July, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



441 



putting this thing on the market; but the 

 very fact that it is now a universal stand- 

 ard in the United States, and to a great 

 extent in Europe, and that it is almost the 

 only frame sold by bee-supply manufac- 

 turers, goes to show that my friend Elwood 

 looked ahead. 



My visit with Mr. Elwood, and the im- 

 pressions I formed, I wrote up in this jour- 

 nal. This caused an amalgamation of the 

 two systems — the Quinby and the Lang- 

 stroth. 



Some Other Pioneer Work. 



My story is getting to be long; but T 

 must not fail to tell you that Mr. Elwood 

 was the pioneer in some other things. He 

 was one of the first, if not the very first, 

 to advocate some of the basic principles of 

 swarm control that are now used by some 

 of the most prominent beekeepers, which 

 enabled him to operate more than 1000 colo- 

 nies in out-apiaries for comb honey. Swarm- 

 ing was completely controlled by removing 

 the queen, and then, later, destroying all 

 queen-cells and introducing a young laying 

 queen. I have not the time to go into the 

 details of this; but doubtless Mr. Demuth 

 will have occasion to refer to some of these 

 original ideas of Mr. Elwood 's at another 

 time. 



Mr. Elwood was one of the pioneers, 

 again, in his method of wintering bees in 

 the cellar. Some of the original principles 

 that he initiated 30 years ago are now rec- 

 ommended and adopted in all the best bee- 

 cellars all over the northern states and 

 Canada. He used to winter 1200 colonies — 

 all in one cellar. 



The passing of such a man in the beekeep- 

 ing history of the United States deserves 

 more than a mere notice; and while the 

 space of Gleanings is crowded we feel that, 

 when a man of this type leaves the scene 

 of this world's activities, we should pay 

 proper tribute to his memory. 



Eight here the question might be raised, 

 and I will answer it as I think Mr. Elwood 

 would answer it if he were alive: "Is the 

 Quinby system better than or equal to the 

 Langstroth system?" I will say this much 

 — that the latter is better adapted to mod- 

 ern beekeeping conditions as they exist to- 

 day than the original Quinby with Hether- 

 ington's improvements, because it is more 

 portable, better adapted to outyard work. 

 Elwood saw that out-apiary beekeeping was 

 coming to the front, and hence his recom- 

 mendation to adopt a hive and frame — the 

 Hoffman-Langstroth that would be suitable 

 for moving. 



AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



cAn Interesting Experiment in Dis- 

 infecting Frames by Boiling in Lye 

 Solution 



By Frederick W. Fabian and Ivan W. Parks 



THE time was 

 when nearly 

 every farmer 

 kept a few colo- 

 nies of bees for 

 his own pleasure 

 and profit. The 

 beehive was 

 nearly as com- 

 mon a sight on 

 the farm as the chicken coop or hogpen. 

 In recent times, however, the beehive is 

 rarely seen. There are several reasons for 

 this, chief among which are bee diseases. 

 The ravages of American foul brood and 

 European foul brood have greatly depleted 

 the colonies and have made beekeeping 

 among the farmers very unprofitable and 

 discouraging. The bee industry, like all 

 other industries, has reached a point where 

 specialization is necessary, and most far- 

 mers have neither the time nor inclination 

 to specialize to the degree that is necessary 

 to turn a loss into a profit. The handling 

 of bees has always required a great amount 

 of skill, but add to this the knowledge that 

 is necessary to handle bee diseases success- 

 fully and you have a combination that re- 

 quires more effort than the average farmer, 

 with his manifold duties, can afford. 



Not only has the appearance of boo dis- 

 eases made necessary greater knowledge on 

 the part of the person keeping the bees, but 

 it has increased also the need of more in- 

 telligent apiary inspectors. The Entomolo- 



gy Department 

 at this institu- 

 t i n realizing 

 this has includ- 

 ed a course in 

 bee bacteriology 

 in the curricu- 

 lum. N w, of 

 course, it is man- 

 ifestly absurd to 

 expect all beekeepers to be bacteriologists, 

 yet they should have some knowledge of the 

 principles and especially of the mechanism 

 of transmission of these diseases and their 

 control. 



Various Chemicals Have Been Tried. 

 Various treatments have been recom- 

 mended for treating American foul brood, 

 with varying results. Phenol (carbolic acid) 

 was one of the earliest chemicals used, but 

 experiments have shown it to be ineffective. 

 Beta naphthol. salicylic acid and soft soap 

 have likewise been tried and discarded. In 

 some cases it was suggested to feed the bees 

 honey which contained the above chemicals. 

 However, the treatment that has been most 

 successful has not been a chemical treat- 

 ment but the "shaking treatment" with 

 which every up-to-date beekeeper is familiar. 

 After the bees have been shaken from the 

 diseased combs and the combs melted up 

 for wax, the next question that arises is 

 what shall be done with the diseased 

 frames. It is rather e.xpensive to burn 

 them, but this had better be done than use 



