AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



;oi 



the old saying, "A swarm in July is not 

 worth a fly." 



On Aug. 22nd I caught my second 

 swarm, and they have a super of 24 sec- 

 tions nearly ready to take off. 



These are my only two swarms for the 

 season, therefore it is more swarms that 

 I am after, for I find them no detriment. 

 By the way, is there not too much of an 

 effort to prevent the natural increase of 

 bees as well as of the human race ? 



BEE-PLANT AND SWEET CLOVER. 



I want to gather enough seed of the 

 Rocky Mountain bee-plant to sow on the 

 neighboring highways and byways, for 

 it has been the making of nearly a ton 

 of beautiful white honey for me. 



Many people think the sweet clover 

 useless for stock, but my horses and 

 cows eat it with avidity, when cut in 

 season. 



Taylorsville, Utah. 



The Foul Brood Question- 

 Origin, Ete. 



Its 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY SAMUEL SIMMINS. 



The origin of foul brood ? What is it? 

 The practical man says, "Neglected 

 dead brood." The scientific theorist 

 says, "It can only proceed from contact 

 with pre-existing disease ;" or that it is 

 perpetuated by the micro-organisms 

 peculiar to that disease. 



Let us reason together. As a matter 

 of fact, health existed prior to disease ; 

 hence the respective microbes are only 

 evidence of any particular disease. They 

 can, and do, act as a means or cause of 

 continuation, but when I repeat that 

 healthy tissue existed before a diseased 

 condition of the same could occur, then 

 it is self-evident that microbes were not 

 the origin, but the result of disease. 



In using the term "cause of the dis- 

 ease," your esteemed correspondent, Mr. 

 McEvoy, meant to express himself as 

 believing that the sole ^'■origin" etc., of 

 the foul brood is neglected dead brood. 

 Bacillus alvei is one of the causes of 

 continuation by infection, but not the 

 origin of the disorder. 



Seeing that primarily the disease was 

 contracted without any external com- 

 munication, scientific theorists should 

 not overlook the fact that what has 

 happened once, can, and does, happen 

 again. 



Mr. McEvoy's one weak point is, that 

 for want of microscopic examination, his 



experiments do not convince the scien- 

 tific opponents that he so bitterly de- 

 nounces. To the unbiased mind his 

 conclusions are mostly convincing, and 

 if only sustained by microscopic exami- 

 nation his extensive experience might 

 have placed him on record as being a 

 greater scientist than those he con- 

 demns. One man cannot attain perfec- 

 tion in all details, and Mr. McEvoy must 

 not be surprised that he has left weak 

 places in his armor where his opponents 

 can assail him ; but there is one thing 

 he can be quite sure of — not one has yet 

 proven that foul brood does not originate 

 in long-neglected dead brood. 



About the year 1875, I had just such 

 an experience as those Mr. McEvoy 

 places on record. I conquered the dis- 

 ease, and then gave my opinion that the 

 plague originated from long-neglected 

 dead brood. The scientific theorists 

 ridiculed the idea, but none of them, to 

 this day, have proved that my state- 

 ment was not founded on fact. 



In those days, I was very much con- 

 fined in-doors, so I must needs get up 

 one chilly summer morning at 5 o'clock, 

 and proceeded to extract the honey from 

 every comb containing brood in several 

 hives. As a natural consequence most 

 of the brood became chilled. Being 

 busy, and never having a thought of the 

 terrors of the real plague, those bees 

 were allowed to clear up as best they 

 could. The wholesale mass of dead 

 brood was too much for them. Think of 

 the warmth of the bees acting upon the 

 decomposing brood ! the fermentation ! 

 winter following — and in the early 

 spring the remnant of bees dying off 

 after again vainly attempting to rear 

 brood. What an awakening, with rob- 

 bing just beginning ! 



And mark this ! Only just those colo- 

 nies subjected to chill by extracting 

 from the brood-combs that morning, 

 were found diseased on my first exami- 

 nation in the spring, while the disease 

 only developed in others after the rob- 

 bing had commenced. 



Ours would be just the climate where 

 bees, while being reduced in numbers, 

 would be unable to clear out a mass of 

 dead brood. Mr. McEvoy presents cases 

 in which a mass of putrid matter sur- 

 rounded small clusters of enfeebled bees, 

 so that they could not possibly clear it 

 away, while the saturation by water 

 was a very serious item in the develop- 

 ment of disease. 



Chill, returning warmth of the bees 

 sitting upon a death-bed of putrifying 

 bodies, with fermentation ensuing, and 

 long continued — surely that was enough 



