124 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of one atom of sulphur ana two atoms of 

 oxgcn — SO*) renders innocuous the contagious 

 or infectious matter generated in confined 

 spaces; and hence the intelligent reader "will un- 

 derstand why we recommend repeated fumiga- 

 tions with brimstone. 



The reason why we advise anointing the lower 

 edges of the hive with pyroligneous acid is be- 

 cause the creosote it contains possesses the pecu- 

 liar property of arresting as well as of prevent- 

 ing putrefactive fermentation. But as the acid 

 has the strong and penetrating odor of creosote, 

 the quantity applied should be so small as not 

 to injure or annoy the bees, by superinducing 

 prolonged excitement. 



Foulbrood most commonly manifests itself in 

 the spring, and that is the time when the cura- 

 tive operation can be most conveniently em- 

 ployed. Nevertheless, should the disease occur 

 in the summer, or later in autumn, the same 

 curative process should still be employed, as 

 the colony will thereby be certainly saved, and 

 the pestilential malady be infallibly arrested 

 and destroyed. 



We part from the reader with the assurance 

 that it affords us heartfelt gratification to have 

 been able to devise, from observation and 

 science, a process by which a disease known to 

 be disastrous and hitherto deemed incurable, 

 may certainly be eradicated at small cost of" 

 time and labor. 



Observation of nature and her forces, as well 

 as of the substances generated by them, their 

 composition and decomposition, enables us to 

 consider these in their diversified aspects; while 

 science illumines the obscurity in which many 

 of these substances and tissues are involved, 

 the inner structure thus laid bare and ex- 

 posed to view enables the inquirer to scan them 

 with sincere gratification, in their life and work- 

 ings within their innermost recesses. 



Bokkum. A. Lambkecht. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Past Season. 



[Communicated for the American Bee Journal]. 



Ligurian for, and Anonymi from, the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



The past season has been a very poor season 

 here for bees. Mine were partially ruined at 

 first when I took them out in March. The 

 weather was then warm, which started them to 

 brooding. April was very cold, with frosts 

 near to zero, which killed a great many. The 

 summer was very dry and hot, and the flowers 

 did not last long. The basswood flowers did 

 not last over a week. As a consequence, a 

 great many hives all over the country are light, 

 and I do not think one half of them will winter. 



I like the Bee Journal very much. 



James McLay. 



Madison, Wis., Nov. 9, 1868. 



There is some foundation to suspect that the 

 heroic love in bees, either for their queen or for 

 their posterity, is only at bottom a self-interest- 

 edness. It is of great moment to them to be, even 

 in life-time, a mighty people. The cold weather 

 would destroy them if their great numbers did 

 not sufficiently warm the hive; and their num- 

 bers depend on the fruitfulness of the mother. 

 — Wildman. 



Rather more than two years ago, a gentleman 

 about to leave England for Cape Town applied 

 to me to supply him with a stock of pure Li- 

 gurian bees, packed in such a manner as s'nould 

 enable him to convey them by mail steamer to 

 his new African home with a fair chance of 

 their surviving the voyage. After having in 

 18G2 succeeded in the far more difficult task of 

 transporting Italian bees to the antipodes, I had, 

 of course, every confidence in my ability to pack 

 them for the shorter journey to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and had, therefore, little fear as to 

 the result, when, on the 10th of September, 

 18G6, the Royal Mail Steamer, belonging to the 

 Union Steamship Company, took her departure 

 from Plymouth for Africa with decidedly more 

 emigrants on board than usua 1 ., seeing that in 

 addition to her ordinary complement of passen- 

 gers, she conveyed some thousands of the genus 

 Apis, probably the first of their species ever ex- 

 ported to that continent, which already posses- 

 ses more than one indigenous variety of the 

 honey bee. 



Although, as I have said, feeling but little 

 anxiety as to the result, I have from time to 

 time given a thought to the fate of those involun- 

 tary little voyagers, and have often wondered 

 whether, after beiug the first to succeed in in- 

 troducing the Ligurian variety of honey bee 

 into England, and afterwards in exporting it to 

 Australia, I should also be successful in trans- 

 mitting it to Africa. These speculations, how- 

 ever, remained in abeyance until February in 

 this year, when a letter reached me from the 

 Cape, by which I learned that the Italian stock 

 had reached that colony in safety, but vastly di- 

 minished in numbers, nearly five thousand hav- 

 ing died. However, after sundry difficulties, 

 they had ultimately been established, and the 

 object which my correspondent had in writing 

 was to obtain from me two more Ligurian 

 stocks, he having unfortunately lost his only 

 pure-bred Italian queen through an accident, at 

 a time when there were no drones in the hive. 



He also informed me that he had found at 

 Cape Town two native varieties of the honey 

 bee — "one small black, and the other, except 

 in size, the exact counterpart of the Ligurian," 

 and most kindly offered, if I would like to have 

 a stock, to try his hand at packing one, and to 

 send it by steamer to Plymouth. Turning this 

 description over in my mind, I came to the con- 

 clusion that the variety which, except- in size, 

 was the exact counterpart of the Liguriau, 

 could be no other than my old friend, or con- 

 sidering the terms on which we eventually 

 parted, I might rather say enemy, the ferocious 

 Egyptian bee. Apis fasciata, which so nearly 

 simulates the Italian variety that the Rev. H. 

 B. Tristram, author of "The Land of Israel," 

 who found it amazingly abundant in Palestine, 

 was misled into declaring that Apis ligustica 

 was the common Holy Land insect. This con- 

 jecture was confirmed in a subsequent letter 

 from my South African correspondent, wherein 



