncertain, but attributes its spread 

 to contagion ; that honey carried from infected stocks 

 will impart the disease to the hive receiving it. As 

 a check to the spread of this disease, he recommends 

 that no stock be permitted to dwindle away until 

 plundered by others ; by persevering in this course, 

 he thinks the disease would soon disappear. 



Mr. Quinby supposed this disease of recent origin, 

 hence it would appear that his was one of the first 

 cases noticed in the United States. 



At present this disease exists to some extent in 

 New York, New Jersey, in some portions of the New 

 England States, and in the northeast corner of Penn- 

 sylvania. From the above places it has been intro- 

 duced to California and Oregon, along with bees 

 imported during the last three or four years, and is 

 now almost as widely spread on the Pacific slope as 

 the bees themselves. The fact that the disease had 

 been introduced to California was furnished by me to 

 the agricultural jurnals, and was published in March, 

 I860.* It seems, however, to have been known to 



* Previous to July, 1859, I had never seen a case of foul brood, 

 and was skeptical as to its existence, attributing the death of the 

 brood to hunger and cold. But at the above time some diseased 



