THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



127 



of Father Qiiinby until the present ; 

 and 3^et, a very small number of 

 those who read these articles care 

 anything about the results until 

 they have suffered from this worst 

 of all pests of the apiary. 



I know of several cases where 

 persons here in New England have 

 purchased from certain dealers 

 full colonies of bees and nuclei 

 which were found to be affected 

 with this disease. Who can com- 

 pute the extent of the injury that 

 may come to apiculture in this 

 country by the spreading of this 

 scourge through carelessness or 

 ignorance, unless active meas- 

 ures are taken to prevent it? One 

 infected stock might and probably 

 would be the means of destroying 

 all the bees in a whole county. 



Suppose, for instance, that Mr. 



B who is entirely ignorant of 



what foul brood is, and who does 

 not even suspect that he will re- 

 ceive such from a reliable dealer, 

 purchases a colony of bees which 

 is diseased. In due time, he opens 

 his hive to examine the colony and 

 perhaps to exchange the combs 

 with other colonies in forming nu- 

 clei, rearing queens or otherwise ; 

 it may be that when he does this 

 there is a scarcity of honey and 

 all beekeepers know that at such 

 times robbers are plentiful and some 

 of them are sure to secure some 

 of the honey while the hive is open. 

 Whenever a bee carries a load of 

 honey which contains the foul 

 brood fungi to its home and de- 

 posits it in the cell, death and des- 

 truction are sure to follow. These 

 will follow even more quickly 



where the combs are interchanged, 

 resulting sooner or later in the des- 

 truction of the larger portion, if 

 not the whole, of his own apiary 

 together with that of his entire 

 section. 



This is no idle talk but the 

 plain statement of what American 

 beekeepers may expect in the fu- 

 ture unless more precaution is 

 taken in this matter. 



I know of a certain party who 

 claims to have shipped a large 

 number of full colonies and nuclei 

 this season, and if all of those he 

 has sent to other parties are as badly 

 diseased as those that he sent this 

 way, he may depend upon hearing 

 from them ere long. The fact that 

 he may have been ignorant of the 

 condition of the colonies and nu- 

 clei when he shipped them will not 

 change the results and should not 

 lessen his responsibility in the 

 matter ; in fact his ignorance would 

 make it doubly dangerous. Who 

 can picture the results if a large 

 proportion of those sent out were 

 diseased? 



Now it is imperative that we 

 consider this matter fully and de- 

 cide upon some means for properly 

 educating the beekeeper and pro- 

 tecting American apiculture from 

 the effects of foul brood. Now, my 

 friends, you who happen to read this 

 article and have purchased bees, 

 please examine them for foul brood 

 and if you find any, please let me 

 know, together with the name of 

 the party from whom you purchased 

 the bees. I have more to say, ere 

 long, legarding this matter. 



Wenliam, Mass., Sept. 10, 1883. 



