1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



189 



make this suggestion with no feeling of ex- 

 ultation over the waning strength of the old 

 Union, and of its probable demise, but on the 

 score of economy and expediency. 



That old war-horse, who has truly rendered 

 such valiant service in the old Union, should 

 certainly be an officer in the new organization. 

 For fifteen years he has been at the head of 

 the old Union, being unanimously elected 

 each year. As he is growing in years it is not 

 a wonder that he should feel that he has done 

 his duty. 



But amalgamation can not be effected by 

 "mere talk" on the part of bee-journals. 

 Those who are officers of one organization are, 

 in part, officers of the other. If the Advisory 

 Board of the National and the Executive 

 Board of the U. S. B. K. U. recommend amal- 

 gamation, then the question can be voted on 

 at the following elections of each Union. 



It seems to me simple, easy, and the only 

 thing to do. 



FOUL-BROODY HONEY; HOW LONG SHOULD IT 

 BE BOILED TO RENDER IT STERILIZED ? 



Some little time ago, as our readers will re- 

 member, Dr. Miller criticised my statement to 

 the effect that only a few minutes' boiling 

 would be necessary to kill the germs of foul 

 brood in honey. In this opinion I was backed 

 by R. L. Taylor, who has had a very large ex- 

 perience with foul brood. But Dr. Miller, 

 nothing daunted, finally confronted me with 

 the names of several scientists; among others, 

 that of Dr. W. R. Howard, of Fort Worlh, 

 Texas; Bacteriologist J. J. McKenzie, of On- 

 tario, Canada, and a Frenchman by the name 

 of Genonceaux, whose experiments w-ent to 

 show conclusively, in his opinion, that boiling 

 honey even 45 minutes did not necessarily kill 

 the spores of Bacillus alvei. He further stat- 

 ed that they found that in some instances it 

 required even two and a half hours to render 

 honey tainted with the microbes of foul brood 

 innoxious. This staggered me somewhat, but I 

 was not then willing to give up, because I in- 

 sisted that practice was at variance with 

 science; that I never knew of a case where 

 honey from a badly affected colony, boiled 

 only a few minutes, ever gave rise to the dis- 

 ease in a healthy colony fed with it. Then I 

 offered this challenge: That, if there was just 

 one instance where a practical man found that 

 a few minutes' boiling was insufficient to kill 

 the germs, I would give up. This challenge 

 was accepted by J. A. Buchanan, a man whom 

 I regard as careful and conscientious. He 

 placed before me (see Gleanings, page 48) a 

 certain array of facts from his own experience 

 that convinced me that the scientists were 

 right. Later on, a letter from another bee- 

 keeper confirmed the statement made by Mr. 

 Buchanan, but this letter has been mislaid, 

 and I have not been able to find it, so I can 

 not present it to our readers. 



Critic Taylor, of the Bee-keepers" Review, 

 after considering all of this, characterizes my 

 change of front as " hasty and ill considered;" 

 that " the evidence " of my own " senses " is 

 "a thousand times better than that drawn 

 from some case of which nothing is known 



concerning the care or skill used." He calls 

 attention to the fact that scientists are not in- 

 fallible, and in evidence of this he refers to 

 the discussion of years ago on the question of 

 spontaneous generation — a theory that has 

 since been thoroughly exploded; and, more- 

 over, he is surprised that I should so hastily 

 recant my former opinion " without raising 

 any question of skill or care on the evidence 

 of this single case." 



Of course, Mr. Taylor did not know of this 

 other letter, not published ; and my own ex- 

 cuse for a change of opinion is that it is safer 

 to err on the side that a few minutes' boiling 

 is insufficient ; that, if there was any possible 

 doubt (and I certainly think there is good 

 ground for it), we should take that side which 

 we know to be safe, and I therefore felt im- 

 pelled to recommend a boiling of at least three 

 hours. 



I have just reread the article by J. A. Bu- 

 chanan, of whose " skill and care " in making 

 the experiments under consideration Mr. Tay- 

 lor has some doubt. To me there is every evi- 

 dence of precaution on his part. If he were a 

 bee-keeper comparatively unknown we might 

 accept his statements with a grain of salt. 

 But he is an old bee-keeper of considerable 

 prominence, and one whose opinions I have 

 learned to respect. But Mr. Buchanan is back- 

 ed by that one whose letter I have mislaid, 

 and by the three scientists. And it is worthy 

 of note that these three men of science live in 

 three different countries, one of whom, at 

 least, was, I believe, entirely ignorant of the 

 work of the others. As their scientific exper- 

 iments are backed by the actual experience of 

 one (and possibly two) practical bee-keepers I 

 believe I was wholly justified in recanting 

 in the wholesale manner I did. 



Later. — Since writing the foregoing I have 

 found two articles that I think explain why 

 boiling in one case 10 minutes maybe suffi- 

 cient, and why in another 40 minutes may 

 not be enough. I'll give them next time. 



REPORTS FAVORABLE IN REGARD TO WINTER- 

 ING. 



Right after our last issue was out, the one 

 in which I expressed fears that the prevailing 

 low temperature throughout the country 

 would be the means of killing half the bees, 

 warm weather came on — so warm, indeed, that 

 the bees in our locality had nice cleansing 

 flights. Up to date we find we have lost only 

 three colonies, out of a total of 252 colonies. 

 The rest are in ordinarily good condition. But 

 reports from all portions of the country are 

 uniformly favorable; and the only reason I 

 can assign why the bees did not die off worse 

 is because a change of weather came just in 

 time to give the bees a chance to turn over — 

 i. e., seek a new position on the combs. The 

 cold spell, as severe as it was, did not continue 

 long enough to do much damage. 



In our last issue we promised to give in this 

 number a letter from Mr. Uglow relative to 

 getting Apis dorsata from the Philippines; but 

 our space is so crowded that we shall have to 

 leave said article over till March 15. 



