"When glass is made with an excess of 

 alkali, it sometimes what is technically 

 called " sweats," that is an efflores- 

 cence or escape of the alkali is dis- 

 covered on its Surface ; and after a time 

 the glass becomes eaten away into 

 small pin holes ; you will see this in old 

 church and cathedrel windows ; but it is 

 the work of time, and could not occur 

 in the glass jars Mr. Edwards speaks of. 



Lawrence, Kan. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Alarming Diseases of Bees. 



MOOSH AMIEL. 



The reports from a large portion of 

 Michigan are most unfavorable and 

 discouraging ; three-fourths, if not 

 more, of the bees in large portions of 

 the State are dead. This State is not 

 the only one where the same disease has 

 caused their destruction, neither is this 

 the first season that large portions of 

 the United States have been thus 

 afflicted. Foul-brood has at times 

 visited portions of Europe and the 

 United States, and was really an alarm- 

 ing disease. Those who knew it, feared 

 it exceedingly ; as evidence of this our 

 lamented friend, the late Samuel Wag- 

 ner, had one colony attacked, and on 

 visiting his friend at Baltimore, refused 

 to visit his (Colvin's) apiary the next day 

 for fear there might be something about 

 his person or clothing that might, by 

 the remotest possibility, convey the 

 disease ; those who had a colony with 

 the foul-brood washed their hands and 

 tools after handling it, before approach- 

 ing a healthy colony. If reports that 

 we dare not dispute are true, simple 

 remedies have been found to eradicate 

 it and save the bees, hive and combs. 



Now in comparison with the dysen- 

 tery, the foul-brood is not one hundredth 

 part as destructive, because compara- 

 tively but few apiaries seem affected. 

 At the National Convention at Cleve- 

 land, O., but some five or six reported 

 its presence in their apiaries ; now if a 

 report from but one town in many por- 

 tions of Michigan were made, ten times 

 that number xcould report dysentery I 



Some years since when this same 

 disease swept over a large portion of 

 the Northern States, in many counties 

 but occasionally a colony or an apiary 

 escaped. At our State Conventions 

 many thought it was caused by extreme 

 cold and long winters : if that were the 

 cause, in Yermont, Maine, Northern 

 Russia, Siberia and many other colder 

 countries than Michigan, bees could not 

 be kept without aunual importations ! 

 Again, if it was caused by long cold 



winters, why have many lost their en- 

 tire apiaries that were properly housed 

 in special depositaries, with the mercury 

 never below 30° or above 44° ? Some of 

 these colonies were attacked before the 

 15th of January, and perhaps all dead 

 before the 1st of March ! 



Again, the cider-mills have been 

 charged with having been the cause ; 

 but thousands of colonies that had 

 dysentery were quite out of the reach of 

 these mills ! 



It has been confidently asserted that 

 it was because the fall season was wet 

 and cold, and the honey too thin to be 

 capped over, but last fall, and for sev- 

 eral years preceding the autumn was 

 dry and long, from the complete close 

 of the honey gathering till December ! 

 I think that few, if any, will assert 

 that old bees are the only ones affected ; 

 that an old bee will not live eternally is 

 more than probable ; but it is doubtful 

 whether young bees can endure more 

 poison than old ones ! 



But ;what is the cause and the pre- 

 ventive V Is not the cause of the 

 disease, what is called honey-dew ? 

 Many of our best informed apiarists 

 are of that opinion. If that be so, 

 what is the preventive ? 



Bees were attacked in this location by 

 the 15th of January, perhaps before. 

 About the 1st of March we had several 

 as tine days as could be wished, and the 

 bees flew, and they have had many such 

 opportunities since, but still they are 

 dying daily with dysentery and this 

 with nothing but sealed honey, made 

 in the early part of the season. The 

 hives were cleaned about the 1st of 

 March and the bees made as warm as 

 possible. 



I believe with Prof. Cook, that "dys- 

 entery is always caused either by poor 

 food or by damp atmosphere in the 

 hives," and "that good food and 

 absorbents are the preventives"— I 

 will add : if they are not too cold or too- 

 warm and are kept quiet. All of these 

 have been provided a thousand times, 

 except the good food, and still the bees 

 have died ! 



The question is, " how are we to know 

 if they have good food or not, until as 

 Mr. Quinby says, we learn from a post- 

 mortem examination." This is the 

 very gist of the matter under considera- 

 tion. Many know how warm, how cool, 

 how dry they should be, and what are 

 goud absorbents. Is any upward venti- 

 lation needed, or should it be permitted? 

 A little lower ventilation, to let the car- 

 bonic acid gas flow out, is necessary, 

 according to the late Prof. Kirtland. 



But how are we to know in the fall if 

 our bees have good food when it is al- 



