1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



691 



safe from injury as any section I know of; 

 and so long as these points hold good the 

 writer will use no other section than the plain, 

 and the fence separator, so long as he pro- 

 duces comb honey. We anchor our faith on 

 experience and its results, and not on theories 

 alone. 



Reinersville, O., July 23. 



[The contrast in the photo herewith repro- 

 duced is most striking. As strong an advo- 

 cate as I have been of fences, I can scarcely 

 believe that the difference, on the average, 

 would be so great as that shown. If all of the 

 honey had been produced in one colony the 

 test would be better; but I infer that each lot 

 of honey, 1, 2, and 3, was produced in as 

 many different colonies. There might have 

 been some difference in the bees; but whether 

 there was or not, it stands to reason that the 

 fence gives better ventilation, and, consequent- 

 ly, better and thicker ripening of the honey. 

 This would, in all probability, give whiter 

 cappings; but I should imagine the difference 

 would be so slight as to be almost inappreci- 

 able to the eye, or, at least, not nearly so 

 strong as that shown in the photo above. 



It is a fact, however, that all the fence 

 honey I have seen this year has been remark- 

 ably white and pretty, while a good deal of 

 that produced by the old-style solid separators 

 has been dark or discolored. If friend Golden 

 has any other reason why 1 and 2 should be 

 whiter than 3 we should be glad to hear from 

 him; but if the fence is at all responsible for 

 the difference, it must be because of the freer 

 ventilation afforded. — Ed.] 



FOUL BROOD IN NEW YORK. 



An Appalling State of Affairs. 

 BY F. BOOMHOWER. 



Dear Friend Ernest: — Your letter came to 

 hand, but I have not had time to answer be- 

 fore. The care of so many bees of our own, 

 together with the duties of foul-brood inspect- 

 or of this county, has taken so much time 

 that it has been hard work to find time to 

 write before this. We have had a few cases 

 of the disease in our home yard, and a few in 

 one of our yards out of town. At present we 

 have none that are diseased, but are fearful 

 that we shall have our hands full of it this 

 fall and next spring, as it has such a foothold 

 surrounding us. We have more fear of dis- 

 eased bees in the woods than we have from 

 outside yards, as we can control and destroy 

 diseased colonies in yards surrounding us, but 

 can't control those in the woods. All the bees 

 in the northwestern part of the county are 

 practically wiped out, as it got such a start, 

 having been running two years before I found 

 out that the disease existed. If I could have 

 known it in time, and had been inspector at 

 the start, I could have eradicated it before it 

 got such a start. All the bees in the vicinity 

 of Central Bridge, Esperance, Sloansville, 

 Carlisle and vicinity, are practically wiped 

 out. It has reached Montgomery Co. on the 



northwest and Schenectady on the northeast; 

 and unless we have a good hustling State in- 

 spector I don't know where it will end. The 

 trouble is, so many farmers keep a few bees, 

 and they don't care a straw for the practical 

 bee-keeper who makes it his whole business ; 

 and, of course, those who make it a business 

 have to suffer for the carelessness of the slip- 

 shod farmer bee-keeper, of which, I will say, 

 this State has more to the square mile than 

 any other four States in the Union. 



The farmers are very ignorant, and they 

 have it in their heads that it is only a trump- 

 ed-up idea of the practical bee-keeper to clear 

 the bees out of the countr)', so the larger 

 bee-keeper can control the territory and have 

 the whole business to themselves. 



F. luio.MiloWER. 



I find it about as dangerous to be inspector 

 as it is to go to battle in war. I have been 

 threatened with clubs and fence-stakes, and 

 even have had them come at me with shot- 

 guns; but I am still alive, and carry out my 

 examinations, and have compelled them to 

 abide by the law in every case. New York 

 needs a State inspector and a good law to 

 back him up; then we shall have no trouble. 

 Unless this is done the bee-keepers of this 

 State will find out that they will have to step 

 down and out for years to come. County in- 

 spection does not amount to much, as I will 

 venture to say that not one practical bee-keep- 

 er out of a thousand is qualified to act as in- 

 spector. I have been in yards that were run 

 by old experienced bee-keepers, and asked 

 them if they had foul brood, and they would 

 say, " No, sir; my bees are clear from the dis- 

 ease;" and upon examining them I would 

 find it spreading all through the yard. In 

 one case an old bee-keeper made complaint to 

 me that foul brood was among his neighbors' 

 bees, and wanted me to clean it up before it 

 got to his yard, as his bees were not affected. 

 I called upon him and asked him if he was 

 positive that the disease was not among his 



