THE AMEBICAN APICULTURIST. 



199 



which they are so often ruined where 

 the yellow races would not be se- 

 verely injured are, with me, suffi- 

 cient reasons for discarding them. 

 Oxford, O., August, iSSj. 



BEE CULTURE IN THE 

 SOUTH. 



By G. W. Demaree. 



If the honey season was as poor 

 all over the country as it has been 

 here, there would be no need of those 

 philanthropic articles which have 

 appeared in the bee papers from time 

 to time, warning people not to board 

 the bee schooner lest she go down 

 with the whole crew. Those persons 

 who have been "fired" with bee en- 

 thusiasm by reason of the past good 

 honey seasons, after seeing this sea- 

 son through, will need no soft emul- 

 sions to soothe nor application of ice 

 to cool down their raging "bee fever." 



DIARRHCEA AND POLLEN 



Is a subject that is having a sad 

 effect on some of the brethren. 



"Pollen is the cause" (?) but the 

 theorists cannot tell us why the dis- 

 eased bees are loaded with watery 

 excrementa. If pollen loads the bees 

 and induces inflammation and dis- 

 ease, whence comes the large pre- 

 ponderance of watery substance? 

 Dr. Tinker has been making perti- 

 nent inquiry in this direction of late, 

 and there will have to be more theo- 

 rizing. Mr. Doolittle reported two 

 cases of diarrhoea when no pollen 

 was present in the hives, but the mi- 

 croscope was resorted to, to save ( ?) 



the pollen theory. So deadly is pollen 

 in its effects on the brethren's bees 

 that the microscope is brought out, 

 as in the case of suspected poison in 

 the stomach of man or beast. 



Then there is this difficulty in the 

 way of the pollen theory, to wit : bees 

 do not suffer with diarrhoea in a mod- 

 erate climate. My location is not far 

 from the dividing line between diar- 

 rhoea and no diarrhoea. Nevertheless, 

 I am on the side of no diarrhoea. 



With some knowledge of bees for 

 forty years I have never seen a fatal 

 case of diarrhoea, i. e., the combs 

 daubed and the bees soiled, resulting 

 in death. Every hard winter, how- 

 ever, shows the trouble in its incip- 

 iency. Some colonies show a large 

 per cent of bloated bees, but the 

 trouble is more dropsical than fecal 

 in character, and this fact alone is 

 fatal to the pollen theory ; because it 

 shows that accumulation of watery 

 substance produces the distended 

 condition as perfectly as does the 

 accumulation of the substances ex- 

 cremental in character. I believe 

 that those conditions surrounding 

 bees which prevent healthful exha- 

 lation from their bodies are the true 

 causes of bee diarrhoea and pollen is 

 not even one of the causes. I have 

 no reasons to change my former con- 

 victions that the cause is climatic. 



I have said that I never saw a fatal 

 case of bee diarrhoea. Well, I intend 

 to produce a case or two, or make a 

 discovery that will be worth a great 

 deal to me' in the future. I shall 

 winter several colonies on the cheap- 

 est brown sugar I can find, and at 

 least two colonies on sorghum syrup ; 

 I shall exclude all pollen. If they 



