176 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



than it is to procure Italian queens wholly free 

 from taint, since it is claimed that even the best 

 to he found in Italy have some fragmentary 

 admixture of black blood. 



Phora Inerassata and Foulbrood. 



In a notice of Dr. Asmijsz's treatise on the 

 '■'■ Parasites of the Honey-Bee^'''' the Eev. Mr. 

 Kleine says he cannot concur in opinion 

 with the author that the Phora incrassata is the 

 cause of foulbrood. "This insect," says Mr. 

 Kleine, " is universally diffused in Europe, de- 

 positing its eggs in hives in which it finds dead 

 bees; yet we do not find foulbrood as univer- 

 sally prevailing. Certainly that which is caused 

 by the Phora in one section of country, should 

 also be caused by it in another, if instinct in- 

 duces it to deposit its eggs in the larvae of the 

 bee. Such, however, according to my observ- 

 ations, is not the case. The Phora never makes 

 a nidus of living organisms, but instinctively 

 selects dead bodies for that purpose. But if, as 

 the author believes his microscopic investiga- 

 tions show, it does exceptionally lay its eggs in 

 the living larvae of the bee, it would be exceed- 

 ingly strange, indeed, if the immediate total 

 decomposition of the larvae should be thereby 

 induced. Nothing like tliat is known to take 

 place, under similar circumstances, in the case 

 of any other parasitic insect which selects the 

 body of another as the nidus of its eggs. If the 

 author's views were well founded, the pupae of 

 the Phora would be found as abundantly in 

 foul broody hives as they are found in such as 

 contain dead bees to which the Phora has had 

 access. Yet such is not the case. Foulbrood 

 in fact continues to be a mystery and a puzzle, 

 the solution of which bee-culturists are anxiously 

 awaiting, as the discovery of its nature and 

 cause might enable us to devise a preventive or 

 cure. We trust that some advance in this 

 direction will be, or has been, made by Mr. 

 Fisher, of Vaduz, who entertains a new theory 

 of this disease, and bases his presumed remedy 

 thereon. We expect an exhaustive treatise from 

 his pen on this important and perplexing sub- 

 ject, and trust he may succeed perfectly in un- 

 ravelling it." 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Patent Latent? — Reply. 



Mr. Editor : I notice in a recent number of 

 the Journal a seriocomic article headed " Pa- 

 tent Latent" from L. L. Langstrotli. Justice 

 to myself demands an answer or reply to his 

 egregious conclusions. Mr. Langstroth very 

 well knows that devices unexplained would 

 render a "patent" "latent," and as he remarks 

 that the object of patents is to induce inventors 

 to make known their valuable discoveries, it 

 was very proper that I should mark my "Cir- 

 cular" "patented," as it contained the elements 

 of my patent of April 5, ISG-l. 

 Very respectfully, 



W. A. Fl.ANDEKS. 



[From the Bieneuzeitung.] 



Honey-dews and Aphides. 



I make no pretensions to scientific knowl- 

 edge, but profess simply to state facts as they 

 have come under my observation, such as may 

 present themselves before the eyes of ever}- in- 

 telbgent person, leaving the final judgment to 

 those who have a clearer insight in matters of 

 cause and effect, or of antecedents and sequen- 

 ces, than plain folks like myself have. 



Since honey-dews and aphides are pheno- 

 mena t^hich commonly make their appearance 

 almost simultaneously, it would seem that there 

 is some intimate connection betAveen them. 

 Honey-dew can be produced in a small way on 

 pot plants in our chambers and greenhouses, if 

 exposed several hours in a window to the direct 

 warm rays of the sun, placing them at night in 

 a colder temperature, and repeating the process 

 several days in succession. 



Such plants, particularly monthly roses, &c., 

 thus treated, will have their circulation excited 

 by the solar heat, till twig.s, buds, leaves, and 

 blossoms become surcharged with ve"-etable 

 juices. These juices are again suddenly checked 

 in their flow and chilled, by removal of the 

 plants to a colder pos>ition or into a lower tem- 

 perature. A diseased condition is the result, 

 which good Mother Nature makes an effort to 

 remove or cure. The inspissated circulation 

 which, like all vegetable juices, contains more 

 or less saccharine matter, is thrown out or ex- 

 pelled through the pores of the leaves. If it 

 now happen that this extruded matter is so 

 abundant that it cannot be speedily dried up, or 

 is not soon washed off, or carried away by nec- 

 tar-loving insects, continued warmth will ge- 

 nerate fermentation, followed by the production 

 of myriads of aph des, or plant lice, as they are 

 often called. These are probably designed by 

 nature to consume and remove the "clammy 

 coating from the leaves, and thus cleanse the 

 plant. If we remove these aphides, without 

 washing off from the leaves the clammy 

 saccharine mstter, the following day will wit- 

 ness a renewed production of aphides in as 

 countless numbers as before. Hence the cause 

 or antecedent must be displaced before the 

 effect or sequence can be got rid of. 



In this vicAV of the subject we may also 

 readily understand why the honey gathered 

 in 1860, consisting in large part of fermenting 

 honey-dew, proved so deleterious to the bees. 

 It was probably collected and deposited in the 

 cells before being thoroughly fermented, and 

 thus retained noxious qualities, producing 

 dysentery when consumed. 



As honey-dew may thus be produced nn a 

 small scale "in a ptivate establishment," so like- 

 wise it is produced in grander proportions in 

 the vast laboratory of nature, when favoring 

 external circumstances concur. Thus as when 

 cold suddenly succeeds heat dew falls, a similar 

 effect follows in the vegetable kingdom, result- 

 ing in the phenomenon called honey-<iew. 

 Hence, at times, honey-dew and aphides may 

 be seen on nearly every variety of plants, when 

 temperature and condition of the atmosphere, 



