202 



terviewed at any time previous to August, 1913, 90 

 per cent of them would have said, and truthfully, 

 too, that this committee had put thousands of dol- 

 lars in the beekeepers' pockets during the last five or 

 six years. This year, as usual, the committee did a 

 lot of work and sent out the usual report ; but in 

 this case, for reasons neither they nor anybody else 

 thought of at the time, the price they recommended 

 proved to be too high to move off the honey; and 

 what a different story there is now on the part of 

 some producers! Some actually had the nerve to 

 write letters saying that the " ring," and other choice 

 epithets of like nature, had issued the price list for 

 the purpose of holding back others so that they (the 

 committee) could sell their honey at the higher price 

 before the general drop in prices would come into 

 effect. The men on this committee have done a lot 

 of work for no monetary consideration, for years ; 

 and to think that for once they in common with 

 nearly all other beekeepers did not foresee the ab- 

 normal conditions ahead they should be accused of 

 crooked work — candidly, Mr. Editor, you wouldn't 

 print what I feel like saying, and I am not a pro- 

 fane man at that. Just to give the lie to such insin- 

 uations, I might say that the men on this committee 

 did not sell in the early market, and at least one of 

 them has the bulk of his crop on hand at the present 

 time. I might also say that I was not a member of 

 said committee; but I did attend their meetings on 

 invitation, and acted in an advisory capacity along 

 with the members. This being the case, I take full 

 responsibility with the members in so far as being 

 mistaken in our estimates and in not anticipating 

 the dull times; and I repudiate any crooked methods 

 just as emphatically as though I had been an actual 

 member of the committee in question. These are 

 pretty plain remarks, but no plainer than the occa- 

 sion calls for. 



PKOOF THAT DISEASE CAN NOT BE TRANSMIT- 

 TED BY COMB FOUNDATION. 



At the Pennsylvania Slate convention at 

 Harrisbuig, Feb. 20, 21, the question came 

 up as to whether the use of comb founda- 

 tion is not responsible for the rapid spread 

 of disease. This point has been raised a 

 good many times in spite of what we con- 

 sider very good proof to the contrary. Some 

 years ago experiments were made with a 

 view of transmitting foul brood by using 

 foundation made from wax rendered from 

 foul-broody combs; but these were not suc- 

 cessful. However, in our ■ opinion the 

 strongest proof that foundation is not re- 

 sponsible for the transmission of disease is 

 that it is being constantly used in healthy 

 apiaries where there is never any disease. 

 There is scarcely an apiary, large or small, 

 in which comb foundation is not used every 

 year. In case of large apiaries hundreds of 

 pounds are used. Most makers of comb 

 foundation divide the wax which they re- 

 ceive into two grades — the light and the 

 dark. The light, being made principally 

 from capping^, is used for making the 

 thinner grades of foundation used in supers. - 

 The dark, generally rendered from old 

 combs, is used for brood foundation. Now 

 then, while it is practically impossible for 

 any maker of foundation to tell whether the 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



wax he receives is made from foul-broody 

 combs, it remains a fact, we believe, that 

 considerable of the dark wax made into 

 brood foundation was originally rendered 

 from foul-broody combs. Perhaps most of 

 such wax is made from old combs in box 

 liives, crooked combs, etc. ; but much of the 

 wax is from diseased combs, the exact pro- 

 portion, of course, no one being able to 

 ascertain. 



Here is the point : Assuming that a large 

 proportion is made from wax rendered from 

 diseased combs, if such foundation had the 

 power to transmit the disease into the colo- 

 nies in which it is placed, then we should 

 expect foul brood to break out immediately 

 all over the country to such an extent that 

 the beekeeping industry would be almost 

 wipfd out in the course of a single year. 

 As a matter of fact, there are hundreds and 

 thou.sands of apiaries where foundation is 

 i;sed year after year — brood foundation, too 

 — where disease has never been known. 

 Now, if there is any stronger proof than 

 this we should like to know of it. 



It might be argued that strong colonies 

 may be able to resist the disease. Tliis might 

 be true in case of European foul brood, but 

 it is certainly not true in case of American 

 foul brood. 



HOW DOES DISEASE TRAVEL? 



In our opinion there is nothing strange 

 about the transmission of disease among 

 bees. The most direct cause is the tendency 

 of the bees to rob openly and violently 

 during a period of honey dearth. Bees, 

 when possessed of the robbing mania, will 

 often go further for honey than they will 

 for the nectar of the flowers during a hon- 

 ey-flow ; and the easily overpowered colo- 

 nies, weakened by disease, become the prey 

 of these mad robbers that seize the stores 

 only to find, later on, that, by so doing, they 

 have " poisoned " their own brood, and 

 accomplished their OAvn downfall. In rare 

 instances bees have been known to go seven 

 miles for the nectar of the flowers. This 

 shows that an apiary can hardly be expected 

 to remain free from disease indefinitely if 

 such disease exists even four or five miles 

 away. 



CITY BEEKEEPING IN FLORIDA. 



Intensive farming, market gardening, 

 and the phenomenal growth of the towns 

 and cities in Florida, are driving the keep- 

 ing of bees more and more into the out- 

 lying districts where the hand of man has 

 never touched the ground. On this virgin 

 soil will be found the palmettos, gallberry, 

 and pennyroyal, all of which yield honey. 

 In other parts will be found the mangrove 

 and the tupelo. 



