Jan. 26, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



69 



charter a clause giving us an opportunity to manufacture 

 and deal in supplies. That is simply put in there in case, 

 after years of experience and growth, we grow into some- 

 thing of that kind. But the first thing we want to direct 

 our attention to is the market. 



Mr. Krebs moved, seconded by Mr. Laws, that the 

 report be accepted. 



Mr. Abbott — I rise to a point of order. This Asso- 

 ciation is discussing and passing action on the business of 

 another Association, which is a stock company, and is 

 to be entirely different from this Association, and it seems 

 to me a strange anomaly that there should be organized 

 ■inside of this Association another financial Association 

 whose avowed purpose is to crush the business of at least 

 one-fifth of this Association, for one-fifth of the people 

 here are supply dealers. 1 confess that this is the strang- 

 est anomaly that I have ever known to exist in the form 

 of legislation, that, I, as a member of the National Asso- 

 ciation, a supply dealer, should sit here and help make a 

 Society whose avowed purpose is to crush out my busi- 

 ness. I protest. 



Prof. Benton — I supposed this was an Association of 

 honey-producers to protect honey-producers' interests, and 

 not an Association of supply dealers. 



Mr. Abbott — I have no personal reference to the matter. 

 I believe in the courtesy of this Association being extended 

 to these people to organize this Association, but I claim we, 

 as members of this Association, have nothing to say about 

 how they shall conduct their business. I have no objection 

 to what Mr. Brown has said, or to the presentation of the 

 matter or the organization of those here, but now that it has 

 become a permanent organization I claim it should hold its 

 meetings separate and apart from us. 



Mr. Whitcomb — While I have no interest in the sale of 

 honey or supplies, or anything of that kind, yet I do consider 

 when this Association goes into anything of the kind, or 

 gives any countenance to it, it is treading on very dangerous 

 ground indeed. If the people of California or Colorado wish 

 to organize such an Association I have no objection what- 

 ever, but I object to dragging the people of Nebraska or Ohio 

 or Missouri into an organization in which they have no in- 

 terest. 



Dr. Bohrer — I do believe we have a right to recommend 

 such an organization as will successfully combat the combines 

 and trusts and such persons as wish to take stock have a 

 right to do so. 



Mr. Krebs — I do not see any need of all this apparent 

 opposition. This organization is intended to benefit the pro- 

 ducer of honey and not to run in opposition to any class or 

 clique of people. It is simply to get the benefit of the sale 

 of honey at a reasonably good price without having to hunt 

 all over the world to get our prices; it is just simply to 

 regulate prices. 



Mr. DeLong — I really think it is the Association's busi- 

 ness to procure a market for their product. If we spend the 

 best efforts of our lives in producing a product and then put 

 a great portion of that into the hands of untrustworthy men 

 to handle and dispose of to the consumer, I think we have 

 lost one of the important points of our mission. We seem 

 to be in the condition that we can produce the honey but 

 when we have produced it another class of people comes in 

 that are not in the business at all, and they say, you shall 

 not market your honey. I say we do market it. I say we 

 agree on this exchange and we see the destiny of our product. 



Prof. Benton — I think there is a good deal of misappre- 

 hension here. For my own part I would not think of going 

 into any such organization as is spoken of if it were de- 

 signed to crush the supply dealers, because they are a useful 

 set of people, and the supplies of these people must neces- 

 sarily in the beginning come from these very supply dealers. 

 They are not to be crushed, they are to be encouraged ; ihey 

 can form a part of it as well, and I see no antagonism. I do 

 not see that the National Bee-Keepers' Association is the 

 promoter, or sponsor, or anything of that sort, for the honey- 

 producers' association; this is simply a convenient place to 

 bring forward such an idea. 



Mr. Abbott — I agree fully with Mr. Benton. We have 

 got on common ground. I am not offering any objection. 

 In fact I would like to amend the motion that we heartily 

 concur in the movement, and will offer no opposition to it 

 in any way, but my contention is that this is a separate body 

 and we ought not to take the time of this body. I leave it 

 to Mr. Brown himself if I am not right. 



Mr. Taylor called for the re-reading of the report which 

 was complied with by Mr. France. 



Mr. Taylor moved, seconded by Mr. Abbott, that the re- 

 port be laid on the table. 



The President put the motion, which on a vote having 

 been taken was declared lost. 



The President then put the motion to adopt the report 

 which on a vote having been taken was declared carried. 



Mr. York then read a paper written by Mr. Poppleton, 

 of Florida, on the subject of "Bee-Paralysis," as follows: 



BEE-PARALYSIS. 



Early one season over 20 years ago, while keeping bees 

 in northern Iowa, I noticed that many of my colonies seemed 

 strangely affected, and in most cases seriously so. I examined 

 leading text-books, as well as our periodicals, but could find 

 no reference whatever to anything like it. A sample of the 

 affected bees was sent to Prof. Cook, but it was all new to 

 him. About this time inquiries commenced coming to our 

 editors from various and widely separated localities about 

 this same trouble. It came to be known as the "Trembling 

 Disease," "Nameless Disease," afterwards as "Bee-Paralysis," 

 which is more appropriate, and will probably be its perma- 

 nent name. 



The disease seems to be widespread, not only found in 

 nearly all sections of our own country, but also in foreign 

 lands. There is quite a general belief that it is confined to 

 the South, but this is a mistake, as, with one exception, the 

 most serious loss I have had from it was in northern Iowa. 

 The fact that it is almost impossible to winter a diseased 

 colony in the northern part of our country, prevents its be- 

 coming very serious there, and for that reason only it is more 

 common in the South. 



Is the disease contagious? If so, how, and in what way 

 is it communicated from one bee to another, and from colony 

 to colony, and, if not, what causes the disease, is one of the 

 important problems yet to be solved. This problem must be 

 solved, and correctly so, before we can fully control the dis- 

 ease. I am not at all sure I am right, but think the disease 

 can be, and is, communicated from diseased bees to well ones. 

 Careful experiments seem to prove that it is not passed along 

 by means of combs, honey or brood, and I now transfer them 

 from sick to well colonies without bad results, being careful 

 not to give any sick, well or dead bees from an infected 

 colony to a well one. 



Whether queens can and do transmit the disease to their 

 offspring is one of the points not yet determined, and is, in 

 ray opinion, a most important one. Giving a diseased colony 

 a new queen has not with me been a success, yet many facts 

 which have been carefully observed lead one to the theory 

 that queens are largely responsible for the spread of the 

 disease, and it seems to me much more prevalent in certain 

 strains or families of bees. One fall, some years ago, I pur- 

 chased quite a lot of young queens from one of our best 

 breeders. The following season, nearly all of the diseased 

 c-lonies in my apiary were those to which one of these queens 

 had been given, over half of them being affected. The breeder 

 whose honesty and truthfulness cannot be questioned tells me 

 that so far as he knew there was none of the disease in his 

 apiary at the time he reared those queens. Another time I 

 obtained two or three queens from one of the noted breeders 

 in this country. There seemed to be no trace of the disease 

 about them or their colonies at first, but part of them, and 

 nearly every colony of their royal daughters were diseased 

 the following season. I had to purge the apiary of every 

 tr..ce of this strain. Same also occurred with another lot 

 of purchased queens, while the descendants of other pur- 

 chased queens have been free from the malady. 



This question of the transmission of the disease through 

 queens, and the fact that when once diseased the colony will 

 continue so after a chang:e of queens, looks as though queens 

 and contagion both aid in spreading the disease, and opens 

 up a wide field for theory and experiments. 



The sign of disease is readily seen and recognized. 

 Should any quantity of dead bees be seen outside the en- 

 trance to a hive, a few struggling and dying bees will usually 

 be seen among them, If not too badly diseased, well bee's 

 will be seen on the entrance-board, tugging and hauling at 

 sick ones, trying to drag them out of the hive. At first 

 glance one may think that robber-bees are being fought, but 

 a little closer observation will show the plain difference be- 

 tween driving off robbers and dragging out sick ones that 

 don't seem to want to go. On taking covers off of hives the 

 sick bees will try to come to the light, and after a little time 

 can be seen crawling on the top of frames. Their motions 

 are slow and laborious as though weak and partly par- 

 alyzed. They cannot take wing, but cling tightly by 

 their feet to anything they are on. This tight clinging 



