£ OLDEST BEE PAPER 

 IN AMERICA 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAOO, ILL., MAY 4, 1881. 



No. 18. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

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For the American Bee Journal. 



The Ileal Cause of Dysentery. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Mr. Doolittle says : " I believe con- 

 finement does cause the so-called dysen- 

 tery. In this we differ. I claim that 

 ■cold and confinement do not " cause " 

 ■dysentery, but act as an aggravation to 

 the cause. I claim that the only theory 

 or hypothesis which has ever been ad- 

 vanced that will cover all the ground of 

 facts regarding this disease, is the one 

 of over-vegetable matter, or " Bacteria 

 in the food " — one or the other. 



While the statements of men we have 

 never seen are not as convincing as 

 logic, with which to prove their theories, 

 these assertions are unexcelled material 

 to disprove them. Now, I will prove 

 by Mr. Doolittle's own statement in the 

 article I am now answering (see first 

 page of Bee Journal for April 6, 1881) 

 that he has formed wrong conclusions, 

 from his own personal experience : 



" Again, in the fall of 1878 our bees 

 were prepared for winter in the best 

 possible shape, and had nothing but 

 white honey in their hives, said honey 

 being collected the early part of July, 

 for we had no fall honey. Sixty colonies 

 were put in the cellar, and 90 left on the 

 summer stands, two-thirds of which 

 were packed with chaff and straw. 

 Winter set in early, and the weather 

 was so cold that no bees could fly with 

 ■safety for nearly 4J£ months. At the 

 end of 4 months some of our best colo- 

 nies were dead, with the combs and 

 hives soiled badly, while others sitting 

 right alongside of them were in as fine 

 condition as could be, and remained 

 thus, coming out strong in the spring. 

 If it was ' bacteria' in the honey, why did 

 not all die, as all had the same stores ?" 



If it was confinement, " why did not 

 all die," I ask V 

 I will answer Mr. Doolittle further by 



contradicting his statement, and say 

 that bees do not all have the same honey, 

 neither in taste, color nor consistency, 

 and that, too, when the honey was gath- 

 ered in the same apiary and at the same 

 time. If " bacteria" was the cause, it 

 would be only reasonable to suppose that 

 some trees or nectaries would be infested 

 with them, while others would not; 

 that colonies gathering from that linden 

 tree over east would get infected honey, 

 while those gathering west, or perhaps 

 ajittle further on, would get that free 

 from infection. 



Now, I do not say I ever saw this sup- 

 posed parasite, or that I have searched 

 the honey for an over-amount of vege- 

 table matter, but I do say that these 

 hypotheses are the only ones yet put 

 forth that cover the whole ground of 

 our experience. Again I quote : 



" We also placed 60 colonies from the 

 same yard in the cellar on the 1st of No- 

 vember, and did not set them out till 

 May 1st, and 55 of the 60 came out in 

 good condition, while we only saved 15 

 out of the 90 out-doors — 75 dying with 

 the dysentery, so-called. If it was in- 

 fection of the honey, why did not those 

 in the cellar die also, and especially as 

 they stood six month's confinement V 

 The past winter has shown the same 

 results, only our loss is but about 10 per 

 cent, so far." 



Allow me to ask Mr. Doolittle, if it 

 was " confinement" (now remember, 

 that is the cause he assigned, and which 

 he hoped to clearly s/ioio), how did the 

 bees in the cellar so ably bear 6 months 

 of it ? Was not the trouble in the food, 

 and the cellar being a good one, the 

 bees ate so much less of it that the " ag- 

 gravation" of cold ( which causes excess- 

 ive feeding) was thus removed from 

 their conditions. He is right about the 

 large consumption of honey causing 

 the disease : but I imagine the worse 

 the honey is infected the more the bees 

 will eat. 



In the literal sense of the term, nature 

 instinctively knows but one want— hun- 

 ger, and bees, like the colicky babe, try 

 to appease the unnatural distress by 

 feeding upon that which caused it. 

 Thus we see that this, like other ills, 

 whether mental or physical, possesses 

 the calamitous capability of perpetua- 

 ting itself. 



I know that dysentery can be produced 

 at will in a very short time (especially 

 with young bees) by combined gorging 

 and frightening, for, with all animated 

 nature, fright has a sudden and power- 

 ful effect upon the intestines. Perhaps 

 the nuclei contained not the clearest of 

 honey ; perhaps they did not have the 

 dysentery unto death. 



I found some years ago that agitation 

 was a great aggravation, but not en- 

 tirely productive of dysentery. See 

 Gleanings for January, 1875, page 17, 

 wherein I said, " Place your colonies in 

 their special repositories so quietly they 

 will not know it." Soon after H. E. 

 Bidwell said, " Bees moved into winter 

 quarters seem to sleep with one eye open 

 all winter, always on the watch for that 

 disturbance again." Mr. Milliner, of 

 Big Rapids, Mich., refuted this idea, 

 because he stopped up his hives and 

 wheeled them over planks some 20 rods, 

 and then slid them down another plank 

 into his cellar, and all (some 200 or 300 

 colonies) wintered well. 



Thus we see that fright is not the 

 cause, but another aggravation, proba- 

 bly in a double manner, both from gorg- 

 ing and the mental effect, as above 

 referred to. If cold and confinement 

 were the causes, then honey-producing 

 would naturally move southward this 

 spring. Northern Michigan bee-keep- 

 ers would be buying and moving bees 

 from Southern Indiana ; but the reverse 

 is more probable, as while Northern 

 Michigan, with its purer air and less 

 tendency to the production of low forms 

 of animal and vegetable life, has win- 

 tered its bees to a considerable extent. 

 Southern Indiana is the worst cleaned 

 out community on record. 



But Mr. Doolittle is a great matter-of- 

 fact man. Maybe he would be pleased 

 to have some facts from Michigan, and 

 not all confined to one man's experience 

 (my own), but that of many real, relia- 

 ble persons (who do not sell supplies), 

 and" any of whom could be written to 

 upon the subject : H. D. Burrell, Ban- 

 gor, Mich.— Bees confined 120 days ; all 

 packed out-doors ; loss 20 to 40 percent. 

 T. F. Bingham, Abronia, Mich.— All 

 packed out-doors ; loss 20 per cent., I 

 believe. F. C. Easton, Hartford, Mich., 

 a farmer. — Had 22 colonies with some 

 straw and dirt poked up against three 

 sides of the hives; all strong to date. 

 Not much confinement in his yard, was 

 there ? Mr. D. D. Palmer, of New Bos- 

 ton, 111., I learn has lost every bee of 

 his 240 colonies. His bees must have 

 been " confined " about six years, judg- 

 ing from results. 



Eleven years ago, I had colonies die 

 with dysentery in its worst form, in less 

 than three weeks after being put into 

 my cellar, which was a good one. The 

 winter was not longer than others in 

 which I wintered my bees nicely, but in 

 4 months only 3 colonies out of 48 were 

 left. The past winter there must have 

 been a large amount of " confinement " 

 to the square inch, especially in South- 

 ern Indiana. One of the 40 colonies 

 above referred to was brought from a 

 farmer's, some 4 miles away. Notwith- 

 standing they were drawn over a rough 

 road, the first of winter, and put right 

 into the same cellar, without any flight, 

 that colony, and that one only, came 

 out in splendid condition. They gath- 

 ered their honey from the same kind of 

 flora (clover, basswood and fall flowers), 

 but in a different location, and their 

 honey was pure. Thus the aggravation 

 of this rough removal had no effect 

 upon a cause that with them did not ex- 

 ist. White honey is no better than dark 

 to winter upon. Such phenomena are 

 of common occurrence, and I ask Mr. 

 Doolittle if any of his theories will ac- 

 count for the result ? 



The trouble is each bee-keeper, as soon 

 as his bees die, looks over his own ex- 

 perience only (being so intensely ab- 

 sorbed in his own losses exclusively), 

 and forms a sudden conclusion as to the 

 cause, and a sure preventive next year, 

 while if he would study the causes of 

 the losses of his neighbors and others 

 within his knowledge, he would find out 

 he knew but little about it, and in this 

 way be of some use in the final settle- 

 ment of the problem. 



All know that the main cause of our 

 winter losses is one ; that the phenom- 

 ena is alike in the main ; that if this 

 disease (by common consent called dys- 

 entery or cholera) could be warded off, 

 we would easily get along with all minor 



winter losses, which are as a fire-fly is 

 to the sun, compared with it. It is very- 

 easy for the novice telegraph operator 

 to read a message by sound when its 

 contents are previously known ; how he 

 can plainly hear each letter ! How 

 graphically the weather prophet can de- 

 scribe what he prophesied a few weeks 

 ago about the yesterday's storm. It is 

 to-morrow's weather that baffles him 

 most, and that he predicts so vaguely 

 about for fear of missing it. 



We look into a hive silent in death, 

 top-bars covered with black excrement, 

 several inches of dead bees on the bot- 

 tom board, and wisely say : " Oh 1 I 

 see ; things were not right here in the 

 first place I" 



Now, I am looking for the man who 

 can come into my apiary each fall, not 

 to fix it, but to " spot" the condemned 

 colonies (through my ignorance of na- 

 ture's laws condemned), so that I may 

 mercifully and profitably chloroform 

 the bees and save my honey, combs and 

 hives clean, and the trouble of further 

 attention, and a knowledge of where I 

 will stand the next season. Verily, here 

 knowledge is power to both of us, for 

 I could well afford to pay the witch $25 

 or $50 per day and make a large margin 

 besides. Looking at the subject in this 

 light, through the telescope reversed, 

 does it not look a little different? 



As soon as time will permit, I will try 

 to separate Mr. Doolittle's talk about 

 "separators." 



Dowagiac, Mich., April 20, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



More about Alsike Clover. 



M. M. BALDKIDGE. 



In the spring of 1874, a plat of prairie 

 soil in my garden, about 40 feet square, 

 was seeded to oats and Alsike clover. 

 The crop of Alsike for each of the years 

 1875-76 was a fine one. This plat was 

 planted with beans in 1877, owing, I 

 think, to the Alsike having run out, or 

 being a poor stand. The plat was plowed 

 again in the spring of 1878, and left un- 

 cultivated. In the fall I found it nicely 

 seeded to Alsike — the plowing having 

 brought to the surface the seed that 

 failed to germinate in 1876. Since the 

 spring of 1878 the plat has not been dis- 

 turbed by the plow. For the past two 

 years the crop of Alsike has been good, 

 and at this date (April 20) the stand is 

 excellent, and chiefly from last season's 

 self-seeding. The prospect for a large 

 crop this season is as good as any pre- 

 ceding. 



Alsike is said by botanists to be a 

 perennial, but I do not rely upon that 

 claim, but upon its re-seeding the land 

 in July and August of each year when 

 mowed for hay or seed. Close pasturing 

 early in the season might, therefore, be 

 an objection. Timothy will run Alsike 

 out; so will timothy run out the common 

 red clover in many localities — notably, 

 Western New York, where I formerly 

 lived. Red clover there, when mixed 

 with timothy, will run out in two sea- 

 sons ; but no one ever thought of dis- 

 carding it on that account. If Alsike 

 will not do well for more than one sea- 

 son, it will then pay to raise it— as, when 

 mixed with the common red or timothy, 

 or both, it will not only improve the 

 pasture or hay, but will produce enough 

 honey to cover the expense, provided, 



