8 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



nail-kegs, soap-boxes and any old 

 thing were produced, not when they 

 should have been, early in the sea- 

 son, but when the honey flow was at 

 its height, and some even when the 

 best of the flow had passed. These 

 had to be driven out and started on 

 ten sheets of foundation. Then old 

 hives and boxes were well filled with 

 honey and brood. 



Sections were, not ready for the 

 strong colonies. I could make the 

 trip but once a week and spend one 

 day. The promised honey house was 

 never built. The bees were located 

 in an orchard, five hundred feet from 

 the carpenter and paint shops. Smok- 

 er would be thrown into some ob- 

 scure lime barrel by an inquisitive 

 carpenter, and an hour lost in re- 

 claiming it. Tools, supers, hives — 

 everthing misplaced. 



"Next week," "next week," we will 

 have a bee-house, an extractor, and 

 everything would go fine; so I was 

 mollified again and cooled down 

 from a temperatuire nearly 200 

 to no, and not until the season 

 had practically passed did I realize 

 that my season's work for my wealthy 

 employer was lost, and only by stren- 

 uous night work was I able to keep 

 my own stock in condition, which I 

 fortunately kept at my home. One 

 colony produced ninety pounds of 

 honey, and had these bees been han- 

 dled as I desired, there is no reason 

 to doubt that a good crop could have 

 been secured. 



These bees are now in fine condi- 

 tion for winter, well packed, and I 

 wonder, as I try to keep the smoke of 

 my endless fire from making me 

 weep as I write, "who will be the next 

 lucky man," as they say at the fairs. 



I cannot tell you of the exasperat- 

 ing experiences I have had in han- 

 dling this small bunch of bees — of the 

 painful sensation of utter helplessness 

 that came over me at times when I 

 realized that ultimate failure was 

 staring me in the face, and yet I 

 could not throw up my contract. I 

 disliked to acknowledge defeat^ when 

 I was powerless to prevent it. 1 

 could write a volume on my experi- 

 ence this summer, and, after all, I 

 never met a finer gentleman, a more 

 kindly disposed man, cheerful, gen- 

 erous and broad-minded, but not a 



January, 



bee man. Do you. Mister Man, realize 

 that Mrs. Bee will wait for no man, 

 for she knows that winter waits for 

 no one, and you must anticipate her 

 wants and needs or you will come to 

 grief, as did your friend. 



I heard an old darkey sing a song 

 when I was quite a boy, each stanza 

 ending with these words "The bogey 

 man will get you if you don't watch 

 out." 



(The foregoing letter to the editor 

 is published because of the excellent 

 lesson upon the necessity for prepara- 

 tion which it teaches us. We sympa- 

 thize with our correspondent, — Ed.) 



TREATMENT OF FOUL BROOD. 



By J. E. Johnson. 



ON PAGE 246 Mr. Hewitt gives 

 some valuable points on foul 

 brood, informing us that he is 

 the discoverer of the plan of treating 

 the disease usually spoken of as the 

 McEvoy plan. Such being the case, we 

 certainly are greatly indebted to Mr. 

 Hewitt. But, by reading further, we 

 find he makes the following unwar- 

 ranted statement: "This is the only 

 cure that will ever cure foul brood 

 except heat." Also he says, when 

 comparing strawberry seeds to the 

 bacilli and spores of foul brood: 

 "Just fancy he was able to kill the^ 

 plant with some kind of gas or other 

 nostrum, how would he kill the 

 seeds?" If I understand correctly, 

 Mr. Hewitt's plan is not a cure at 

 all. The bees are simply separate' 

 from the diseased combs, hive an 

 brood, then the disease is destroye 

 by heat, and when bees have used al 

 honey in comb-building, the nex 

 brood will not be near any germs an 

 spores, consequently free from dis- 

 ease. 



In olden times, when the blacb 

 plague nearly depopulated whol 

 cities, those who had not contracted 

 the disease simply fled, after having 

 set fire to the city, and as both the 

 dead people and buildings had been 

 consumed by fire, the disease was 

 stamped out. As I understand it, the 

 •Hewitt or McEvoy plan is somewhat 

 on that order. 



Because Mr. Hewitt has not been 



