30 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, iQl? 



combs melted down ; but evidently they had 

 a restricted entrance, or too many bees in 

 the fields, to keep up the necessary ventila- 

 tion. 



Why the hive here shown did not burn up 

 entirely will remain an unsolved mystery, 

 unless we admit that a good colony can 

 do more in ventilating than we usually give 

 it credit for. It is possible and even prob- 

 able that some fireman, seeing the plight of 

 the hive, dashed a pail of water on it and 



thus saved for us a relic that is exceedingly 

 valuable in showing the power of bees to 

 keep down the internal temperature of the 

 colony, even tho the outside of the hive 

 was afire. It will be noticed that the en- 

 trance is % by the width of the hive, and 

 that would afford ample ventilation. If 

 it had been contracted down to the usual 

 space, in all probability the combs would 

 have melted down and the bees been 

 destroyed. 



BEES VS. SMELTERS 



A \ Famous Case Comes to Trial in 

 the Supreme Court of Ontario, Can. 



By E. R. Root 



OU R readers 

 will remem- 

 ber that sev- 

 eral times during 

 the last year we 

 have spoken of 

 troubles between 

 the smelters and 

 the beekeepers in 



Ontario, Canada. We also stated that the 

 beemen had brought joint suit against the 

 smelters, c'laiming $30,000 damages. 



For the benefit of those who do not under- 

 stand, it should be explained that a smelter 

 is a plant for the reduction of ores. The 

 raw ores consist of rocks in which are in- 

 corporated various metals — gold, silver, 

 copper, zinc, etc. These rocks are ground 

 up and then subjected to an intense heat. 

 The various gases arising from the reduc- 

 tion are carried off thru high stacks. These 

 gases consist of SO^ and SO^, and, with 

 water, H20, make H^SO*, or sulphuric 

 acid. SO^ (burning sulphur) is the gas 

 used to kill bee-moth, and, of course, if 

 strong enough, would kill bees. 



A great deal of free arsenic is carried out 

 thru the stacks of the smelter in the form 

 of dust, and the dust falling on the vegeta- 

 tion in the immediate vicinity forms a 

 grayish-white deposit which, uniting with 

 the dews, forms a sort of coating over 

 all plant life within reach. This coating 

 on hay crops has been reported in several 

 cases to have caused the death of domestic 

 animal^ and to have destroyed the vegeta- 

 tion itself in some eases. 



In nearly all places where smelters have 

 been located in the United States, bees have 

 died off. The claim is made that the free 

 arsenic, uniting with the pollen dust, nec- 

 tar, and the ordinary dew of the morning, 

 is carried by the bees into the hives; that 

 this i^oisonous mixture, whether in the 

 form of nectar, pollen, or dew, kills off both 

 the bees and brood. Arsenic is only par- 



tially sioluble in 

 water, so when it 

 is taken into the 

 hive mixed with 

 water, pollen, or 

 dew, it forms a. 

 mechanical c o m- 

 bination — not a 

 chemical mixture. 

 In either case it would be poisonous. 



Arsenical sprays are used very largely 

 nowadays in spraying fruit-trees to kill off 

 the codling-moth. The poison known as the 

 arsenate of lead is mixed with water. This 

 combination is then thrown by means of 

 spray-pumps on the trees, causing a coat- 

 ing of the arsenic on the leaves and blos- 

 soms. The larv£e of the moth, by eating 

 these, are destroyed. 



That the arsenate of lead is a rank poi- 

 son to bees is shown by the fact that cer- 

 tain states have passed laws against the 

 throwing of arsenical sprays on trees while 

 in bloom, because expei'ience shows that the 

 bees are killed by gathering the nectar 

 from the blossoms that are coated with a 

 deposit of arsenate of lead. Experience al- 

 so shows that bees are killed where the ar- 

 senate of lead falls on " cover crops " be- 

 neath the fruit-trees in Colorado sprayed 

 when the trees are not in bloom. 



While there has been a general complaint 

 that bees in the immediate vicinity of 

 smelters die off in large numbers, no suit 

 for damages was brought against any smel- 

 ters until 1907 in Utah, where the smelters 

 paid $60,000 damages to the beekeepers. 



For a year or so back, there have been 

 reports coming in, telling of a fearful loss 

 of bees in the vicinity of the Coniagas 

 Reduction Co., of Thorold, Ontario. Some- 

 thing like 700 colonies, it is claimed, have 

 been killed outright. For miles in all di- 

 rections one sees beautiful fruit and farm 

 lands, and these, within a few years, have 

 been devoted to the growing of fruit as 



