THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



341 



many bee-keepers in it, that none can 

 succeed, we can ■" plant." Will it not 

 be ample time to agitate the " plant- 

 ing '" question, when at least one-half 

 of the nectar now going to waste, in 

 unoccupied fields, is gathered V 



Have we not had evidence enough, 

 that farming and apiculture are 

 naturally opposed to each other's suc- 

 cess? I can show ample evidence in 

 this County. 



I have already tried to show that 

 comparison between selling goods and 

 securing honey are great misfits ; also 

 between honey-producing and gaiden- 

 ing. Inprease gardens all you please, 

 and the operations of one on the next 

 acre, in no way makes the productions 

 of the next oiie more expensive, as is 

 the case with honey-production. 



Mr. Clarke says, " it would he a long 

 time before a village would have a 

 second store, if the prior consent of 

 merchant No. 1, must be had before 

 starting it." 



In this, Mr. Clarke has had a good 

 chance to judge, and is, no doubt, cor- 

 rect. We also know that the propen- 

 sity of benevolence is equally distrib- 

 uted throughout all the different 

 legitimate callings of life. Are bee- 

 keepers more interested in humanity V 

 Or is it only the few who have 

 some " ax to grind " (and expect that 

 the dupes to these broad, philanthrop- 

 ic views, will turn the grind-stone), 

 who advise us to abandon self- 

 interest, for the interest of an out- 

 side class, who are assiduously work- 

 ing for their own individual interests. 



Mr. Clarke wonders what I will 

 think of him after reading his article. 

 Well, I think he is among the " mis- 

 taken," and always will be, I presume, 

 until he lays aside all other sources of 

 income, except apiculture, and then in 

 a few years will get at the facts. The 

 inexperienced are on the one side, and 

 the experienced on the other. 



Dowagiac, Mich., May l-'S, 18S4. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Diarrhoea alias Dysentery. 



J. F. LATHAM. 



The editor of the Bee Journal de- 

 fines the malady "Bee-Diarrhoea." 

 Perhaps his definition is as correct as 

 any, when an allusion to the disease 

 is made in a general sense ; but, as the 

 symptoms accompanying diarrhoea, 

 and those accompanying dysentery, 

 are developed by phases not strictly 

 allied, characteristically, we will term 

 the kind we wish to talk about dysen- 

 tery or abnormal secretion ; and as- 

 sume a position that will admit of 

 an analogical construction. 



Any cause which produces an exces- 

 sive stimulation of the animal func- 

 tions, has a tendency to produce a 

 deranged secretion of "the fluids which 

 are demanded by the animal economy 

 to replace, by assimilation, the waste 

 of organic tissue. In normal condi- 

 tions the animal functions have a par- 

 ticular work, and each organ, by per- 

 forming its allotted duties, is not over 

 tasked by being compelled to aid a 

 defective co-worker ; no excessive heat 



is generated in the removal and pro- 

 duction of animal tissue. 



Nature receives her revenues, and 

 disburses them as her" requirements 

 demand, and the whole organic mech- 

 anism moves harmoniously. Intro- 

 duce agents in any form, or of any 

 character, that will cause disturbance 

 in this harmonious process, and dis- 

 organized action will be the result. It 

 matters not from what source the 

 irritating elements are derived, the 

 consequence of their working pos- 

 sesses a similarity, although they may 

 not at all times effect the same re- 

 sults, being modified in a greater or 

 less degree by the influence of sur- 

 roundings or conditions in which their 

 subjects are placed. 



If this functional derangement con- 

 tinues for a certain time, it will ter- 

 minate in general debility, weakness, 

 defective action, etc. Digestion and 

 assimilation are impaired and the chyle 

 that should aid in renewing the wastes 

 of the body, remains in the intestinal 

 receptacles, and becomes virulent. 



As bees in our Northern climate 

 are compelled to remain in confine- 

 ment a long time in winter, a portion 

 of this effete matter is drawn into the 

 circulation ; and, as they will not void 

 their feces in the hive, except from 

 dire complusion, it may be very cor- 

 rectly imagined what the consequence 

 will be, wnen a colony is forced to 

 combat such baneful conditions, with- 

 out an opportunity to relieve its dis- 

 tended organs when necessity de- 

 mands. 



The causes tending to a develop- 

 mentof thederangedcondition alluded 

 to in the foregoing, are so numerous 

 and variable, and so connected in their 

 relations, that the effect of their 

 workings cannot be attributed to any 

 one cause alone ; but as the food eaten, 

 the air breathed, and the means used 

 for protection from cold, comprise the 

 main requirements for the support of 

 animal life, so do they contain ele- 

 ments which will tend to its destruc- 

 tion when improperly constituted, or 

 defectively applied. 



Nature has constituted the honey- 

 bee to maintain life, and perform its 

 allotted duties from the nectar and 

 farina of the flowers ; and, in the sea- 

 son of bloom, when she can sip the 

 exuding sweets, and gather the chaste 

 pollen in their pristine purity, and 

 rear her young on their health-pro- 

 ducing elements, her workings display 

 vigor and activity. Then nature — in- 

 stinct, — the indices of attributes 

 omnipotent, require no manipula- 

 tion. 



But, as the devices of man have 

 made the bee a domestic contributor 

 to his desires, when the frosts of au- 

 tumn forbid her serial wanderings, 

 and the rigors of winter confine her to 

 the hive, his intelligent care is de- 

 manded for her protection and sup- 

 port. To fulfil the requirements of 

 nature, honey in its original purity, or 

 its substitute, is the only aliment 

 needed by a colony of bees in winter ; 

 in fact, it is the only food they will 

 partake of when inactive. As children 

 of nature they live by her monitions, 

 and in their acts comply with her 

 promptings. 



During their winter's sleep their 

 physical reciuirements demand but 

 little nitrogenous food. Comb-build- 

 ing is disv^ensed with, and no brood is 

 reared, unless conditions prompt the 

 renewal of a too rapid loss of num- 

 bers ; then activity requires a nitro- 

 genous diet, and pollen, an indispen- 

 sable auxiliar in brood - rearing, is 

 needed, and will be consumed by the 

 old bees while nursing their young. 

 The young bees reared under such 

 conditions, and those reared late in 

 the fall and do not leave their cells 

 until winter has set in, must retain 

 their feces until an opportunity for a 

 " fly " is given them. If the weather 

 is not favorable for such an opportu- 

 nity, at a proper time, they must in- 

 variably succumb to the effects of 

 virulent foecal accumulations. 



This condition is prominently indi- 

 cated by the bees crawling from their 

 hives late in the fall, or in their flying 

 out and perishing on the snow in early 

 winter. This condition of brood-rear- 

 ing after cold weather has set in, and 

 its harmful effects on pollen-eating 

 bees, seems to be one that will bear 

 investigation by those who so very 

 strenuously advocate "late fall breed- 

 ing." 



That there are other conditions, is 

 evident ; but, as activity prompted 

 the consumption of pollen in this in- 

 stance, it seems that to activity, 

 should be accredited the prime 

 cause of the trouble. Another cause 

 exists in sour honey — nectar not suffi- 

 ciently ripened to prevent acetic fer- 

 mentation, and in the parasitic prod ac- 

 tions incident to such a stage of 

 decomposition. This fermentation 

 may take ))lace before the honey is 

 used as food, or it may occur in the 

 debilitated stomach or intestinal canal 

 of the consumer, when conditions will 

 not permit sutticient capillary con- 

 traction to expel that proportion not 

 needed in a liealthy digestion or as- 

 similation. 



To unripened nectar, may be added 

 other compounds accumulated as 

 stores, which are too well known to 

 the observing bee-keeper to need enu- 

 merating. All colonies of bees are 

 not as neat in their house-keeping as 

 health demands. The combs in some 

 colonies are not kept as free from 

 refuse matter as those in others ; and, 

 as the nectar when stored in foul 

 combs must partake of their unclean- 

 liness, it caunot make such food as 

 bees require in winter. 



From these deducements, based on 

 observation, and confirmed by the 

 statements of others who have lost 

 their bees under conditions attributa- 

 ble to the causes named, I have no 

 hesitancy in stating that acetic fer- 

 mentation is the first great cause of 

 diarrha'a among bees during confine- 

 ment in winter. 



As a test, let any bee-keeper take 

 a colony of bees that he wishes to kill, 

 and feed them to distention on diluted 

 honey in its first stages of fermentar 

 tion, with or without pollen, keeping 

 them the while in a cold atmosphere 

 without " flying " at proper intervals ; 

 and if the process does not produce 

 diarrhoea, let us know through the 

 Bee .Journal. 



