124 BOARD OF AGRICULTLTIE. [Pub. Doc. 



positive reaction; by another, bees had been observed sucking 

 at the spray mixture on the leaves of some shrubs adjacent 

 to sprayed trees. The writer found practically all colonies in 

 Newton Center killed outright or almost hopelessly reduced in 

 size. In some instances the entire apiaries were lost, and only 

 infestations of bee moths remained in the depopulated hives. 

 Honey bees were gone from Newton Center. 



Credit is due to Mr. William Hahn for his keen and dis- 

 criminating obsen'ations, by which he was able to report on 

 August 16, 1910, that he was com-inced that poison and not 

 bee diseases had "practically exterminated or so enfeebled most 

 of our colonies as to make them worthless." His observations 

 are quoted elsewhere under " Symptoms of Alleged Poisoning." 

 From the same town came a report the next year : — 



If you want to see what the poison is doing to the bees, now is the time 

 to come out here. I had a man report to me to-day that up to a week 

 ago everj'thing was going finely. To-day the grass for 20 feet around his 

 hives is strewn with the dead or d>-ing. They started sprajing [shade 

 trees] here about a week ago. . . . There are only a few colonies left in 

 this neighborhood. At this rate I think this year will clean them up. 

 (Newton Center, June 11, 1911.) 



Apparently in 1914 the conditions alleged had not materially 

 improved in Newton. The inspector reported this year and 

 last numerous complaints of losses, discouragement and dis- 

 continued beekeeping. "I would keep more bees," said one, 

 "if I could, and not have them poisoned." "The old bees died 

 faster than the young can be hatched in 1913. They were all 

 right until about two weeks after spraying. I would like to 

 keep bees again if it were not for the poisoning," is the report 

 in 1914 of another. 



Essex County. 

 This county has, especially in the vicinity of Rowley, reported 

 severe losses for several consecutive years. On June 17, 1913, 

 a veteran beekeeper of thirty-five years' experience writes: 

 "Many cases of trouble have been turned over to me, and I 

 have helped when I could. ... I can show you an apiars' run- 

 ning 3 to 16 colonies which has dwindled to practically 

 nothing." The inspectors have watched this territory, and 



