668 



American Ttec Journal 



Aug. 2, 1906 



that you may know what is being done. There is much con- 

 fusion on the subject of the germ brood-diseases in this coun- 

 try, and I hope it can be straightened out. Evidently bee- 

 keepers confuse these names, or possibly the foul brood of Eu- 

 rope and Canada may not be the same as our foul brood. 

 Please remember that I do not make this as a definite state- 

 ment: I merely say that we cannot find Bacillus alvei in so- 

 called foul brood. The germ Bacillus alvei itself is well 

 known, and its characters have been well studied, and what 

 now remains is definite knowledge of its distribution and 

 exact information of a working nature so that the bee- 

 keeper will know just what he can do with the disease. 

 This is the work which must be done. It is very desirable 

 that a large number of samples of brood-diseases be ex- 

 amined from all over the country, and I hope that any 

 members of the National Bee-Keepers' Association who have 

 any such trouble will be kind enough to send me samples. 

 For the present I could do nothing more but report on 

 the presence or absence of Bacillus alvei, but I shall be 

 glad to do that as soon as the examination is made We 

 cannot receive too many samples, and I shall ask your co- 

 operation during the next season. 



The so-called "bee-paralysis" has come in for its share 

 of investigation, but I regret to sav that I cannot as yet even 

 suggest a cause. No pathogenic bacterium has been found 

 in bees which died of paralysis, and I do not think that 

 there is evidence that Bacillus gaytoni has anvthing to do 

 with it. The theory that certain plants were poisoning the 

 bees and causing the symptom of paralysis, was also inves- 

 tigated but I failed to produce the disease when bees were 

 ted on honey mixed with the characteristic alkaloids of these 

 plants. In the meantime I have gone over every word of 

 the literature on paralysis that I could find, and while it 

 is hard to judge from descriptions, which are generallv 



rrnnhlT' am u CU "/ d t0 the belief that severaI different 

 troubles are combined under the word "paralysis." I sin- 

 cerely hope that some one can tell us something about this 

 disease before another summer passes, and I would re- 

 spectfully request that any of. the members of the National 

 Bee-Keepers Association having the disease in their apiaries 



ions TSSi WOU , ,d n ° tify me Md make carefuI observa- 



worsi, if possible" 1 S ° me regl ° nS Where thC disease is at its 



A series of experiments on feeding has been be<mn 



n which sugar solutions of different strengths are sed 

 for the purpose of determining to what extent the cane- 

 sugar or sucrose is inverted by the bees into reducing sugars 



So far*, E th K m ° St ? art are the ingredients of hone"' 

 ^o far I have been able to get results from only one ex- 

 periment in which sugar was fed in a 50 percent solution 

 In this case the water was evaporated until 80 percent of 

 the solution stored was solids, and 15 percent of the total 

 volume was unmodified sucrose-an amount which would* 



don The V^'? tha f l h , e WaS dealin ° with an itera- 

 tion The remainder of the sugar was the same as that 



riXn m , hone y- These experiments are now being con 



result "h X s ' a " i !t iS t0 ° earIy t0 tel1 what wil lo the 

 ? u J \. the resu,ts are exact enough in the suo-ar anak-sis 



oVtw'mucT'ho 10 t0 a " SWer . that n-h-gu/ssKques'io 

 pound of In v h0 " ey - 1S re " uired « n the secretion of one 

 build combs ' " '" S ° me CaS£S the bees are allowe d to 



„ffl,? Unni ? the pa r st winter - whi,e Mr. Benton was in the 

 sent 'o„ P t aC t n ag K ? f Seed u S <, f "oney-producing plants were 

 r,nL? to . aboilt 500 bee-keepers, but only a few of the 



o? the result ^ "* \ "? give yOU no *< neral **7 m ent 

 of £i,SJ j l° me g ,owin g reports have been received 

 worthv of" a " d Serradel,a as valuable plants, and they seem 

 keeper. ' nvestl £ atlon °" the part of every farmer be™ 



tio„ L n f S Si, Un p,^ Cre was established, on the recommenda- 

 ChL rluf "■'!"■ »? su T b - sta t'on for apicultural work at 

 Unco, Calif with Mr. J. M. Rankin, Special Aeenr in 



Statf ' Mr R e a „T P ° Se ° f StUdying - SpeciaI conditions 8 "'th" 

 state. Mr. Rankin spent some time, during the summer 

 working on para l ysiS) but found jt ^ £« the — er 

 than it has b ee„ f or l6 ear and consequentl a n y S?e 



results were impossible. At this station cef tain features 

 Of our work at Washington are to be repeated a n check 

 The ma ,n difficulty in this station, is the distance from 

 Washington, winch makes it difficult for us to keep in do™ 



In his address last year before this Association, Mr. 

 Benton spoke of the establishment of an experimental apiary 

 at Arlington. This plan was somewhat modified, so that 

 the main apiary of the Bureau is in Washington, -with an 

 out-yard at Arlington for the mating of queens to Cau- 

 casian drones. In addition to this, permission has recently- 

 been granted for the placing of colonies of bees on another 

 farm of the Department of Agriculture, 6 miles north of 

 Washington, for the study of diseases, such as foul brood, 

 black brood, and paralysis, where there is absolutely no dan- 

 ger of contaminating our own bees or those of any other bee- 

 keeper. In this way fresh samples are obtainable, for it is 

 often hard to examine combs after they have been in the mails 

 several days. 



As you know, Mr. Frank Benton, Apicultural Investiga- 

 tor, left early in June on an extended trip after new races 

 of bees, under the direction of the Bureau of Entomology. 

 Mr. Benton visited various European countries, and we, 

 from time to time, received queens from him. The uprising 

 in the Caucasus delayed him somewhat, but he finally reached 

 that country and got several queens which, for the most 

 part, reached Washington alive. He expects also to visit 

 India and the Philippines to study the giant bees of the 

 genus Megapis before returning, and will send some of them 

 to the United States, if possible. It is certainly to be hoped 

 that he will be able to settle once for all the question, which 

 has been so long debated without many facts one way or the 

 other, as to the desirability of introducing these bees. 



Last spring Mr. Benton conducted a rather heavy cor- 

 respondence with the different manufacturers of cake choco- 

 late, with the idea of inducing them to use honey in place 

 of cane-sugar. Various ones promised to try it, but noth- 

 ing was done. On Mr. Benton's departure, this was turned 

 over to me, and I visited the Stephen F. Whitman Co., of 

 Philadelphia, when in that city on other business. They 

 took up the matter and report that they have tried in every 

 way to do this but that it is impossible. They, of course, 

 recognize the desirability of using honey, but claim that their 

 machinery is not adapted to such use. It was hoped that 

 this would open a market for a large quantity of honey, 

 but the effort was without success. 



During the summer a good deal of routine work was 

 necessary. The mailing list of the office was badly in need 

 of revision, and that took considerable time, and, in addi- 

 tion, as far as was possible, a complete list of queen-rearers, 

 bee-disease inspectors, bee-keepers' societies, and supply deal- 

 ers was made. These things are necessary in order that 

 we may know just the condition of affairs in the bee-keep- 

 ing world, and are of great value in the work. At present, 

 back volumes of the American bee-keeping journals are be- 

 ing carefully indexed, which will save much time in looking 

 up any subject. Of course, such work has to be done when 

 there is a lull in our rather heavy correspondence. 



In conclusion, I wish to express my personal apprecia- 

 tion of the help which I have received from bee-keepers in 

 various parts of the country since I have been connected with 

 the Bureau of Entomology. Without such kindness it would be 

 difficult to accomplish anything, and I can only assure you that 

 I shall do my utmost to advance the interests of the industry 

 with your help. I shall appreciate any criticism which may be 

 made of my work, as long as it is based on facts, and shall 

 endeavor to profit thereby; but I ask for neither praise nor 

 blame from anyone who does not know what he is talking 

 about. Let me especially ask for your co-operation in the 

 bee-disease investigation during the coming summer. 



E. F. Phillips. 



Dr. Miller — I believe that if anything is done to amount 

 to very much in the way of improvement, such as Dr. 

 Phillips has been talking about, it will not be so much by 

 some one special person, as it will be by the rank and file 

 taking hold of the matter. So many seem to get the idea 

 that it will be a queen-breeder. 1 would like to call special 

 attention to this distinction between queen-breeders and 

 queen-rearers. I would like to ask the question. What per- 

 centage of queen-breeders are there among queen-rearers? 

 I don't want to press that question, but I believe all of us to 

 a certain extent can become queen-breeders; and when the 

 rank and file do that, then we will begin to have advance- 

 ment and improvement in our stock. I do feel like heart- 

 ily thanking Dr. Phillips, and I wish all who feel with me 

 like thanking him to signify it by a rising vote of thanks. 



