616 



THE AMERICAiq BEE JOURNAL. 



— aye, and more, it is spicy and re- 

 plete with wit and wisdom. iJiit tliis 

 IS not all ; Mr. Clarke's " Bird's-Eye 

 View of Bee-Keeping " is not only 

 terse, plain, vigorous, and pointed, 

 but being all in rhyme, it makes the 

 strongest impression upon the reader 

 in the fewest possible lines. In the 

 preface the author asks if the poetry 

 has all gone out of bee-keeping. 

 Allow me to answer that question by 

 asking how poetry could desert a pur- 

 suit so beautifully and closely con- 

 nected with nature, that is 



"In every cnarm supreme! 

 Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new. 

 O fur the voice and Are of seraptiine. 

 To sing the glories with devotion due ! 

 Blest be the day I 'scaped tbe wrangling crew, 

 From Pyrrlio's m;ize. and Epicurus' stv ; 

 And lield high converse with the god-like few, 

 Who to th' enraptured heart, and ear, and eye. 

 Teach Beauty. Virtue. Truth. Love and Melody." 



Is there not always as much poetry 

 in the works of nature as the ob- 

 server is capable of receiving from it'i* 

 In other words, is not the poetry in 

 the brain that looks upon the scene V 

 Next to Held sports I have found bee- 

 keeping best calculated to arouse the 

 poetic sentiment within. Who can 

 stroll over the tields during this 

 month, watching 



" The pollen-dusted bees 



Search for the honey-Jess 

 That linger in the last flowers of September, 



While plaintive mourning doves 



Coo sadly to their loves. 

 Of the dead summer they so well remember," 



without a heartfelt gladness that the 

 poetic sentiment is in the world, and 

 that he has received a share. 



Mr. Clarke has well claimed that in 

 apiultural literature there is room,yes, 

 a demand for thoughts delivered in 

 rhyme, for is it not true that 



•' Sages and chiefs long since had birth, 



Ere Caesar was, or Newton naaied ; 



These raided new Empires o'er the earth, 



And those, new Heavens and systems framed : 



Vain was the chiefs, the sages' pride ! 



They had no poet, and they died. 



In vain they schemed, in vain they bled ! 



They had no poet, and are dead !" 



I consider the book uncommonly 

 instructive and correct in its teach- 

 ings, considering its brevity and that 

 It is written for beginners. 



Without attempting to eulogize all 

 of the many well-put assertions that I 

 consider correct, nor criticize the few 

 that do not agree with my experience, 

 I will not pass without merely men- 

 tioning my pleasure at noting Mr. 

 Clarke's truisms, wherein he states 

 that beginners should seek a loca- 

 tion clear of other bees; should 

 not expect to get rich in a minute; 

 and should not urge every one to em- 

 bark in bee-keeping. I endorse what 

 he says about the treatment of angry 

 bees, and scores of other things too 

 numerou.s to mention here. 



I cannot agree with him about the 

 ntne.ss of bee-keeping for ladies ; I 

 fear his great gallantry has led him 

 astray. We do not agree on hiberna- 

 tion yet, and I think few will agree 

 with his statement (on page 15 of his 

 book) tliat hybrid bees show greater 

 tendency to swarm than pure Italians. 

 The German bees, from whence came 

 the cross, are, I believe, conceeded to 

 be tlie most non-swarming race. 



I cannot agree with him on page 20, 

 that any honey-producer should wear 

 gloves of any kind. I believe such 

 would be left far behind in the race. 



I know of no more appropriate place 

 to apply the old adage, that " Cats 

 with gloves on catch no mice." I 

 would hardly want queens reared in 

 the manner mentioned on page 29 ; 

 yet this may be only a matter of 

 prejudice. We all know that Mr. 

 Clarke 



" Sometimes raises scruples dark and nice, 

 And after, solves 'em in a trice : 

 Like one who purposely had • catched' 

 The itch, in order to be scratched." 



On page 10 he speaks about arbi- 

 tary prohibition of persons keeping a 

 few bees, as though this prohibition 

 was of man's rather than nature's 

 law. That the specialist can produce 

 honey at a price that the dabbler can- 

 not, is a law of nature that no one can 

 change. 



Taken all in all, looked at from my 

 stand-point, I dnd, as compared with 

 other books, very little to criticize as 

 compared with the much to com- 

 mend. I have placed the little work 

 in my apicultural library, with a feel- 

 ing of pride and satisfaction, and it is 

 with perfect assurance that I say that 

 it is worth many times more than the 

 2-5 cents asked for it, to any bee- 

 keeper, as well as to many that never 

 expect to keep a bee. 



" Call it not vain— they do not err 

 Who say that when the Poet dies. 

 Mute Nature mourns her whisperer. 

 And celebrates bis obsequies." 



And now in closing this hasty re- 

 view of another valuable addition to 

 apicultural literature, I think 1 am 

 warranted in saying, in behalf of our 

 fraternity, that 



We can but think, our faithful friend. 

 The end 



Of life will find you leal.unweary 

 Of tested bonds that naught can rend, 



And e'en if years be sad and dreary. 

 Our plighted friendship will extend ! 



Dowagiac, ? Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Foul Brood— A Real Bee-Malaily, 



T. F. BINGHAM. 



That " moss covered " saying, 

 "Nothing new under the sun," may 

 now with aesthetic propriety be laid 

 on the dusty shelf of the past. The 

 disease may have been an old one, 

 though Prof. Cook intimates that it is 

 a matter of doubt whether Aristotle 

 knew anything about it. To us it is 

 not of importance whether Aristotle 

 recognized the odor of the decaying 

 larvse or undigested pollen as symp- 

 toms of disease of specitic types. 



On page 584 is a concise and care- 

 ful description of the process of cure 

 and presumed prevention of foul 

 brood; the condition and phases of 

 the much dreaded disorder, as it ex- 

 isted in the apiaries treated by the 

 process described. 



It will be noticed that while all the 

 older writers on bee-diseases have re- 

 garded foul brood as its name im- 

 plies, viz : a disease of the brood, and 

 not of the older and mature bees ; 

 while the article above referred to 

 avers that " bees crawled out of the 

 hives to die by tens of thousands — 

 effect of treatment apparent in one 

 day." There can be no misunder- 



standing that sentence. The disease 

 killed the old bees, and the dope cured 

 the old bees the same day. 



It is of importance to bee-keepers 

 that we have just such descriptions 

 of an malady which may even in a 

 single apiary occur. Theories admit 

 of discussion, and frequently do much 

 to fill bee-papers with debatable mat- 

 ter, but facts clearly set forth, as are 

 those of Mr. McLain, shed light in 

 dark places. 



Foul brood, or the dying of par- 

 tially mature bees in their cells, 

 appears to be a very common occur- 

 rence in apiaries, and it seems also to 

 be of such a nature, either from its 

 character or from the influence of 

 what has been written about it upon 

 the nervous systems of various bee- 

 keepers and writers of bee-literature, 

 that either from its real enmity to 

 bee-culture, or the superstition with 

 which it has been regarded, that it is 

 a real malady, and one of great 

 moment. 



While Mr. McLain's experience 

 may have inadvertantly cast a florid 

 hue over the dreaded— but as now 

 appears not well named disorder— we 

 shall all welcome as new and sub- 

 stantiative the facts he has so clearly 

 given, demonstrating that combs and 

 hives have been renovated in an easily 

 practicable manner. While the fact 

 seems so plausible, it behooves every 

 bee-keeper to remember that " eternal 

 vigilence is the price" of success as 

 well as liberty, and that too much 

 care cannot be given that diseased 

 brood does not spend in his own 

 apiary and to those around him. 



Abronia, ? Mich. 



For the Amertcan Beo JoumaL 



Is Pollen Necessary for Bees in Winter? 



SAMUEL CUSHMAN. 



It would be hard to better the re- 

 marks made by Rev. W. F. Clarke 

 (page 810 of Vol. 21 of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal), in regard 

 to Prof. Cook's essay on the " Pollen 

 Theory," read at the Detroit Conven- 

 tion. They were, that " Tbe pollen 

 theory had got its quietus from Prof. 

 Cook. He has memtioned that bees 

 cannot breed without taking nitro- 

 genous food. If they take that food 

 it must be digested and the feces ex- 

 creted. Well, Mr. Barber and Mr. 

 Hall have proved that bees breed 

 largely, i. e., work hard, and there- 

 fore rnust eat and digest strong food. 

 The inference is plain. The bees if 

 they excrete do it in dry feces. They 

 must excrete ; that is clear; therefore, 

 there is no danger in having pollen in 

 the hive. On the contrary it is nec- 

 essary." 



The Professor's essay (page 25 of 

 the Bee Journal for 1886) is one of 

 the best articles against the theory 

 that I have seen, and it seems to me 

 that bee-keepers 'O'ho read it must 

 realize (in spite of the Professor's con- 

 clusions) what a serious matter it 

 would be to deprive the bees of their 

 pollen. The fact that the bees which 

 were deprived of pollen died without 



