48 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAt 



February 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=S Established by Samuel Wagner In 1861 C= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. Consolidated with The 

 National Bee Journal in 1874. 



Publiahed monthly at Hamilton, Illinoi*. 



Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



SuiscaiFTioN Rates— In the United SUtes and THE STAFF 



Mexico $1 per year; three years, »2^50; five (. p dad,„^ Editor 



years, $4. Canadian postage 16 cents, and 



other foreign countries 26 cents extra, per Frank C. Pkllett Associate Editor 



year. C. C. MiLLEK Questions Department 



All subscriptions.are ?«»P?'d at expiration Date j, ^ ^ Business Manager 



of expiration is pnntcd on wrapper iaoci. » 



(Copyright 1920 by C. P. Dadant.; 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Apiary Insurance 

 in Switzerland 



The Bulletin of the Romande So- 

 ciety of Beekeepers in Switzerland 

 gives, in its November number, an 

 account of the operation of the 

 German-Swiss insurance against 

 foulbrood. A detailed translation 

 would be too lengthy, but a few 

 facts will be of interest and may 

 suggest something to our beekeepers. 



The mutual insurance against foul- 

 brood in German Switzerland was 

 organized in September, 1907. In 

 1909, 7,000 members, owners of about 

 90,000 colonies, paid in indemnities 

 5,346 francs, or a trifle over $1,000. 

 In 1918, 13,660 beekeepers, owners of 

 146,000 colonies, paid 4,104 francs. In 

 ten years the insurance association 

 paid 32,000 francs. The cases of 

 foulbrood treated during that time 

 were about 1,000. The mode of treat- 

 ment consisted in what we call the 

 starvation method, putting the 

 swarm in an empty box for three 

 days, then hiving it on foundation. 

 The cost of insurance was 5 centimes 

 (one cent) per colony, per year. 



The Association received help 

 from the Federal Council through a 

 foulbrood law passed in 1909. It also 

 received scientific help from the Bac- 

 teriological Station of Liebefeld, 

 near Berne. 



The result was the entire abolition 

 of foulbrood in several of the Can- 

 tons. The Association has now a re- 

 serve fund of 20,940 francs. It pro- 

 poses to continue the work. 



Of course, Switzerland is a small 

 country, where the apiaries are small 

 and located at short distances from 

 one another. Control of diseases is 

 more feasible than in our country 

 of immense distances. But there is 



something enticing in the results ob- 

 tained. It is worth while for us to 

 ponder over this. 



Switzerland is the smallest and 

 the oldest republic. It remained at 

 peace, while surrounded on all sides 

 by warring nations. It can teach 

 them some good lessons. 



Good Samaritan Franco-Belgian 

 Fund — Fourth List 



Total of former lists $407.85 



M. H. Pierson, Dale, N. Y 1.00 



W. C. Furnas, Box 4, New Al- 

 bany, Ind. 2.00 



Edwin H. Grafton, 464 Hamil- 

 ton Ave., Trenton, N. J. 5.00 



Geo. E. Moss, Box 308, Souris, 



Manitoba 1.00 



J. Roscoe Miller, 1129 S. First 



Montrose, Colo. 10.00 



J. R. Case, Chico, Calif 5.00 



C. H. Stordock, Davis, 111. ... 5.00 



G. E. Lemon, Nash, Okla. 1.00 



Orange County Beekeepers' 



Club, Orange Calif. 25.00 



G. A. Barbish, La Crescent, 



Minn: ^ 2.00 



C. E. Foss, Alpine, Calif. 5.00 



Sergeant W. R. Blackett, 



Army Building, Omaha. 1.00 



C. W. Price, Spirit Lake, Iowa 5.00 

 Philadelphia Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation, J. R. Rambo, Secy.— 10.00 

 Marcus D. May, Hincsville, Ga. 5.00 

 F. E. Schriver, R. 3, Grafton, 



Ohio. 5.00 



VV. D. Wright, Altamont, N. Y. 10.00 

 Clyde Mawhinney, Ravena, 



Neb. 5.00 



\V. H. Baynes, Salem, Ind. 4.00 



Roderick Cameron, Decker 



Mich. 2.00 



Leo HofTstetter, Prairie City, 



Ore 1.00 



E. J. Bryant, 710 Walnut Ave., 



Elgin, 111. 2.00 



J. Mansfield, Elgin, 111. 1.00 



M. Moles, Elgin, 111. 1.00 



M. Salmond, Elgin, 111 .50 



A. Bloomfield, Marathon, la. .. 2.50 



Miss Annette Ozanneau, Keo- 

 kuk, Iowa 1.00 



Robert Elwell, Rohoboth, 



Mass. 2.00 



W. Muth-Rasmusscn, Indepen- 

 dence, Calif. 5.00 



H. D. Baker, Knappa, Ore. 2.00 



Jas. T. Fennell, 3rd and Arch 



Sts., Philadelphia 5.00 



Name not to be published 3.00 



Warren M. Fountain, Redding, 



Calif. 2.50 



Fred Hutching, 473 6th Ave., 



Milwaukee, Wis. 1.00 



J. W. Peterson, Box 139, R. 1, 



Puyallup, Wash. 1.00 



E. S. Smith, Westville, Ind 1.00 



W. P. Hainsworth, North An- 



dover, Mass. 1.00 



F. X. Arnold, Deer Plain, 111... 5.00 



Total to January 8, 1920 $554.35 



Added to queen subscription : 



Jay Smith, Vincennes, Ind 12 queens 



Much more cash should be sub- 

 scribed to help buy bees in Nether- 

 lands. 

 The following letter was received: 



I HEARTILY thank the eminent 

 chief editor for his philanthropic 

 ideas and warm zeal to carry 

 on the Franco-American union by a 

 call for subscriptions in favor of our 

 poor destroyed regions, to rebuild in 

 part the apiaries of northern France 

 and Belgium. 



Many years ago, in 1883, when I 

 was just back to the Orient, from 

 service in France, where I had hoped 

 to help recover the lost provinces of 

 Alsace-Lorraine, a beekeeping party 

 assembled at Beyrouth, at the foot 

 of the Lebanon. Most of the mem- 

 bers present have been long dead 

 and buried, but Frank Benton was 

 there and brought to our attention 

 American hives and instruments. 

 "Great streams from little fountains 



flow ; 

 Great oaks from little acorns grow." 



In that assembly of Druses, French, 

 Syrians, Greeks, Germans, Britons 

 and Americans, Americanism was 

 widely sown and American ideas 

 were introduced. 



You -Americans are great for pre- 

 paring machinery and supplying it to 

 us Old World people. Everyone re- 

 members that the Italo-Hungarian 

 Hruschka invented the honey ex- 

 tractor. But the Americans are the 

 great makers of extractors. Comb 

 foundation originated in Germany, 

 yet the Dadants, in .'\nicrica, are the 

 leaders in that jiroduction. It is the 

 same for all niachiiicry. 



The donations wliich you are now 

 making, of queens, money, hives, etc., 

 ill devastated Europe, will propa- 



