374 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to sell at the extremely low figure of 10 cents per pound, the industry- 

 would represent $20,000,000. But this is exclusive of the value of 

 the bees and of the wax crop, which would bring the figures high. 

 Moreover, in order to get an approximate valuation of the worth of 

 the bees to the country, we would have to add to the sum of the items 

 above that incalculable figure which would represent the value of the 

 bees to the fruit producers of the country. This would bring the 

 figures far beyond the human conception. 



In these huge money values we have not reached our limit. We have 

 scarcely begun to utilize the bees. But advance with so small a 

 creature and one so imperfectly understood is slow. With the hope of 

 helping some one to climb a rung higher in the art, we venture to suggest 

 a few items which appear imperative to the immediate progress of 

 apiculture in Massachusetts. 



When we conceive of the vast power of a bacterial or germ disease in 

 the human race, and the havoc it plays if unchecked, we can conceive 

 of the damage possible if such should get headway among bees. 



Diseases of Bees. 



There is no one factor, we are convinced, which has worked and is 

 working, unconsciously and unknown to most bee keepers, so much 

 damage as are the diseases of bees. While they have been known to 

 exist and have been recognized for centuries, they have not been under- 

 stood by the majority of bee keepers. A man loses a colony of bees 

 from no apparent cause. He immediately attributes it to " bad luck," 

 because the "bug" which caused it is not large enough to be seen. Or, 

 if the moth has entered, and a " bug " is really large enough to be seen, 

 then the loss is due to the moth, which, in reality, is probably only 

 secondary. 



Not infrequently do we hear of some one losing all his bees at one 

 stroke. It is recorded that for some reason the industry in certain 

 localities of Massachusetts has slowly dropped out. We hear the 

 farmers say that fifty years ago "nearly every farm had bees." Our 

 good people wonder why it is that bees are not kept in their neighbor- 

 hood. Why these observations? 



We believe that in a large measure disease is the answer. Uncon- 

 sciously to the bee keepers of the State, this great natural force has been 

 at work weeding out the bees of the country. It is high time that 

 every one who has bees should become thoroughly acquainted with the 

 now recognized diseases. Of these there are two which attack the 

 brood, and upon which the National Department of Agriculture is at 

 work. They are as follows : — 



American foul brood, which is most widespread in the United States, 

 and which is due to a micro-organism (plant) known as Bacillus larvae, 

 White. We quote the symptoms as given by Dr. E. F. Phillips (Bureau 

 of Entomology, Circular No. 79, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture) : — 



