378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1917 



thing, actually taking' a great deal of inter- 

 est in the work. On the same principle, 

 no doubt, a lot of little things are often 

 done in connection with bees near home 

 that are not possible to do at out-apiaries, 

 and — well, I guess these bees at the out- 

 apiaries are none the worse for our seeming 



ne^ect. 



* * * 



Clover looks fine so far; and as fi'ost is 

 about all out of the ground, the chances are 

 that a little heaving of the plants will now 

 occur. " Heaving " is directly caused by 

 hard freezing at nights followed by warm 

 sunny days; but even in this kind of weath- 

 er the danger is never as great when there 

 is no frost under the surface of the ground. 



That editorial on foul brood, page 250, 

 last ii-sue, should be read by all beekeepers. 

 One comment made on the bulletin dis- 

 cussed (No. 431), to my mind should" be 

 modified unless American foul brood differs 

 in different localities — a thing that is hard- 

 ly prol)able if at all possible. I refer to 

 the statement thai, previous to the publica- 

 tion of this bulletin, the ordinary foul-brood 

 inspector could not be sure whether he had 

 a case of dead brood or American or Euro- 

 pean until a bacteriological determination 

 could be made. Personally I believe the 

 characteristics of American foul brood are 

 so uniformly the same in all cases that no 

 foul-brood inspector should ever make a 

 mistake in diagnosing this disease. With 

 European foul brood and sacbrood it is an 

 entirely different matter, and an expert is 

 apt to be deceived. The definition given 

 by the editor, of how these two latter dis- 

 eases work, is about as good a one as we 

 have seen. " European foul brood attacks 

 the larva mainly before it uncurls. Sac- 

 brood attacks its victim after it has stretch- 

 ed out on the bottom of the cell walls, and 

 a day or two after it is sealed, or just 

 about the time when it begins to spin its 

 cocoon." By remembering these simple 

 facts, generally there should be no ditficul- 

 ty in telling the two diseases apart. As to 

 American foul brood, while, as the editor 

 says, in some respects it resembles sacbrood, 

 yet the absence of all ropiness, and the 

 well-known odor of American foul brood, 

 should prevent any confusion on that point. 



PAPER PAILS FOR HONEY. 



In view of the increased price of honey- 

 pails, and the prospect of a still higher price 

 in the near future, the question of contain- 

 ers for honey, in case we get a crop, is a 

 matter of live interest here in Canada. 



Manufacturers are asking for orders to be 

 placed right away so that they can arrange 

 as to purchasing tin, etc., before there is 

 another advance in raw material, not to 

 mention wages of employees increasing, 

 etc. ; and no one can say that their request is 

 at all unreasonable. At the same time 

 many of us hesitate to stock up with pails 

 when not being sure of a crop, for, aside 

 from any question of capital being tied u]) 

 for possibly a year or more, personally I 

 dislike to have a large stock of pails carried 

 over, as there is always danger of rusting, 

 particularly if one has not first-class stor- 

 age facilities. 



As a means of helping out the situation, 

 paper containers are being investigated ; 

 and, judging by some samples shown to me 

 a short time ago, it looks as tho they might 

 be a success. To be sure, paper has been 

 used in the past for extractecl honey ; but 

 in so far as we have noticed, only lioney 

 in the g'ranulated form has been thus han- 

 dled. Of course the honey was placed in the 

 paper containers when just ready to granu- 

 late, and it soon became a solid mass. The 

 samples shown us are of the pail pattern, 

 and are warranted to hold water or other 

 liquids, so they should hold honey all right. 

 They are made of heavy paraffined card- 

 board, the waxing being done by some 

 special process. The name and address 

 of the producer, and any directions as to 

 keeping honey, or other advertising matter, 

 can be printed on the pails as desired. No 

 prices were quoted, so at present we can 

 give no more cletailed information. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION. 



On the first page of the February issue, 

 the editor, in referring to the possibilities 

 of co-operation, says that Ontario is well 

 fitted to make this system a success. His 

 reasons are that the " territory is not large 

 and that the beekeepers have covered prac- 

 tically all the good ranges in the province." 

 '' Territory not large." Let us consid- 

 er that point a minute. From old Glengari-y 

 in the east on the St. LaAvrenee, to Essex 

 County in the west, it is about 500 miles. 

 From Toronto, the center of this line, it is 

 225 miles straight north to North Bay. 

 This comprises what is generally known as 

 Old Ontario, and it in itself is no small ter- 

 ritory. This territory, as the editor says, is 

 in many places at least pretty well stock- 

 ed with bees. But starting from North Bay 

 and running north and west we have an- 

 other joart of Ontario so large that the great 

 Empire State, a dozen or so " Little 

 Ehodies," and a few other of the states 

 could be tucked away in it; and this latter 



