(Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as 8ecoDd-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., NOVEMBER 29, 1906 



Vol. XLVI— No. 48 



$M 



diforial Mi 

 and Comments 



The Two Kinds of Foul Brood 



Referring to the article on page 895, is the 

 following note: 



" In the exceedingly interesting article of 

 Mr. J. A. Green upon foul brood, he says bee- 

 keepers ' have assumed that there was only 

 one form of foul brood, alike in all countries 

 where bees were kept.' Again, at the close 

 of his article, speaking of Europe, he says: 

 ' It is quite probable that there are two brood 

 diseases there the same as here.' Apparently 

 Mr. Green thinks that only one form of foul 

 brood is recognized in Europe. In this he is 

 in error; for at least in Germany, for many 

 years, a distinction ha6 been made between 

 the ' mild ' and the ' severe ' form of the dis- 

 ease." 



While this is true, it may be a little hard to 

 determine whether by the terms " mild " and 

 " severe" twp separate diseases are meant, or 

 varying degrees of virulence of the same dis- 

 ease. It is well known that in the category 

 of diseases to which the human race is sub- 

 ject, a given epidemic breaks forth at one 

 time in a mild, and at others in a severe form, 

 yet always the same disease. 



The important point brought out by Mr. 

 Green, that Bacillus alvei is not the culprit it 

 has for so long been supposed to be, is at any 

 rate not affected by the point in question. 

 Just now the question of special interest is, 

 " What is the culprit?" Some of the German 

 scientists say it is a bacillus, to which they 

 have given the name BphirocaU apU dfatuen. 

 We wait patiently to hear what investigators 

 on this side will 6ay in contradiction or cor- 

 roboration. 



What Is DoneWith Nectar Brought In? 



Referring to the editorial on page 861, the 

 following letter was received: 

 In the editorial on dark honey or sugar 



syrup of the brood-chamber going into the 

 sections, I think you will find that you mis- 

 quote Mr. Doolittle. His theory, frequently 

 printed, is that no such danger exists, that 

 the field-bee delivers her load to the young 

 house-bee, which takes it directly to the 

 super. Arthur C. Miller. 



No one is so competent to interpret the 

 views of Mr. Doolittle as Mr. Doolittle him- 

 self, so in the interest of exactness a note was 

 sent him, to which he made the following 

 reply : 



Dear Bro. York:— Your letter of recent 

 date relative to page 861, duly to hand. In 

 reply I would say that I have watched hours, 

 if not days, by the side of an observation 

 hive to see what the field-bee did with its load 

 of honey, and I never saw her do aught else 

 than give it to one of the young or nurse 

 bees. These bees hold and evaporate this 

 nectar if no more comes in during the day 

 than they can thus hold; but with a heavy 

 flow they deposit it in the cells, generally in 

 the brood-chamber, when at night all hands 

 take a hand at the evaporation part, when it 

 is stored in the surplus apartment, mostly by 

 the young bees, unless there is plenty of room 

 in the brood-chamber, in which case it is 

 stored there. I noticed that you had mis- 

 quoted me a little, but as this had no special 

 bearing on the subject on which you were 

 writing, I did not think best to notice it. 



You are perfectly sound in what you say 

 about all, or nearly all, of the old honey car- 

 ried over winter in the brood-chamber being 

 converted into young bees before the season's 

 honey-How is on, as the hive is nearly always 

 filled with brood before the supers are put on. 

 But if bees are fed sugar syrup or inferior 

 honey so as to fill the combs in the brood- 

 chamber just before the harvest, as some rec- 

 ommend, then if the q ueen is good, and swarm- 

 ing does not result, much of that fed will go 

 into the supers, mixed with that which is 

 coming in from the fields; so that the sec- 

 tions will not contain only clover honey, but 

 a " hybrid " affair of no certain standing. 

 G. M. Doolittle. 



So it appears that Mr. Doolittle was exactly 



quoted by neither party. The error on page 

 861 was in saying that the fielder deposits its 

 load in some cell of the brood-cbamber, 

 whereas it should have been as Mr. Miller 

 says, " that the field-bee delivers her load to 

 the young house-bee." 



If Mr. Miller had stopped when he said 

 that, he would have been on safe grouod; 

 but, instead of that, he calls down upon him- 

 self the charge of misquoting by saying that 

 the young bee, on receiving the nectar, 

 " takes it directly to the super." The correct 

 statement is that it first evaporates it. 



On the whole, it must be confessed that Mr. 

 Miller has the best of it, and at all events we 

 are obliged to him for the opportunity of 

 getting so full a statement of particulars 

 from Mr. Doolittle. 



The Honey Season in Ireland 



The Irish Bee. Journal reports a compara- 

 tive failure of the clover harvest generally 

 throughout Ireland, and 144 reports show an 

 average of 49 s 4 pounds surplus per colony 

 against 6?: ; 4 last year. A good many in this 

 country would have been delighted with 49 

 pounds per colony. 



The Brood°Dlseases of Bees 



This is the title given to Circular No. 79, 

 written by E. F. Phillips, Ph. D., Apicultural 

 Expert, and sent out by the Uniled States 

 Department of Agriculture, as mentioned be- 

 fore in these columns. As it is of such very 

 great importance to diagnose these brood- 

 diseases, extracts are here given from the 

 circular, not 60 much for anything new in 

 them, but because given in excellent form, 

 and in the hope that thty may be carefully 

 studied by some who are yet ignorant in such 

 matters, whose ignorance may have a rude 

 awakening should they be threatened with 

 the diseases described : 



There are two recognized forms of disease 

 of the brood, designated as European aod 

 American foul brood, which are particularly 

 virulent. In some ways these resemble each 

 other, but there are certain distinguishing 

 characters whicn make it possible to differen- 

 tiate the two. While it may be possible for a 

 colony to have the infection of both diseases 

 at the same time, it is not by any means the 



