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AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



May 1, 1902. 



The venerable president, W. R. Graham, was too feeble to 

 be present and preside, very ranch to the regret of all. 



Messrs. Hagood, Morgan and Cooper were elected dele- 

 gates to the Farmer's Cong're.«s to be held at College Station 

 next July. W. R. Graham was re-elected president; J. il. 

 Hagood, vice-president ; and F. N. Hunter, secretary. 



Contributed Articles. 



Don't Neglect the Bees— Other Good Advice. 



BV MKS. L. C. AXTKLI,. 



IBEIvIEVE the time is not far distant when the bees will 

 do well again. We have had so many dry years here in 

 the West, and the people are getting- a good deal discour- 

 aged with trying to make bee-keeping pay, and so each year 

 the poor bees are left more and more to live or die. just as it 

 happens ; and often they die for want of a little care. 



Some of us will awaken one of these days to find a fine 

 honey crop, and no bees, or but a few, to gather it. 



"The platter kept right side up " should be our motto, 

 and when the good honey season comes again, as it surely 

 will — or everything else will dry up and all farming cease 

 to pay — then, I say, when the good seasons come again, bees 

 will increase and again fill their hives with honey as if by 

 magic — if the bee-keeper has his bees in good condition. 

 But if the bees have been neglected there will be no bees to 

 gather honey, and all will be wasted, and the bee-keeper 

 will take up the lamentation that '• bees don't pay," when it 

 will be his own fault, and not the fault of the bees. 



BBK-KEKPING A SPECIALITY. 



I am not sure but it pays to make bee-keeping a special- 

 ity. What is there we do make a success of if we do not 

 make a speciality of it ? I am sure it is not farming. Be- 

 ing merchants, or school-teachers, or any other business — 

 ■we need to put our whole soul into any work we wish to 

 make a success of, and push, and push, and push. 



This is why some succeed and others fail. They simply 

 play at work, and at every little failure will give it up and 

 try something else. If one makes a speciality of his bee- 

 work he will see to it that his bees are kept in good condi- 

 tion, so that they can take advantage of every honey-flow ; 

 he will see that there is no spraying of fruit-trees done in 

 the neighborhood while the trees are in blossom, as spray- 

 ing fruit-trees while in blossom will surely kill bees, and so 

 depopulate the hives as to cause the colonies to be so weak 

 that they cannot build up into strong colonies in time to 

 gather a crop of honey when it does come, as it is strong 

 colonies that gather a surplus of honey, and weak colonies 

 get but little more than a living, and often not that. 



BEES A BENEFIT TO FRUIT MEN. 



It seems a pity that there should be any friction between 

 bee-keepers and horticulturists. If there is any difference 

 it is the horticulturists that are more benefitted by bees than 

 bee-keepers being benefitted by fruit. Bees do get a little 

 honey from fruit-bloom, hence they may be poisoned when 

 spraying is done, while the trees are in blossom ; but most 

 fruits are an injury to bees. It is almost universally 

 acknowledged that the bees flitting from flower to flower 

 carry the pollen, and thus cause the trees and bushes to 

 have more and finer fruits. 



Horticulturists and bee keepers should be firm friends, 

 and thus help each other, and if losses do occur, to help each 

 other bear the losses. If the bees seem to be hard on their 

 neighbors' vineyard, let the bee-keeper be generous with his 

 honey, and also the owner of the vineyard gather his grapes 

 as soon as ripe and not leave them longer to crack open and 

 thus tempt the bees, as bees never bother sound grapes. If 

 both bee-keepers and hortrculturists would vie with each 

 other to make the injury light, and overlook what cannot be 

 avoided, or do as they would wish to be done by, there 

 would be no need of resorting to law. Honey is a wonder- 

 ful sweetener ! 



BEE-KEEPING FOR INVALID LADIES. 



There are many households where there are sick daugh- 

 ters that might be greatly benefitted if they would take 

 more out-of-door exercise ; and if they could be presented 



with a colony of bees, or even given the profit from one or 

 more colonies, it would give them new life. If once they 

 could be induced to study the bee, they would find it so won- 

 derful that many hours could be profitably passed in study- 

 ing the mysteries of the hive and its wonderful inmates, 

 and soon new life would come to the sick one in forgetting 

 self, and in the prospect of earning a little fortune from the 

 care of the busy bee. And when the bright, sunny hours of 

 spring come, and the bees with their happy hum are flitting 

 from flower to flower, the sick one would be induced to go 

 out-of-doors and forget self and the many aches, as nothing 

 is so conducive to health as to forget self and become in- 

 tensely absorbed in something else, especially if one can see 

 there is profit in it ; and if one is so desirous of health that 

 he or she will endure a little hardship in the way of working 

 with bees, even if it does tire them some, and will grin and 

 bear the stings, if they get any, as stings are a wonderful 

 tonic — a summer thus passed may brown the face some and 

 discolor the hands somewhat, but it cannot fail to bring 

 more roses to the cheeks and a brightness to the eye, and 

 give elasticity to the step, and an appetite that had before 

 been a stranger to them. Never mind if the clothes do get 

 somewhat soiled, it is "clean dirt ; " and if you get too tired 

 to walk, just lie down on the " soft side of a board " any- 

 where, if it is out-of-doors, or on the green grass, if the 

 ground is warm and dry ; and then look at the bees as they 

 labor so earnestly to do their best, which they always do. I 

 am sure, ere many weeks have passed the sick one will be 

 on the highway to health, if not already there. 



Warren Co., 111. 



Foul Brood— Its Alarming Spread, Etc. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I have lately been reading reports of foul brood, and of 

 the number of colonies treated in different States by a num- 

 ber of foul-brood inspectors. The last in my hands is the 

 Colorado report, made to the Secretary of the State Associa- 

 tion by a number of County inspectors, and published in the 

 "Rocky Mountain Bee Journal " for January, 1902. These 

 reports make me feel very much behind the times, for after 

 some 33 years of active bee-keeping, and a good portion of 

 the time on a large scale, I have yet to see the first case of 

 foul brood, not only in our own yards, but also in any yard 

 that I have visited from time to time. My father, whose ex- 

 perience goes back some 20 years farther, also says that he 

 has never seen a case of foul brood. It is true that we have 

 had, occasionally, especially in early spring, a case of dead 

 brood, generally caused by spring-dwindling, or by the 

 desertion of the bees, but this accidental dying of brood was 

 easily ended by the prompt burying of the dead brood, 

 which removed all danger. 



But here is a report that astounds me. According to 

 this report, in the State of Colorado, in 1900, out of 7'i52 colo- 

 nies inspected 799, or a little overten percent, were founddis- 

 eased. In 1901, out of 13,131 colonies inspected, 804 were 

 found diseased, or a little over sis percent. Just think of it! 



I take it for granted that not all the bees in those coun- 

 ties were examined, for that would be a terrible condition, 

 if that percent of all the bees were infected with foul brood. 

 But the report does not say anything about the probable 

 number of colonies in the country, and we are led to infer 

 that the number mentioned covers all the bees in that por- 

 tion of the country. It seems to me that a more detailed 

 statement ought to be published. For instance, the report 

 ought to state in how many apiaries the disease is found, 

 where they were located, how many apiaries were found im 

 mune ; and, if any apiaries were not examined, how many 

 of these, and the reason why they were not examined. The 

 probable number of colonies in the State ought to be em- 

 bodied in the foul-brood report, so that strangers reading 

 such a report may not be led to believe that this contagion 

 is spread all over the State. 



The reason that prompts me to ask this, is that the 

 plain report, as printed in the journal, will give foreigners 

 a very bad idea of the condition of bee-culture in the States 

 where such reports are printed. 



It seems to me that it would be well, also, that the local- 

 ities where the disease is raging with the greatest vehemence 

 be'mentioned in the report, so that bee-keepers should avoid 

 buying bees, or honey for feeding, from those localities 

 K«?z7 i/n' disease has been conquered. 



A contagious disease should be treated as all contagions 

 are — by a prompt and effective quarantine. This quarantine 

 will be in the interest of the affected apiaries themselves, 



