1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



83 



Foulbrood Cure by Antiseptics 



Since we gave place to a recom- 

 mendation for antiseptics, in the 

 cure of foulbrood, by a bacteriologist 

 of Nice, on page 233 of our July 

 number, it is but right that we 

 should enter the complaint of two 

 parties who found the cure unsafe, 

 for it killed the bees as well as the 

 disease. The great stumbling block 

 in the way of antiseptics is to find 

 something that will kill bacilli and 

 spare the bees. We have much to 

 learn. 



A Letter From Mexico 



Urnapan, December 19, 1919. 



We wish you a happy new year. 

 I sent you a nest of small wasps, but 

 could not send the live wasps. I 

 hope you received the nest in good 

 shape. (Yes, it was very interest- 

 ing. — Editor.) 



You will be glad to hear that Me.x- 

 ico is slowly but steadily becoming 

 pacified. Villa is on his last re- 

 sources and many bandit chiefs have 

 been killed or have surrendered. In 

 this state — Michoacan — they have 

 killed two bandits who were commit- 

 ting depredations in the "hot-lands." 

 If things keep on improving you 

 might be able to pay us a visit safely 

 in a year or so. 



While you are suffering under 18 

 inches of ice, the orange trees are be- 

 ginning to bloom here and the bees 

 work from daylight till dark. Their 

 supers are beginning to fill. I send 

 you a few violets picked in the court- 

 yard of our factory. 



The bee disease of which I have 

 spoken in a previous letter to you is 

 the "disappearing disease." The 



bees become shiny, beat their wings 

 feebly and drop in the grass. When- 

 ever they are able to discharge the 

 fetid matter which is contained in 

 their abdomens, they get well. The 

 trouble lasts but a few days. I 

 propose to study it next year it it 

 comes again. 



Our local factory of cotton tissues, 

 in which I am bookkeeper and assist- 

 ant manager, employs 200 hands. We 

 manufacture goods only for local 

 consumption. 



Accept our best wishes. 



P. PROVENSAL. 



Spacing Wires 



We call the attention of our read- 

 ers again to the articles in the Febru- 

 ary number dealing with the subject 

 of comb foundation and its wiring 

 to secure perfect combs. These arti- 



cles have called forth considerable 

 criticism and we have had some in- 

 quiry as to how the new method of 

 wiring succeeds. The placing of the 

 first two wires very near the top-bar 

 was first suggested by Mr. J. E. 

 Crane, who is known by all as a large 

 and thoroughly reliable beekeeper. 

 Mr. Crane stated that he had had no 

 trouble whatever with sagging since 

 using this method. This method has 

 also been tried in the Dadant apiaries, 

 and with success. Through our sug- 

 gestion, the Lewis Company, at con- 

 siderable expense, have readjusted 

 their machinery so that all of their 

 frames will be sent out henceforth 

 under this new plan. We have no 

 doubt but that it will mean many per- 

 fect combs if the wires are put in 

 carefully and cemented into the foun- 

 dation by a good imbedder. 



We believe that after sufficient 

 trial by the beekeepers they will de- 

 mand that their frames come wired 

 in this manner and that within a 

 short time all manufacturers will 

 have changed their methods of wir- 

 ing to conform to this. 



Death of a Lady Beekeeper 

 of International Fame 



We are in receipt of a letter from 

 our old friend, the well-known writer 

 and editor, Thos. Wm. Cowan, of 

 England, informing us of the death, 

 on January 1, of Mrs. Therese Ber- 

 trand, widow of the once editor of 

 the Revue Internationale d'Apicul- 

 ture," of Geneva, Switzerland. Prob- 

 ably few of our readers know of this 

 estimable and talented lady, who for 

 years worked with her husband, both 

 in keeping bees and in editing valu- 

 able works on bees. 



The daughter of parents who were 



both famous in literary circles, Mrs. 

 Bertrand labored with zeal for the 

 promotion of progressive beekeeping 

 on the Continent. She was a linguist 

 and often translated articles for pub- 

 lication. The January number of the 

 Bulletin de la Suisse Romande pub- 

 lishes the translation of an article 

 from the American Bee Journal, upon 

 which she must have worked only a 

 few weeks before her death. 



Mrs. Bertrand was also known for 

 her great heart and her devotedness 

 to the cause of humanity. In 1914, 

 when 72 years old, she volunteered, 

 with 1,200 other Swiss women, to or- 

 ganize the International Red Cross 

 Prisoners' Agency, which located the 

 fate of 83,000 men in the early part 

 of the war, when other services were 

 not yet fully organized. 



Those who have the files of 

 American Bee Journal since 1913 can 

 find mention of the Bertrands in Oc- 

 tober, 1913; May and October, 1914; 

 April, 1915 and March and June, 1917, 

 when Mr. Bertrand died. The leading 

 book of the Bertrands, "Conduite du 

 Rucher" (Management of the Api- 

 ary), was translated into seven differ- 

 ent languages. It expounds the 

 American systems for European use. 



Mrs. E. Bertrand. 



Harmony 



There was a time when bitter 

 words passed between American writ- 

 ers on bees, because they could not 

 agree. There has been a little of this 

 in the British Bee Journal, and a 

 writer in that magazine for January 

 8 writes : 



"What is wrong with beekeeping, 

 or rather with beekeepers? We have 

 had teacup storms about rival anti- 

 septics, skeps, the price of bees, the 

 standard frame, and now legislation, 

 the last of which can only be settled, 

 if we are to take some writers seri- 

 ously, by burning the editors on a 

 pyre of the Journal. 



"What is the matter? Has a long 

 course of acid injections from our lit- 

 tle six-legged friends worked in some 

 of our bee masters a change for the 

 worse? Or is it that they have for- 

 gotten that conditions vary in nearly 

 every apiary, and that no two bee- 

 keepers' requirements can ever be 

 exactly alike?" 



These are wise words. Many times 

 people disagree because their experi- 

 ences are different and they cannot 

 understand that the other fellow sim- 

 ply sees things from another angle. 

 Let us be patient and cheerful with 

 each other. W^e have seen enough 

 of war. Life is too short to wrangle. 



