THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



51 



but a little part of the time, it was covered wilh 

 a perfect mass of bees, and honey was brought 

 in by them at a rapid rate. 



The white clover is likely to hold out well, as 

 the ground is still moist from the heavy rains 

 The fields are covered with its finest flowers 

 and bees are laying in honey at a good rate. 



The Alsike was in blossom about four weeks 

 It is now cut and ready for threshing. 



A. Stiles. 



Genoa, Ills., July 19, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Season, and the Time of Blossoming. 



Mr. Editor : — As you invite communications 

 from all parts of the country, I thought a few 

 words in regard to the condition of beekeeping 

 in this section would not come amiss. 



Bees are doing poorly in this coumtry. It 

 has been rainy and wet nearly all the spring 

 and summer. My bees were in a condition to 

 divide when the apple trees were in bloom. 

 The weather came on freezing and cold, and 

 they did not swarm. Then it became milder, 

 and the bees commenced swarming on the 20th 

 of June, and are now nearly through ; at least 

 have finished swarming. 



Not a pound of surplus honey has been stored 

 at this date. The weather is now fair, basswood 

 trees are in full bloom, and the bees are doing 

 well on the blossoms. 



A subscriber to the Bee Journal asks for the 

 time of honey flowers blooming in diff'erent sec- 

 tion of the country. I send herewith my record 

 up to the date, beginning in April, and kept in 

 Tompkins county. New York. 



April 15, 18^9,— Soft Maple in bloom. 



April 18, " — Willow in bloom. 



May 17, " —Hard Maple in lull bloom. 



May 22, " —Dandelion. 



May 26, " —Black Cherry. 



May 27, " — Aple trees in full bloom. 



May 28, " —Pear ttee. 



June 11, " — Thorn tree. 



June 15, " —Black and Red Raspberry, 

 good honey plants. 



June 10, 1869,— Some white clover. 



June 20, " —White clover in full bloom. 



July 2, " —Tame mustard. 



July 15, " — Milkweed. 



July 26, " — Basswood or Linden. 



Our next resource is the buckwheat, from 

 which we get half our surplus honey. It blooms 

 in the latter part of August and lasts all through 

 September. 



I should like to have beelteepers in different 

 sections of the country, north and south, give 

 the time of the blooming of honey-yielding 

 plants during the season with them. Records 

 of this kind would be of great interest and value 

 to beekeepers, and should be communicated for 

 the benefit of the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal. 



_ D. H COGGSHALL 



West Groion, If. Y. July 26, 1869. 



[For the American Bee JournaL] 



Gallup on Pseudo-Foulbrood. 



Four years ago this present season, I was 

 traveling down south of here, in this State, and 

 was informed that bees were dying off with 

 foulbrood. One man told me that he had just 

 lost three young swarms with the disease; and, 

 altliough it was nearly three miles out of my 

 way, I went and made a post mortem examina- 

 tion for my own satisfaction. The bees were 

 all dead — that fact could not be disputed. And 

 as this season proves to be similar, and as I have 

 received several letters on the subject, I will 

 eive a description of, and also a remedy for that 

 kind of foulbrood. The old-fashioned conta- 

 gious foulbrood I have never had any experience 

 with, and furthermore do not wish for any. 



The weather was such that, during the lime 

 of wild plum and wild api^le blossoms, bees did 

 not store the usual quantity of honey to last 

 through any time of scarcity that might occur, 

 and that usually does occur here the latter part 

 of June. Still they gathered sufiicient, from 

 day to day, to raise an immense quantity of 

 brood; and on the last of June, we bad seven 

 or eight days of quite cold, cloudy weather, fol- 

 lowed by three days of rain, which confined the 

 bees to their hives. I was from home for three 

 days, and, on returning, I found three of my 

 swarms with very strong symjjtoms of the dis- 

 ease; but I administered the remedy, and it had 

 an immediate effect. The usual symptoms are — 

 first, the bees kill off their drones ; next, the 

 immature drones are drawn out of their ceils, 

 thrown down on the bottom board, and dragged 

 out in front of their hives. As the disease pro- 

 gresses, the young workers are seen crawling 

 out of the hive and tumbling about in great 

 numbers. Finally some of the old workers die 

 in the same manner. About this time, if we ex- 

 amine the inside of the hive, we find the bees 

 quite helpless and damp; their abdomens disten- 

 ded with, (well, we will call it dysentery;) all 

 the unsealed larvfe completely sucked up l)y the 

 workers, which have become veritable canni- 

 bals; the bottom board covered with dead bees 

 in the pupaj stage, thrown down by the work- 

 ers; cells full of capped brood, with the caps 

 torn open, and the pieces of the young com- 

 pletely sucked out by^ the workers. Now, 

 should the weather change, so that the bees can 

 gather honey, the workers will survive; but you 

 will discover that they work very little, and 

 they appear lo be troubled with large green flies 

 around the entrance of the hive. If the hive 

 be now opened, a horrid stench will issue, and 

 a putrid mass be seen on the bottom board alive 

 with crawling maggots, and perhaps in the 

 coml)s too. I haveseen hives in this condition, 

 this season, not a thousand miles from here. 

 Understand, that if the weather should not 

 change in time, the workers will all perish. 

 When discovered in the first stages, if you have 

 no honey, administer at least one quart of dis- 

 solved sugar, clean off the bottom board, and 

 see that the bees are fed regularly until they 

 can gather for themselves. This is a sure rem- 

 edy for this disease. No cure, no pay; and any 



