AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



595 



dieted each other. What is siicji evi- 

 dence worth ? 



I have discovered the real cause of 

 foul brood, and from experimental test- 

 ing of my own I discovered the simplest 

 and most practical way, with the least 

 work, of curing that disease ; and I have 

 had more experience with foul brood 

 than any other man on earth. 



In the Amekican Bee Journal, of 

 Feb. 16th, page 215, I see that Mr. 

 Larrabee doesn't agree with me on any- 

 thing. All right ; he has a perfect right 

 to his opinions, but I must remind him 

 that mere guess-work or opinions like 

 his won't count against discoveries. 



I will now give you evidence that 

 would count in any court of law, and 

 that any judge on the bench would ac- 

 cept, and charge a jury to believe, as 

 they are solid facts. The following is 

 part of the evidence which no Mr. Lar- 

 rabee on earth can get over, and is 

 enough "dictum," I should think, to 

 convince any man ; but if he wants 

 more, I shall give him plenty more along 

 the same line : 



One fine day in April, 1875, when my 

 bees were flying freely, the bees of one 

 colony all came out, and about two- 

 thirds of them got into another before I 

 got the hive closed. I then took the re- 

 maining third of the bees and the queen, 

 and returned them to their own hive. 



Then about sundown, when the bees 

 had settled for the day, I examined the 

 colony that swarmed out and lost two- 

 thirds of its bees, I found plenty of 

 honey, a nice lot of brood in all stages, 

 but too small a cluster of bees to cover or 

 care for the amount of brood. That col- 

 ony having lost the most of its bees, the 

 uncared-for brood died and rotted in the 

 cells. Then by the middle of June that 

 colony had developed into a geuine case 

 of pure foul brood, which gave me many 

 a day's very bitter experience before I 

 got rid of it. 



In the summer of 1882, Mr. C. J. 

 Robinson, of Richfield, N. Y., originated 

 foul brood in his own apiary, by forcing 

 brood to consume their food mixed with 

 rotten larvae. Mr. Robinson had some 

 combs with brood in that were taken out 

 of the hives at extracting time, and 

 were not returned to the hives through 

 mistake. The weather being warm at 

 the time, and the combs of brood being 

 piled on top of each other in a building, 

 the brood heated and soon became very 

 ■ rotten. Mr. Robinson then went to a 

 colony of bees, took out a comb of .brood, 

 brushed the bees off, and then put the 

 matter from the rotten combs into the 

 cells that had brood in, and to force the 



brood to consume it he put a screen on 

 each side of the comb, and then put it 

 back into the hive of bees again. The 

 comb of brood was kept warm by the 

 heat of the colony, and the screen kept 

 the bees from feeding the brood. Then 

 the larvae was forced to consume the 

 rotten matter, and then it became foul, 

 brood. 



In 1888, the Rev. Mr. Gruetzner, of 

 New Dundee, Ont., had foul brood origi- 

 nate in his apiary. In a letter I re- 

 ceived from him, Mr. Gruetzner says : 



"In the spring I placed entirely 

 healthy combs of brood from other colo- 

 nies into a weak but healthy colony ; 

 very soon the young brood died, intense 

 heat set in, and the whole colony be- 

 came full of foul brood. In Germany 

 the opinion seems to be universal that 

 deceased brood is the cause of foul 

 brood." 



In June, 1889, Mr. Wm. Burkholder, 

 of Otterville, Ont., had foul brood origi- 

 nate in his apiary, from starved brood. 

 Mr. Burkholder had a very strong col- 

 ony of well-bred Italians, which con- 

 sumed all their honey just a little before 

 the honey season opened, and which he 

 found in a dying state one morning. He 

 fed them at once, and the majority of 

 the bees came out all right again. All 

 the brood in the colony had died at that 

 time from starvation, and rotted in the 

 combs. Then warm weather set in, and 

 the whole colony became full of pure 

 foul brood. 



In June, 1890, Mr. Charles Urlocker, 

 of Thorold, Ont., had 30 colonies of bees 

 turned into foul brood from drowned 

 brood. In June, 1890, Mr. Urlocker 

 had 40 good colonies with a top story on 

 each hive, and a queen-excluder on 

 every brood-chamber. Just then a sud- 

 den storm started up, and a big cloud 

 bursted over Thorold, and for a, time 

 caused a terrible flood. Mr. Urlocker's 

 apiary was in low land, the water rose 

 very rapidly, and soon 10 brood-cham- 

 bers were under water, and as the 

 queens could not get up through the 

 queen-excluders, they were drowned, as 

 well as the brood. The water did not 

 get quite up to the tops of the brood- 

 chambers of the other 30 colonies, so 

 the queens did not drown in them. The 

 bees in nearly all went up into the top 

 stories at the time. These colonies were 

 very strong, and some had swarmed be- 

 fore that, and were full of brood when 

 the flood overflowed the apiary. The 

 water soon went down, extreme heat set 

 in, and the brood-chambers full of 

 drowned brood went into a great mass 

 of corruption, and turned Mr. Urlocker's 



