of Alley, and reduce the whole, hive, bees, 

 combs and honey, to ashes, and thus quickly 

 end the strife. Without thoroughness there 

 is no safety ; with it, the disease may be 

 subdued and conquered. 

 East Saginaw, Mich. L. C. Whiting. 



Mr. Wilcox, of Wisconsin, wanted to 

 know if there was any first cause for 

 foul brood, and if so, what V 



Dr. Family, of New York, stated 

 that he had two colonies affected by it. 



D. A. Jones, Ontario, stated he had 

 had 300 colonies affected by foul brood. 

 He had soaked combs for twelve bonis 

 in salicylic acid, but without any ben- 

 efit. He would advise any one having 

 foul brood in bis apiary to burn bis 

 bees, combs, and everything coming in 

 contact with it. Foul brood originated 

 in his apiary by the breaking down of 

 combs in a hive in being moved ; the 

 brood in the combs being chilled, 

 allowed to remain and becoming pu- 

 trid in the combs. From this hive the 

 contagion spread to the adjoining 

 hives. He put salicylic acid in the 

 honey being consumed by the by the 

 bees, without deriving any benefit. He 

 found boiling the honey would kill the 

 fungi. If Mr.Muthwill send him acid 

 that will cure foul brood and not kill 

 the bees, he would give him $50. 



Mr. Fammell, LaCrosse, Wis., had 

 two cases of foul brood. 



Mr. Jones thought sultry, foggy, 

 damp atmosphere would engender foul 

 brood. 



Mr. Collins, Texas, had had foul 

 brood in his apiary for four years in 

 succession, which has ruined his apiary 

 each season, He has found that noth- 

 ing but fire will cure it. 



T. F. Bingham, Michigan, had foul 

 brood in his apiary in New York, and 

 after various experiments and the loss 

 of 25 colonies, concluded fire was the 

 only radical cure. 



Mr. Heddon, Michigan, never had 

 any experience with it ; but should his 

 apiary become afflicted with it, he would 

 immediately apply fire, as a duty to bis 

 bee-keeping neighbors. 



Mr. Bingham would burn hives and 

 bees. 



Mr. Jones would boil the hives and 

 use them again. He now has 125 hives 

 in use from which the bees were killed, 

 and there were not now any bad results. 



D. M. Ketcham, New York, inquired 

 if the bees had access to salt. 



Mr. Jones. Yes. 



Mr. Schofield. No. 



Mr. Collins. Yes. 



Dr. Farmly. Yes ; the whole Atlan- 

 tic Ocean. 



Mr. Heddon. I do not believe bees 

 use salt ; it is sal ammoniac they want. 



Mr. Rice. If you will put water and 

 salt in an elevated trough, your bees 

 will not trouble the chicken pans or 

 pumps. 



The Rev. W. F. Clarke then read his 

 essay on 



The Bee of the Future. 



This paper is intended to treat its topic in 

 plain, practical, common-sense fashion ; rather 

 than theorically and scientifically. There are 

 three views current in regard to the subject. 

 The first, is that of the conservatives, who 

 think we have reached the ultima thale, 

 beyond which no farther improvement of the 

 honey-bee is practicable. They took this 

 ground at the advent of the Italians, and 

 though forced to abandon it for a time, have 

 resumed it. They discourage further importa- 

 tion, and are content to "let well alone." 

 The second view is that of the progressives, 

 who while fully recognizing the advances of 

 the past, believe that the limit of improvement 

 has not yet been reached, but that even our 

 best strains of Italian bees are capable of 

 being made better. The third view is that of 

 the enthusiasts, I had almost said fanatic .; who 

 belittle all the achievements of the past, and 

 indulge in the wildest dreams, as to the bee of 

 the future. In their visions, they see a ma- 

 jestic insect with wings large and swift as 

 Gabriel's ; a tongue long as that of Xantippe ; 

 and an atlas-power of honey-carrying. My 

 present object is, mainly, to prick some of the 

 big bubbles which these dreamers are ever and 

 anon sending aloft in the expanse of apicul- 

 ture. 



I have said they belittle what has been done 

 in the past. Here is the language held by one 

 of them in regard to the bee-keepers of Amer- 

 ica. "Bee-raising has been carried on mainly 

 with the view of getting at the present time, 

 the most dollars out of the stock, with little 

 regard to its future condition ; in fact, there 

 has been no system of breeding pursued. 

 Bees have been brought from Italy, and, by 

 carelessness, lack of foresight, or ignorance, 

 the fixed types there established have failed to 

 appear in their progeny bred in this country." 

 The same writer contrasts the assiduous care 

 of " the people of the Italian peninsula," who, 

 he says, "began the improvement of their 

 bees by selection more than nineteen hundred 

 years ago ", with the alleged carelessness of 

 American bee-breeders. It would be folly to 

 deny that there are careless bee-breeders mi 

 this continent, but I verily believe, there has 

 been more attention paid to this matter in 

 America during the past fifteen years, than in 

 Italy during the past nineteen hundred years. 

 Prof. Cook is no doubt right when he says : 

 "I believe the superiority of Italians is not 

 owing to careful breeding, but to the law of 

 'natural selection', shut up in a limited area, 

 and walled in by mountains, there was a 

 struggle for life, and only the fittest could sur- 



