THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 13 



tion that honey alone can convey the germ is contrary to all facts 

 relative to other infectious agents. Honey is not a good culture 

 medium for any bacteria. The most that can be said is that its 

 adhesive qualities would be likely to carry whatever bacteria found 

 lodgment in it. 



GREAT CARE NEEDED. 



This fact can not be too strongly emphasized, viz. : that honey 

 could be sterilized by boiling and five minutes later contaminated by 

 careless handling in a place where bacteria were present. If it is to 

 remain sterile every article wnth which it comes in contact must 

 likewise be sterile. Hence it follows that it is well nigh impossible 

 for' a queen-breeder with foul brood in his yard not to spread the 

 infection if permitted to send queens through the mails, and here 

 again let me repeat that our safety lies in having regulations 

 analogous to quarantine enforced against foul broody queen 

 breeders. 



Mabton, A\'ashington. 



EDITOR E. R. ROOT'S REPLY 



I have carefully read that article on page 56-1: of Gleanings for 

 Sept. 15, to which Air. Btirdick replies, as well as the article above ; 

 but nowhere in my article do I find a statement or set of state- 

 ments that convey the idea (to me, at least) that the boiling of the 

 honey for queen-cage candy "is the one essential thing to do in 

 order not to spread foul brood by means of the mailing-cages to the 

 purchasers of queens." On the other hand, I do find that I men- 

 tion fz^'O essentials; first, boiling the honey; second, to discard candy 

 that the queen came with, and use the push-in-the-cage-comb plan 

 to introduce. We will assume that Mr. Queen-breeder boiled the 

 honey he used for making candy, and then reinfected it. If the 

 queen were transferred into a cage that did not have any infected 

 candy, there will be small probability that the infection would be 

 transmitted. Furthermore, it seems to me it w^ould be understood 

 that any one who would feel or see the necessity of boiling the 

 honey would, as a matter of course, take the precaution to prevent 

 reinfection. 



AVhile I do not plead guilty as charged, I do n'lost heartily in- 

 dorse what Air. Burdick says when he emphasizes the importance 

 of preventing the reinfection of candy once sterile, and that no 

 queen-breeder should send queens from an infected apiary. I wall 

 join hands with him or any one else on this propaganda; and if I 

 did not put sufficient emphasis on these two propositions, I thank 

 him for the correction. But some queen-breeder, not knowing he 

 had disease, might inadvertently send out infected candy; and hence 

 the importance of boiling all honey that is used in making candy, 

 and the importance, also, of not using the candy method of intro- 



