SEPTEMnER, 1917 



BULLETIN 

 471 of U. S. 

 Department 

 of Agriculture is 

 very enlighten- 

 ing on the sub- 

 ject of sac brood. 

 It is decidedly 

 comfiorting' t o 



know the virus causing the disease loses its 

 vitality in water or honey or in tlie combs 

 in about a month, and in even less time in 

 fermenting or putrefactive liquids or in the 

 sun. While we should like to know how 

 the life of the virus is carried over the win- 

 ter, the facts as shown in this bulletin will 

 be helpful in combating this brood disease. 

 * * * 



One of the unique tilings about beekeep- 

 ing is that we are always meeting with 

 some surprise every year. The present sea- 

 son was the latest known in more than fifty 

 years. There are never two just alike. 

 Then some year a plant we had thought 

 worthless to the beekeeper will give a most 

 surprising yield of nectar. One year a 

 thunder-shower or a north wind will check 

 the flow of nectar, while in other years it 

 seems to make little difference. 



One of our surprises this year was a yard 

 in a new location that had given a great 

 yield of honey-dew. While other yards 

 were giving us snowy-white combs of clover 

 honey this one had most of its combs white 

 and handsome on the outside, but filled with 

 what looked like a pale ink. Two tons of 

 honey-dew in sections is not pleasant to 

 think about, but it can be extracted and 

 kept for spring feeding, and the combs 

 melted will give us 125 pounds of choice 

 wax. All together that yard, with present 

 sugar prices, will give us a good profit. In 

 more than fifty years this is my first ex- 

 perience with honey-dew in supers. Of 

 course, it was something of a surprise. 



Bee inspectors for a long time have recog- 

 nized the probability of the spread of Eu- 

 ropean foul brood by be&s entering a near- 

 by hive. Indeed, finding one hive in a 

 yard with the disease well advanced, and a 

 number of hives in the immediate vicinity 

 in the earlier stages of disease, seems almost 

 sure proof of it. I have found two or 

 three such groups in a large yard. But • 

 when we find a single icolony in the earlier 

 stages of the disease at the further end of a 

 yard or perhaps in a neighbor's yard a mile 

 away it has seemed a little doubtful if that 

 could be the way the disease had spread, 

 and yet it has been thought possible, but 

 very difficult to prove. On page 528, July, 



GLEANINGS IN BEE U L T U R R 



091 



Ml-. K. F. ITol- 

 terniann g i v e s 

 some facts he 

 had picked up 

 while visiting 

 New York bee- 

 keepers, which 

 seem to prove 

 that such is the 

 case. Golden Italians were introduced into a 

 yard Avhere tliere were hives badly diseased. 

 Mr. Stewart, inspecting some four miles 

 from tills yard, found some of these yellow 

 Italians among black bees, and traces of dis- 

 ease. He had no doubt they had come from 

 the diseased apiary four miles distant. 

 This seems to me a most valuable addition 

 (o our literature on tliis subject. 



* » * 



"Handsome does, so handsome is." See 

 cover page of Gleanings for August. I 

 can not quite agree so far as buckwheat is 

 concerned ; for a field of buckwheat as it 

 grows in New Yoi'k or the southwest corner 

 of Vermont is a beautiful sight. It even 

 surpassed a field of clover in the multitude 

 of its tiny flowers, and it would be ju.st as 

 beautiful if it gave us no nectar, 



* * * 



We had a fairly good flow of Iwney from 

 clover during July, and a good crop of 

 honey will be harvested in western Ver- 

 mont — as large, I think, as last year. The 

 quality is fine as a rule, altho some dande- 

 lion was carried up into supers the first of 

 the season in some yards. 



I don't know just how to express my 

 admiration of Staney Puerden's vigorous 

 words of protest at the criminal blocking of 

 the food bill by senators who ought to know 

 better. Is there anything in all the world 

 that so fools a man as a liquid with a little 



alcohol in it? 



» * * 



Careless grading never pays, says G. T. 

 Stark, page 594, August, and he is right. 

 Eveiy section in a case should be as near 

 the otliers as possible, and there should be 

 marks on the outside that will tell what to 



expect. 



* * * 



One of the ])leasures of yesterday was 

 the good news that the U. S. Senate had 

 passed the long-longed-for prohibitory 

 amendment to the constitution. Hurrah! 

 Surely "the world do move." 

 » * « 



Boy Scouts render excellent assistance in 

 the care of bees this year when help is so 

 scarce. 



