394 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



■R) Established by Samuel Wagner in 186 1 C? 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



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



^UBscRiFTLON Kates — In the United States, 



Mexico and Canada. $1.60 per year; five 



years, $6. Other foTeign countries, postage 



25 cents extra per year 

 All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 



of expiration is printed on wrapper label. 



(Copyright 1921 by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE STAFF 



C. P. Dadant Editor 



Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



Maurice G. Dadant Business Manager 



THE EDITORS' VIEWPOINTS 



Mixed Infection in 

 Brood Diseases 



A reprint from the Journal of Eco- 

 nomic Entomology, in the shape of a 

 bulletin, is on our desk. It 1.3 by Dr. 

 Sturtevant, who works with Dr. Phil- 

 lips at the Bureau of Entomology of 

 Washington. 



Dr. Sturtevant is undoubti?dly cor- 

 rect when he says that "mixed or 

 double infection is more probable 

 than had previously been supposed." 

 Double infection, in Europe as well as 

 in this country, is responsible for 

 many errors made in diagnosis as 

 well as in treatment. Probably the 

 error of Cheshire, in describing the 

 symptoms of one of the brood dis- 

 eases, while giving the proper treat- 

 ment for the other, was due to double 

 infection. The reprint in question 

 mentions only 38 cases of double in- 

 fection, recognized at headquarters, 

 among 7,568 different samples, re- 

 ceived from 1911 to 1920, and from 

 13 different States. Illinois is not 

 among them; yet we recall several in- 

 stances where the statement made by 

 the Illinois beekeeper could be ex- 

 plained only by the existence of 

 mixed infection of European and 

 American foulbrood. 



As Dr. Sturtevant says: "Since the 

 requirements of the treatment of the 

 two diseases are so entirely different, 

 the necessity for correct diagnosis be- 

 comes important." Indeed the nut- 

 ter is of great impoi-tance, and it is 

 so much more necessary that samples 

 of diseased brood should be ftrward- 

 ed to headquarters at Washington, 

 whenever the diagnosis is not posi- 

 tive. 



An International Congress 



The second International Congress 

 of Comparative Pathology is to meet 

 in Rome, September 20, 1922, and 

 among the 21 questions to be dis- 

 cussed, the diseases of the honeybees 

 are listed, with our editor as the ex- 

 pected author of the opening nddress 

 on this subject. 



The questions to be brought to the 

 attention of the scientists at this Con- 

 gress embrace all sorts of diseases of 

 man and animals, from cancer in hu- 

 man beings to cattle, poultry and silk 

 worm diseases. It also includes bac- 

 teriology and parasites in the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom; manges, phylloxera, etc. 



The announcements are forwarded 

 by Dr. E. Perroncito, 40 Corso Valen- 

 tino, Turin Italy, who is one of the 

 active officials in charge of this Con- 

 gress. Dr. Perroncito is a beekeeper 

 of note in Italy. 



Sweet Clover and Lime in Illinois 



"When the lime and sweet clover 

 are properly used on such soil as the 

 blow sand lands in Henderson County, 

 the crop yield may easily be doubled," 

 says Professor H. J. Snider, of the 

 University of Illinois. His s*^r>.tement 

 is of general interest because of the 

 vast stretches of sand land in this 

 State, particularly along the Missis- 

 sippi, Illinois, Wabash and other riv- 

 ers, and in other States as well. 



In 1914 the University of Illinois 

 began extensive experiments tn a 20- 

 acre tract of blow sand in Henderson 

 County, to determine the fertility 

 needs of this type of farm land. Re- 

 sults at the end of six years show 

 that an application of four tons of 

 limestone per acre is the fint essen- 

 tial to reclaiming the land. Lime- 

 stone, however, is no less essential 

 than sweet clover, grown as i, t-een 

 manure crop. 



"Alfalfa does exceedingly -veil on 

 this land when once it is properly 

 started," added Professor Snider. 

 "On lime land the yields have been 

 as high as 4V2 tons of hay p.^r acre." 



The University found that lye does 

 well on this type of land, also, fn 

 1920, untreated land yielded 13 

 bushels of rye, while land wnich had 

 received lime and sweet clover treat- 

 ment yielded 29 bushels. 



understand the nature of bee diseases 

 or their treatment, the effect of much 

 of this publicity is to create a preju- 

 dice against the use of honey. A 

 clipping has recently reached the ed- 

 itor's desk which makes the state- 

 ment that "a campaign is on to 

 clean up the bee diseases that con- 

 taminate honey." Such a statement 

 can serve only to make the readers 

 who are unfamiliar with hont y afraid 

 to buy it, for no one want^ to eat 

 contaminated honey. If all the facts 

 could be clearly stated, so that it 

 would be understood that honey is 

 not in the least injured for human 

 food by the presence of bee diseases, 

 perhaps no harm would be done. 



After reading a batch of several 

 hundred such clippings, many of 

 which contain absurd statements, one 

 cannot but feel that much of the pub- 

 licity concerning bee diseases is hav- 

 ing a bad effect on the market by 

 frightening the consumer. 



The following is another sample, 

 from the New York Tribune of 

 July 24: 



"The purposes of the census is to 

 have on hand data to enable the ag- 

 riculturists to stamp out a disease 

 that contaminates honey and is liable 

 to be given to persons addicted to the 

 use of that product." 



In this case the direct statement is 

 made that the malady is likely to be 

 contracted by persons using the 

 honey. In most cases such state- 

 ments do not appear, but the reader 

 is likely to draw such an inference 

 from the manner in which the infor- 

 mation is given. 



Law Concerning Honey 



The French Congress has followed 

 the example of the United St.-ites, in 

 its pure food law, by adopting a de- 

 cree which forbids the use of the 

 word "honey" for anything but pure 

 bees' honey. That is right, "honey" 

 is an attractive word and should bo 

 retained to denominate only the prod- 

 uct of the bees gathered rom the 

 flowers. Otherwise, we would be per- 

 mitting it to bo "deflowered." 



Undesirable Publicity 



There is entirely too much general 

 publicity given to the subject of bee 

 diseases in the newspapers. Owing 

 to the fact that the public does not 



A Correction 



In our August issue, in the list of 

 subscribers to the Dr. Miller Memorial 

 Fund, we gave credit to Chas. F. Ho- 

 ser for a contribution of $25. This 

 should properly have been credited to 

 the Montgomery County, Penna., 

 Beekeepers' Association, of which Mr. 

 Hoser is secretary. 



Beekeeping Tenth 

 in Wisconsin 



Beekeeping now ranks tenth in im- 

 portance of agricultural industries in 

 Wisconsin, according to the census. 

 It is the opinion of Prof. H. F. Wil- 

 son, in charge of bee culture at the 

 State University at Madison, that it 

 will soon outrank some of the other 

 pursuits and become fifth or sixth in 

 importance. 



Bee Poison as a Medicine 



Some of the magazines are ridicul- 

 ing the idea of the poison of the bee 

 being of any benefit in curing rheu- 

 matism. It has been tried and failed, 

 they say. True, in many instances. 

 But rheumatism may be caused by a 

 number of different condition:;. Is it 

 not possible that, although some 

 cases of rheumatism are entirely re- 

 fractory to such treatment, others 

 are conquered by it? Too many 

 cases have been quoted of successful 

 treatment to permit the absolute 

 condemnation of this remedy. Read 

 the article on page 358 concerning 

 the sting cure. 



