876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



down?" His reply was, "Well, I don't 

 know. I haven't had any melt down yet that 

 I know of." I replied, as the sun was scorch- 

 ing hot, "I'll bet all of those there have 

 broken combs in them," and, sure enough, all 

 of the fullest combs were down in a heap on 

 the bottom-bars of the frames — a mess fit only 

 for a solar wax-extractor in place of nice 

 combs well filled with honey ready for ex- 

 tracting. I began to raise covers and pull 

 them back, so as to catch end cleats on top of 

 hives at front end, thus giving room for a 

 small stream of air to pass between cover and 

 top of frames, making all safe. 



The friend in question remonstrated, saying 

 the robbers would eat them up. I replied by 

 applying the ventilating-process to so many 

 that, if the robbers ate them up, they would 

 have to eat them all up ; and, to my friend's 

 delight and surprise, the robbers did not try 

 to eat them all up, nor any of them, for that 

 matter. The flat cover is one of the best fea- 

 tures of the Root Dovetailed hive, because it 

 can be made cool in hot weather so easily, and 

 warm in cool weather; no blocks or wedges to 

 fuss with. The Root ten-frame Dovetailed 

 hive with flat covers is what I used at Jaruco, 

 Cuba, the winter that I took 2000 gallons of 

 honey from just an even 100 hives in (iO days. 

 I expect to beat that, now Cub i is free. 



I can hardly keep off that Jamaica man 

 Morrison, for running Cuba down and that 

 little isle up so; for I know something of both 

 places. I had four years' experience in Cuba. 



Navasota, Tex. 



HOW MUCH HEATING WILL MAKE FOUL- 

 BROODY HONEY SAFE TO FEED? 



Can we AiTord to Extract Foul-broody Combs? 

 Convenient Smoker-Hghters. 



BY DR. C. C. MIM.ER. 



Your footnote anent the matter of destroy- 

 ing foul-brood spores by boiling, Mr. Editor, 

 page 790, deserves very careful attention in 

 the way of reply. It would be a serious mat- 

 ter if a number of colonies should be diseased 

 because foul-broody honey had been fed to 

 them after being heated insufficiently. Critic 

 Taylor thinks 15 minutes' boiling is sufficient 

 to make such honey safe, and you found foul- 

 broody honey safe after being kept 10 or 15 

 minutes at 180°. We must be a little careful 

 about making negative testimony go too far. 

 Suppose that you and friend Taylor found no 

 evil results from feeding infected honey that 

 had been boiled 15 minutes. Suppose further 

 that twenty others corroborated your testimo- 

 ny. Then suppose that five other men found 

 the disease given by such honey after such 

 boiling. Would you advise me to go by the 

 testimony of the twenty-two or the five? Of 

 the five I feel pretty sure, for the chances 

 would be five to twenty-two that I should lose 

 by feeding such honey. 



You think it would be interesting to know 

 whether M. Genonceaux found spores still 

 alive after two hours and a quarter of boiling. 

 I don't know what experiments he made, or 



whether any; but I think I can refer you to 

 testimony from a trustworthy source as to ex- 

 periments that will pretty well settle that it is 

 not always safe to feed infected honey that 

 has been boiled only 15 minutes. 



In Dr. Wm. R. Howard's excellent little 

 treatise on foul brood, on page 20 he gives 

 Proposition VI., "That the vitality of the 

 spores of Bacillus alvei is not always destroy- 

 ed when exposed to a temperature approach- 

 ing 212° (boiling-point) for 45 minutes." He 

 put spores into tubes of liquid gelatine, and 

 thrust the tubes into boiling water. The con- 

 tents of the tubes would approach but not 

 quite reach the boiling point. Then he made 

 trial cultures on potato. From the tube that 

 had been in the boiling water fifteen minutes 

 he got growth in four out of five. In the tube 

 that had been plunged thirty minutes he got 

 growth iq one out of five; after forty five min- 

 utes, one out of five. After fifty minutes, 

 none. 



With that testimony it would hardly be safe 

 to advise less than fifty minutes' boiling. 



Later, experiments were made on a more 

 extensive scale by J. J. Mackenzie, Bacteriol- 

 ogist of the Provincial Board of Health, Onta- 

 rio, Canada, the result of these experiments 

 being quoted by Dr Howard, page 42, as the 

 work of "an exceedingly cartful observer." 

 Prof. Mackenzie saturated sterilized silk 

 threads with a beef -tea culture of Bacillus al- 

 vei in which there was a large number of 

 spores. The threads were dried, then heated 

 in wax. Heated to 212°, there was growth in 

 the different trials up to two hours' heating. 

 No growth was secured from spores that had 

 been kept at 212° for two and a half hours. 

 Kept at 198° for two hours there was growth, 

 but none after three hours. 



While not inclined to dispute in the least 

 that you may have safely fed infected honey 

 that had less than fifteen minutes' boiling, 

 with my present light I don't feel safe to ad- 

 vise any thing less than boiling two and a 

 half hours. 



A point of interest is that experiments made 

 by Prof. Mackenzie satisfied him that there 

 was no danger of foul brood from foundation, 

 and also that no spores float in the air. 



The spores will live for years. No amount 

 of freezing seems to hurt them, but exposure 

 to common air for 24 to 36 hours will destroy 

 their vitality. 



SAI^TPETER RAGS FOR SMOKER FUEL. 



J. W. C. Gray says: " I have had lots of 

 trouble in getting lasting fuel for my smoker," 

 and asks me to tell how I prepare saltpeter 

 rags for my smoker. With pleasure, friend 

 Gray. I think it quite likely you mean that 

 you have trouble in getting a lasting fire in- 

 stead of lasting fuel. For lasting fuel, it is 

 doubtful whether any thing easily obtained is 

 better than sound hard wood cut up in small 

 pieces. The objection is the labor of prepar- 

 ing it. Where trees are felled, or where wood 

 is chopped at a woodpile, you can generally 

 pick up chips that are all right. Such fuel 

 will last a long time, and, after the fire is fair- 

 ly started, it is not likely to go out if the smo- 

 ker is all right. 



