224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. i5 



A lot of empty hives in the honey-house 

 looked as if they had seen service, and I asked 

 Mr. Jackson about them. 



" Oh, yes ! these all had bees in when this 

 foul brood made its appearance. Had I known 

 what was the matter at first I should have had 

 300 colonies by this time." 



"You had about 85 colonies, didn't you ? " 



" Yes; about 100 at one time." 



"When did you discover they had foul 

 brood ? ' ' 



" In 1893 I saw there was something wrong. 



Prof. said it was not foul brood. Then 



Mr. said foul brood could not live in 



this climate when the honey is extracted, so I 

 was ruined before I knew the real cause. Let's 

 go out to the apiary." 



The first hive opened had a dark-brown sed- 

 iment deposited on the alighting-board. The 

 bees seemed to have suffered greater mortality 

 than the brood. The few remaining bees 

 seemed to be in fair spirits. Eggs were being 

 laid in very irregular order. Perhaps one- 

 tenth of the" brood had pin-holes, sometimes 

 near the center of the cell, and sometimes 

 near the edge, of various forms and sizes; but 

 the term pin-hole would describe them as well 

 as any name, perhaps. The contents ranged 

 from yellow to black, and had the usual ropy 

 consistency. A few cells had fine coffee- 

 grounds (spores). Some cells in all stages 

 were without perforations. 



Of the 31 colonies there, 17 were condemn- 

 ed early in August by the newly appointed In- 

 spector of apiaries. Late in September the 

 bees were in about the same condition, appar- 

 ently, except that fewer diseased larvae were 

 visible. Perhaps it was because the malady 

 was generally in the spore state, and the spores 

 were covered with honey. 



So much blundering, and more that I might 

 mention, has convinced me that, to knozv of 

 the presence of foul brood, it is far safer to see 

 the offending organisms with a microscope. 

 I am convinced that, in our dry climate, the 

 odor is not nearly so pronounced as else- 

 where. 



How many times must a glass magnify to 

 reveal Bacillus alveif In reply to the above, 

 a celebrated scientist and apiarist said a one- 

 fourth objective would do if the brood was 

 stained. Having something definite, my next 

 move was to ask an enterprising optician the 

 price of such an instrument. He explained 

 that an objective was part of a microscope, as 

 tugs are of harness; but he could not tell me 

 what was needed, and referred me to a local 

 scientist with a $2000 library, who referred me 

 back to the optician. 



Mr. Cowan could certainly tell; but I would 

 about as soon go to bed without supper as to 

 ask him. Cheshire discovered the spores with 

 a 500-diameter magnifier ; but the catalogs 

 don't say how many times their glasses mag- 

 nify. The Rootville folks certainly " don't 

 know " or they would say so in their catalog, 

 giving price and general description, otherwise 

 I would ask them. 



Many people still believe that a dry climate 

 and honey-extractor are the only medicines 

 needed to cure Bacillus alvei. Mr. Jackson is 



not in that list. As the disorder is not stamp- 

 ed out yet, some others may take his view. 

 Grayson, Cal., Jan. 11. 



[I wish you had told the name of the pro- 

 fessor who gave that bad advice. As it now 

 stands, one would infer that it is our own Prof. 

 Cook, and I can not believe that he would be 

 so careless or so mistaken as to say that one 

 did not have foul brood in his apiary when he 

 did. My advice, when samples have been 

 submitted to me, has been this: If I am doubt- 

 ful, I recommend treatment for foul brocd just 

 the same as if I were sure it was the real dis 

 ease. 



I can not think it is necessary to have a mi- 

 croscope to determine whether one has foul 

 brood or not. A person who is inexperienced 

 in handling such an instrument would be more 

 likely to make an incorrect diagnosis than if 

 he trusted to his simple unaided eye or nose. 



With regard to microscopes, I might say 

 that I am not without some experk-nce. I 

 used one so much that I fear that is one reason 

 why I have to wear glasses now. In fact, I 

 spent so much time with my microscope that 

 I almost neglected my regular school studies ; 

 but at that time the appearance of foul brood 

 was hardly known under the microscope; and 

 although I have since seen it, I would not, 

 with all the experience I have had, be prepar- 

 ed to say that I could surely identify it if I 

 saw it under the field of the objective. 



Speaking about microscopes, one can hard- 

 ly get a good one short of forty or fifty dollars 

 — one that would be suitable for looking at 

 foul-brood germs. I have the impression that 

 a % objective may be used, but a ^ lens I 

 think would be better. A good objective 

 might cost $25 or $30 ; and from that on one 

 can go as high as he has a mind to pay. Unless 

 one has spent years in the study of the minute 

 forms of life, he had better let the microscope 

 alone. But let me tell you I never enjoyed 

 any study more than that of microscopy. — 

 Ed.] 



RAMBLE 163. 



Two is Company, Three is None ; How Bill Greene 

 was Quite Undone. 



BY RAMBLER. 



As I wheeled along to Medford I was favor- 

 ably impressed with this portion of Oregon. 

 It is a fine dairy country. The well-built 

 nicely painted farmhouses, the large barns, 

 the contour of the country, and the herds of 

 dairy cattle feeding on a thousand hills, re- 

 minded me strongly of my native New York 

 State. If we could drop a portion of this 

 (Jackson) county down in a dairy section in 

 New York, and remove a like chunk from 

 New York for the time being, the people 

 would hardly know the difference. It seemed 

 to me that the people were committing a 

 very unreasonable and wicked thing to com- 

 plain as they did of hard times. While in 

 Southern California the dry season had all 

 things in its grip, and there was some reason 



