Vol. XIV. 



MAY 15, IH.S6. 



No. 10. 



TKUMS: Si.OOPkb VNNiTM, IN .VnVANCE;'! 17 .,+ t^l^l -! nT-, ^ rl V-n 1 Q 'y Q r Clnlis to different postofllces.KOTLKfS 



Jl>,>LClUllo/7/VCl' 0/0 JLO / O . \thnn90cts. e&ch. Sent postpaid. In the 



2aopiesfor«l.90;3for$2.75;5forS4.00, 

 10 or more. 7S ct?. each. Single Number 

 5 eta. Additions to clubs maybe made 



PUBLISHED SEMl-MONlllI.Y DY 



U. S. and Conadas. To all other eonn- 

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at club rates, .\bove are all to be sent ! » t -r>r\r\T^ tmitit^ttvta /"iTTT/-^ I per .vex r extra. To all countries not of 

 FICE. J A.i.itUUl, MJl,lJiiN A,UlilU. I theU.P.U.,42cperyear extra. 



TO ONE POSTOFFICE. 



JAMES HEDDON ON THAT WINTER- 

 ING PKOBLEM. 



EXPERIMENTS IN FAVOR OF SUG.Ml STORES. 



TT will 1)0 remembered that I have all along- de- 

 dlF clarcd that the prime cause of our great win- 

 ^l ter enemy, bcc-diarrhca, was concealed in their 

 ■*• food. Well, throu.uh the persuasion of Mr. Bar- 

 ber and other successful bee-kecpcrs I had al- 

 most made up raj' mind that possibly I was not al- 

 together right about the matter, and that tempera- 

 ture was about all wo need to look to; at least, I 

 hoped that this easy solution ol the difficulty might 

 prove true. Last fall 1 prepared for extensive tests 

 regarding the matter, and now I will state facts 

 relative to my experiments during the past two 

 winters, and let the reader draw Ills own conclu- 

 sions to suit his reason and understanding. 



Perhaps the reader will remember, that in the 

 fall of 1884 I placed in a damp cellar !U colonies, 73 

 of which had no natural stores of an.v sort (not a 

 cell of bee-bread), they having clear sugar syrup 

 fed into clean dry combs, while the other IH had a 

 part all natural stores, and a part a mi.vturo of 

 natural and artificial. The cellar was very damp- 

 so much so that mold and pools of water could be 

 seen about nearly every hive. About one-third of 

 the colonies had upward ventilation; the others, 

 only entrance ventilation. The cellar was allowed 

 to become very cold. For weeks the temperature 

 stood as low as 20°. Nearly every one of the 18 col- 

 onies on natural stores had bee-diarrhea, and the 

 73 on pure syrup came out, after a confinement of 

 151 daj'S, without any fecal accumulations whatever. 

 When they had their first flight, not a thing— not 

 even water— could be seen coming from them— not 

 a spot on any of the white hives. Here was cold 

 and humidity, but no fecal accumulations. From 

 one of the sick colonies (dead with bce-ijiarrhca) I 



took a sample of the excreta, and sent it to Prof . 

 Cook for chemical analysis. I also inclosed some 

 pollen from the comb contained in the frame from 

 whose top bar I took the exci-ela. The professor 

 answered as follows: "I have subjected the pollen 

 to a very careful examination with a one-sixth ob- 

 .leetive. I find several kinds of pollen grains, two 

 of which are by f;ir the most common. One is oval, 

 rather pointed at the ends, with a longitudinal slit 

 and numerous i>ro,jections; the other is globular, 

 and thickly set with projections much like those in 

 the other. I then studied the excreta; and had 

 some one else made the change, I should have 

 stoutly maintained that the objects were the same 

 that I had just studied. The kinds of pollen were 

 exactly the same in style and markings. The pol- 

 len you sent had been liberally appropriated by the 

 bees whose excreta you sent." 



Last fall I placed in a flilcd-wall, above-ground 

 repository (room 11X7X18 feet) 150 colonies, with 

 stores part natural, and part s.vrup. This house 

 was keiit at a temperature between 45 and 50°, and 

 no signs of the disease appeared till late in winter, 

 and, when taken out, no less than 25 to 30 colonies 

 had diarrhea to a greater or lesser extent. For 

 over three weeks, at one time, I maintained the 

 temperature by closing the room as tightly as good 

 carpenter-work and packing could make it; and 

 during all this dearth of " fresh air," the bees re- 

 mained (juiet antl in apparently perfect health. 

 Here at home I placed 3'jO colonics in two cellars, 

 one damp and the other very dry, the same as at 

 Glen wood. We endeavored to keep up the temper- 

 ture by tightly closing the rooms in the coldest 

 weather, and we did so with the new cellar; but 

 with the old one we failed, as at the back end there 

 was a hole between the old boards that we over- 

 looked, and never should 'have found, but that we 

 caught it nielting holes through the snow on the 



