92 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



brood is cropping out in different parts of the 

 country, as it seems to be doing ,of late, it is of 

 the utmost importance that we have necessary 

 laws providing for State inspectors to look aft- 

 er the disease, and hold it in check. Even if 

 foul brood has not gotten a start in your State 

 so far as you know, it would be a wise move to 

 secure such a law at the first opportunity, and 

 get ready for the disease when it does come. 

 If it never comes, no harm has been done ; but 

 if it does come, and you are not ready for it, 

 it is liable to do a great deal of harm before 

 you can get the necessary laws in motion that 

 will stamp the disease out, or at least hold it in 

 check. Wisconsin has a most admirable foul- 

 brood law ; and the one that it was proposed 

 to pass in- Michigan, and which they hope to 

 pass at the next session of the legislature, is 

 modeled after the Wisconsin law. Copies of 

 it may be obtained by those interested by ad- 

 dressing J. M. Rankin, Michigan Agricultural 

 College, Lansing, or N. E. France, Platteville, 

 Wisconsin. 



BLACK BROOD AND THE SYMPTOMS. 



I HAD intended for this issue to give a report 

 of the proceedings of the New York State 

 Association of Bee-keepers' Societies, held in 

 Geneva, Jan. 10 ; but the greater part of the 

 discussions related to the new bee disease or 

 malady that is now raging in Eastern New 

 York ; and although I took quite extended 

 notes, yet, after having received the report 

 from Dr. W. R. Howard, of his laboratory 

 work, which report seems to cover much of 

 the Geneva discussion, I have decided to omit 

 that part of my report, because Dr. Howard 

 takes up all of these matters from the stand- 

 point of the scientist who weighs carefully all 

 the evidence, and then, aided by his laboratory 

 and his microscope, gives his conclusions. I 

 will, however, give only a description of black 

 brood as was given by Inspector West, for that 

 may enable others to recognize the same trou- 

 ble that may possibly be in their vicinity. 

 Here are a few of the symptoms that Mr. West 

 gave : 



R'ght in the center of a larva three or four 

 da) s old, as it lies curled up in the bottom of 

 the cell, may be seen a very small yellow spot, 

 about like the head of a brass pin . This spot ap- 

 pears to be right in the center of the coil, for it 

 will be remembered that a three-days-old larva 

 lies curled up in a circle ; and it is in the mid- 

 dle of this circle, or what may be considered 

 the inside of the body, that the yellow spot is 

 found. But the larva is still alive, and will 

 continue to grow ; but the spot grows larger 

 until the larva begins to assume the color of a 

 dark-yellow or brown, when it dies. Some- 

 times the dead matter looks almost like white 

 glue ; but when the larva dies after it is capped 

 over, the matter will have a coffee color. It 

 ropes very slightly, and is of a water}- consist- 

 ency; but before it will rope at all it has to be 

 of the right age. When it is remembered that 

 it is only occasionally that this diseased matter 

 will rope, and that only very slightly, and that 

 foul brood invariably does so, the dead matter 

 stringing out sometimes two or three inches, it 

 will be seen there is quite a distinct difference. 



At its first appearance black brood has a sort 

 of sour smell, while foul brood has a foul or 

 sickening odor like that of a glue-pot. 



CARI, F. BUCK, AUGUSTA, KANSAS. 



The young man whose face is shown below, 

 who, although only 21 years of age, is bound 

 to make his mark in bee-keeping so far as it 

 relates to his own State, Kansas. Possessed 

 with a good education, gifted with a good deal 



of push and ambition, he is already pretty ex- 

 tensively engaged in bee-keeping ; and that 

 you may know he means business, I will state 

 that he has bought a carload of bee-keepers' 

 supplies, and paid for them. While he is ful- 

 ly able to hold his own, he is backed by con- 

 siderable property and by a step-father who is 

 one of the most prominent farmers in Butler 

 Co., Kansas. We are glad, therefore, to in- 

 troduce him to the bee-keepers of the West, 

 and^especially to those of Kansas. 



THE HOLLOW BATTEN ON HIVE-COVERS ; 

 WHO ORIGINATED IT? 



In our issue for Nov. 15, 1899, we illustrated 

 an improved form of the Higginsville cover, or 

 what we called our Excelsior, to distinguish it 

 from the Danzenbaker and other forms of cov- 

 ers. The improvement consisted in the use of 

 a hollow batten to cover the projecting shoul- 

 ders of the two side or gable boards and the 

 crack formed by them. There was no inven- 

 tion in this, and we did not claim it as such ; 

 for the scheme of a hollow batten as a ridge 

 piece on box cars and in building construction 

 is very old. We had not seen it in connection 

 with hive parts, and when we illustrated it we 

 supposed that we were the first to so use it. 

 But after it appeared in Gleanings, Mr. 

 Danzenbaker called our attention to the fact 

 that he had used a hollow metal batten, em- 

 bodying the same principle in his covers two 



