1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



Hereafter the new organization will be 

 known as the National Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion—a two-in-one strong organization with a 

 membership of toward 500, and between |500 

 and $700 in its treasury. It has already begun 

 in the matter of prosecuting adulterators of 

 honey, and will very likely in the near future 

 have some startling developments to make, of 

 work done. The organization is growing to 

 be mighty, and its influence has been and 

 will be a power for good ; but it can not fight 

 adulterators successfully unless it has a larger 

 amount in the treasury. Send one dollar, and 

 so help along the good work. 



CAMERAS FOR TAKING HALF-TONES. 

 The editor of the Bee keepers" Revieiv, in 

 his January issue, in speaking about cameras 

 for taking pictures, says : 



Pictures taken by the ordinary kodak, so called, 

 are of but little value for use in taking half-tones. 

 The greatest trouble is, there is no way for getting a 

 sharp focus. The lens is the kind that is called a uni- 

 versal focus, which means that, whether the object be 

 near or far away the picture thrown on the plate or 

 film will hft passably sharp, but that is all. To do real- 

 ly fine work, you need a camera that has an adjusta- 

 ble focus, so you can throw a focusing-cloth ovt r your 

 head, and, by observing the image thrown on the 

 ground glass, adjust the focus so that the particular 

 object that you wish to show is brought out with gieat 

 sharpness and distinctness. 



Bro. Hutchinson seems to have gotten a 

 wrong impression of a kodak. Only a few of 

 the cameras bearing that name are of the fixed- 

 focus type ; but their pictures are very sharp — 

 much better than " pissably sharp." But 

 those of the adjustable-focus type of the same 

 grade, and wi'.h the same stop, give no better 

 results. There are high-grade kodaks of both 

 kinds, and eiiher gives the same sharpness of 

 detail. Why, the smallest pocket size of fix- 

 ed focus with a picture 1 >4 X 2 will make a pic- 

 ture so sharp that it can be enlarged to 10 X 12 

 inches. The sharpness of detail is dependent, 

 not on the fixed or adjustable focus, but upon 

 the price paid. All instruments bearing the 

 name " Kodak " are of the highest grade. 



There is this trouble with an adjustable fo- 

 cus : A person does not always get it set right. 

 If the focus is universal, he is apt to get the 

 very best the camera can give. But there is 

 not a camera sold by the Eastman Co. but has 

 " stops " by which the focus can be sharpened; 

 and when time views are taken, some very 

 clear effects can be secured by the kodak, 

 with the advantage that every thing is in fo- 

 cus. I have one of the best Eastman kodaks 

 that can be bought. It has an adjustable fo- 

 cus for objects nearer than 50 feet ; and the 

 lens, of the iris-diaphram principle, is so con- 

 structed that it can be stopped down from Yz 

 inch to i^g, or what is called 128. It has ground 

 glass and plate attachment as well as a day- 

 light reloading-film device. Taking it all in 

 all, it has the advantages of adjustable-focus 

 instruments with dry-plate ground-glass at- 

 tachments, and of the band camera for taking 

 snap shots of the highest order. The lens is 

 so high grade that, even with a wide opening, 

 and a snap-shot at that, I can get a good sharp 

 picture ; but let me say that some of the very 

 best ones I took were instantaneous. When 



one attempts to take time views he is very lia- 

 ble to overtime or undertime ; but if he fol- 

 lows the rule laid down for snap-shots and 

 sunshine, he will secure fine effects almost 

 every time. 



BLACK BROOD IN CALIFORNIA. 



I HAVE been suspecting for some time back 

 that a sort of diseased brood, not foul brood, 

 was working its way into different parts of the 

 country ; and when Dr. Howard, of Fort 

 Worth, Texas, and the bacteriologist of the 

 Division of Entomology, Washington, D. C, 

 after a careful investigation, said the samples 

 of diseased brood from the State of New York 

 were not foul brood, but something else, then 

 I began to suspect more than ever that the 

 many samples sent us of brood, not Bacillus 

 alvei, from other States, were this " something 

 else." 



Very recently a sample of brood was sent 

 us from California. As it seemed to look very 

 much like black brood, and was so very dif- 

 ferent in its general characteristics from ordi- 

 nary foul brood, I sent it to Dr. Howard, ask- 

 ing him to examine it microscopicall)' to de- 

 termine whether or not it was the new disease; 

 and if so, to send me a short rrport which I 

 could append to the more extended one that 

 appears elsewhere ; but as it a'-rived too late, 

 I give it prominence in this department. Dr. 

 Howard says : 



The sample of diseased brood from Nicholas Spargo, 

 Bishop, Inyo Co., Cal., has been received. The gener- 

 al appearance, the peculiar smell, the presence of the 

 black pupa;, the dark and black Jelly-like masses 

 in tnis disease, in contradistinction to the dark coffee- 

 colored ,<;77/?-//A-(' masses of foul brood, are all material 

 .symptoms of black brood. The microscopical exam- 

 ination of the contents of a score or more of these 

 cells shows the beautiful millet-s»-ed forms, and the 

 distinct typical arrangement of Bacillus niilii found 

 in all the specimens he etofore examined, with no 

 other germs present, which makes it all tlie more cer- 

 tain that this germ is the cause of this disease. 



This explains the mystery; for I have had 

 samples of this brood sent from all over the 

 country, but did not know v/hat they were ; 

 and I now feel more than confident that they 

 were nothing more nor less than specimens of 

 black brood. 



All of this goes to show the very great im- 

 portance of this present investigation on the 

 part of Dr. Howard and of the officials of the 

 United States government, and also of the im- 

 portance of knowing more about it, and the 

 specific method of cure that will handle this 

 disease. 



THE COLORADO STATE BEE-KEEPERS' CON- 

 VENTION. 

 This association, at its annual meeting, has, 

 occasionally, addresses from professors at the 

 State Experiment Station at Fort Collins. At 

 this convention we had the pleasure of hear- 

 ing C. P. Gillette, Professor of Entomology, 

 and Dr. Headden, Professor of Chemistry. 

 The latter gave us one of the best talks on the 

 subject of honey, from the standpoint of a 

 chemist, that I ever heard. Instead of using 

 technical and scientific terms, he explained 

 the whole in language that would be intelligi- 

 ble to bee-keepers and farmers, and those with- 



