T12 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



of the keeping of bees being a new 

 business. There have been some 

 valuable inventions made in recent 

 years, bnt that does not make the 

 business new, any more than the in- 

 vention of the last patent-churn 

 makes the keeping of cows a new 

 business. Besides, is it not better 

 policy for bee-keepers to claim that 

 the business is old for another reasonV 

 A bee is a commoner in the fields and 

 forests, and has been for thousands 

 of years. It has the right of way 

 there. In Illinois if awagou-road has 

 been traveled even for twenty years, 

 it is a road. 



By what rule would Mr. Camm and 

 that fast-increasing number of people 

 about whom lie tells us, value the 

 land only for the purposes of taxa- 

 tion, and not take into consideration 

 the products of labor or improve- 

 ments on such land made by labor V 

 Would he tax a quarter section in 

 Chicago, covered with buildings, some 

 of whicii are twelve stories high, the 

 same as he would a quarter section of 

 barren sand-hills y So the fertility of 

 the land wotild not figure, as it would 

 require labor to harvest the crop. 

 Without labor a quarter section con- 

 taining a gold mine would be of no 

 more value than the sand-hills. So it 

 appears that if the land only was 

 taxed there might be some difficulty 

 in fixing the right amount on each 

 tract according to Mr. C's proposed 

 plan. I suppose this army of non -tax- 

 payers will expect to do the most of 

 the voting, especially when questions 

 of taxation are being considered — 

 building scliool-houses, etc. 



Glenwood,d Ills. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Tie Stark County, 0,, Convention, 



The bee-keepers of Stark and ad- 

 joining counties met in Grange Hall, 

 at Canton, O.. on Oct. 26,1886. Mr. 

 Oswalt, the President, on taking the 

 chair, said that tlie society ought to 

 instruct the committee appointed for 

 that purpose, to get all the conces- 

 sions that is possible in the way of a 

 suitable building for exhibits, and 

 increase in premiums, from the di- 

 rectors of the Agricultural Society. 

 Dr. G. L. Tinker tliouglit that the 

 premiums were so small, usually, that 

 it was no inducement tor beekeepers 

 to make exliibits, and also that the 

 judges on sucli exhibits were usually 

 incompetent. 



Mr. Oswalt said that honey was 

 classified with pies, cakes, jams and 

 jellies, wliich should not be the case, 

 but that a sei)arate room or building 

 should be provided for the purpose. 



Dr. G. L. Tinker, of New Philadel- 

 phia, then read the following essay on 



FOUL BKOOD. 



The disease of the larval brood of 

 bees is yet wanting a scientific name. 

 Mr. Frank Cheshire, of England, who 

 is an expert microseopist, has investi- 

 gated it and given a scientific name— 

 hacillus nhei. But this germ, if we 

 are to judge by Mr. Cheshire's de- 

 scription of it, is not the germ that is 



the cause of true foul brood. He says 

 that bacillus alvei is not conveyed in 

 the honey from one colony to another, 

 when all who have had experience 

 with it unite in saying that honey 

 from a foul broody colony will convey 

 the disease promptly and surely. Mr. 

 Cheshire also states that bacillus alvei 

 may exist in the blood and ovaries of 

 queens, and that in many cases the 

 disease cannot be eradicated perma- 

 nently without superseding such 

 queens. 



But the history of the disease has 

 shown that every case, however viru- 

 lent, may be cured by Mr. D. A. 

 Jones' starvation plan, which consists 

 in driving the bees into a box and 

 confining them tor 48 hours, or un- 

 til all the honey in their honey-sacs 

 is consumed ; then hiving the bees in 

 new hives on foundation. If all cases 

 of foul brood can be cured by this 

 plan, as is alleged, it would appear 

 that the true germs of foul brood do 

 not enter the blood of the bees or ex- 

 ist in the ovaries of the queens ; since, 

 if such were the fact the starvation 

 cure must fail to eradicate the germs 

 in so short a time. We may conclude 

 then that the true nature of foul 

 brood has not been ascertained, and 

 that we shall have to wait awhile yet 

 for a scientific name. 



That it is a germ disease, however, 

 there is every evidence, as much so as 

 in all the more contagious and dan- 

 gerous maladies affecting humanity, 

 that are now believed to be of un- 

 doubted germ origin. 



I have never seen a ease of foul 

 brood, t)ut it is described as produc- 

 ing quite uniform symptoms and ef- 

 fects. The larvse are usually sealed 

 up by the bees before death occurs, 

 after which a very foul odor arises 

 from the combs and hives. The cap- 

 ping of the cells becomes perforated, 

 leaving a small pin-hole opening that 

 seems to be a characteristic symptom. 

 Both healthy and diseased brood may 

 be found on the same combs, but in 

 many cases there will be found little 

 healthy brood left; the result being 

 that the colony steadily dwindles 

 until it is robbed out by other bees of 

 the neighborhood. Then it is that 

 the disease is spread broad-cast, and 

 if not checked by active interference, 

 it will ruin the prospects of every bee- 

 keeper in its range. 



But the robbing of an affected col- 

 ony by healthy bees is only one way 

 by which the contagion is conveyed. 

 Foul brood may be conveyed in many 

 ways, by careless bee-keepers indi- 

 rectly to healthy colonies. The in- 

 visible germs may attach themselves 

 to the hands, the clothing, and to 

 utensils, and thus be carried long dis- 

 tances. A very common means of 

 transmission is by means of the ex- 

 tracted honey sold from apiaries hav- 

 ing affected colonies. If a single drop 

 of such honey is exposed, and taken 

 by healthy bees it will convey the 

 deadly venom with unerring pre- 

 cision. 



The treatment recommended is 

 varied, for success has attended a 

 number of plans of treatment, while 

 in some cases it has seemed to die out 

 for a time only to break out anew, 



and usually with greater virulence at 

 another time. Burning the colo- 

 nies with fire where the disease is 

 early discovered, has many times 

 stamped it out speedily, and in some 

 cases it may be still advisable to use 

 fire, where the owner of the colonies 

 is unable at once to attend to them. 

 Treatment of some kind is impera- 

 tive, and the greatest care is required 

 to prevent any attempt at robbing by 

 keeping all sweets out of the reach of 

 the bees. 



The starvation cure is reliable, and 

 I believe that Prof. N. W. McLain's 

 treatment lately given in all of the 

 bee-periodicals is also reliable. But 

 it is entirely useless to attempt a cure 

 by a hap-hazard or incomplete course. 

 The treatment must be thorough so 

 that every germ is destroyed. There 

 have been cases where treatment has 

 been attempted (but ignorantly or 

 imperfectly carried out), that the 

 owner has abandoned his bees to their 

 fate, leaving the evil to spread to all 

 the other bees within reach. Fortu- 

 nately we have very few such men, 

 and I dare say none in our midst who 

 would not make every effort to eradi- 

 cate the disease. But special laws 

 have been enacted in several States 

 to compel the indifferent and refrac- 

 tory to do their duty. Heretofore we 

 have had very few cases of the malady 

 in Ohio, and no legislation has been 

 necessary, and I shall hope that there 

 will not arise an occasion in which an 

 appeal to the law will ever be nec- 

 essary. 



Bee-keepers' associations are of 

 great benefit and advantage to the 

 apicultural industry, and if ever we 

 shall be so unfortunate as to find foul 

 brood in our midst, the wise counsel 

 and action of this association may be- 

 come indispensable in successfully 

 dealing with it. 



After a general discusssion of the 

 above subject, the reports were called 

 for. Dr. Tinker reported 42 colonies, 

 spring count, and some of them weak. 

 He had disposed of 9, leaving 33, 4 of 

 which were weak. From these 29 

 colonies he secured 2,000 pounds of 

 nice white comb honey, and 200 

 pounds of extracted, and increa.sed 

 them to 76,some of which were nuclei. 



Dr. Fox, of Sandyville, commenced 

 the spring with 1 colony, increased it 

 to 5 by natural swarming, and ob- 

 tained 124 pounds of honey. 



A. J. Kohn had 4 colonies, spring 

 count, increased them to 9, and ob- 

 tained about 100 pounds of honey ; 

 left SO or 100 pounds on the hives 

 besides. 



Jacob Oswalt commenced with 20 

 colonies in good condition last spring, 

 increased them to 3o, and took 1,000 

 pounds of surplus. 



Myers Sweaney commenced the sea- 

 son with 9 good colonies in prime con- 

 dition, and increased to 32, besides 

 taking 1,034 pounds of comb honey, 

 and thought he would take enough 

 more to increase the amount to 1,050 

 pounds. One colony that did not 

 swarm produced 211 pounds of comb 

 honev. 



J.H.Smith commenced the spring 

 with 4 colonies, some of which were 



