540 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



stand that we are heartily in sympathy with 

 the reform spelling; and if we had a club 

 big enough to help lop oft" a lot of the silent 

 and other letters of the wrong sound now 

 considered necessary in our outrageous or- 

 thography we would vise it most vigoi'ously. 

 We have already adopted a few short forms; 

 but these are so few and far between that 

 the average reader, probably, will not notice 

 them. We may adopt others little by little. 

 If a few more papers like the Literary Di- 

 gest, the I)i(le]:)endent, and other papers of 

 that class, would help blaze the way, we 

 should be glad to follow. As it is, we are 

 very sorry that Congress stopped President 

 Roosevelt from using the shortened spelling 

 in printing government bulletins. We should 

 soon have become accustomed to the shorter 

 spellings, even though at first they seem odd. 

 In the mean time we thank our subscriber 

 for his boost in the right direction. The ef- 

 fort may not be amiss. 



THE KAGE NOW ON FOR PURE-FOOD LAWS 

 IN MANY STATES; WHAT STATES HAVE AL- 

 READY ENACTED THEM, AND OTHERS THAT 

 ARE TRYING TO GET IN LINE. 



Pure-food laws are being passed so thick 

 and fast it is rather difficult to keep track of 

 all that is being done, for some States which 

 all along have had such a law on their stat- 

 ute-books are now amending them to con- 

 form to the national law. Others have had 

 laws, but for some reason or other they were 

 dead letters. 



Tennessee, for example, had a law, but 

 pi'ovided no funds for its enforcement. An 

 effort is now being made to get the necessary 

 amount voted by the legislature of that State 

 to secure its enforcement; and our readers in 

 that State ought to get busy at once. 



The Southern States have long been the 

 dumping-ground for all kinds of adulterated 

 and impure foods, and it is to be hoped ef- 

 forts will be successful in getting all these 

 States in line. 



In Idaho the pure-food law did not get a 

 hearing before the legislature adjourned; but 

 the bee-keepers of that State can easily revive 

 it again next session. 



In Pennsylvania the Tustin law is before 

 the legislature; and in New York, Mr. Oli- 

 ver, in the Assembly, and Mr. Frawley, in the 

 Senate, have charge of the new pure-food law 

 which brings the New York statute in line 

 with the national law. 



In Nebraska, the pure-food law is in the 

 care of Senator McKassan, and stands a good 

 chance of being enacted; but it would be a 

 good thing if our friends were to write to 

 their representatives, stating their views on 

 this matter. 



In West Virginia a pure-food measure is 

 up before the legislature and ought to pass. 



Vermont, New Hampshii'e, Massachusetts, 

 Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Colorado, Arkan- 

 sas, Ohio, North Dakota. Minnesota, Wiscon- 

 sin. Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, are already 

 in line, so that it looks now as if there would 



be hardly a State left out, and there should 

 not be. 



We have not heard from California as yet; 

 but the l)ee-keepers of that State ought to 

 pull hard to get the law enacted, as the hon- 

 ey from that State has suffered very much 

 from adulteration after it left there. In fu- 

 ture, when California honey is sold in the 

 East it will be California honey unless Uncle 

 Sam falls asleep, which is not at all likely; 

 on the contrary, we expect to see more strin- 

 gent laws enacted as the years go by. 



There are no sulphites, salts of tin, pto- 

 maines, formalin, sulphurous acid, nor hy- 

 drochloric acid in honey, hence we have noth- 

 ing to fear from any law; but our competi- 

 tors in the sugar and the glucose line have 

 much to fear. 



BACILLUS ALVEI NOT THE CAUSE OF ORDI- 

 NARY FOUL BROOD, ACCORDING TO 

 GERMAN SCIENTISTS. 



The following editorial in the British Bee 

 Journal for March 14, page 101, is somewhat 

 startling in its announcements — not so start- 

 ling, either, since the Imperial Biological In- 

 stitute's findings go a long way to confirm the 

 work of our own Dr. White, formerly of Cor- 

 nell University, and later of the Department 

 of Agriculture. Washington. First, the Insti- 

 tute agrees with Dr. White that Bacilus al- 

 vei is not the cause of foul brood, since, of 

 the 113 samples of foul brood examined, only 

 13 contained Bacillus alvei. Well, the edi- 

 torial fi'om our careful and conservative con- 

 temporary speaks of it as follows: 



A report has just been issued of the iavestigations 

 made durinsr 1905 in the Imperial Biolog-ical Institute 

 of Dahlem, near Berlin. In this report Nos. 24 and 25 

 are of special interest to bee-keepers, as they treat of 

 the experiments made on diseases of brood. The first 

 treats of foul brood of bees, and the last of what has 

 been called " Asper^illusmykose" of bees. 



The Institute received 119 samples of the di.seased 

 brood, and 112 of them were found to be foul brood. 

 It is stated that bee-keepers suppose that Bacillus 

 alvei is the prime cause of foul brood. The investiga- 

 tions of the Institute tend to show that this is not ab- 

 solutely correct, and that other bacteria play an im- 

 portant part in the development of the disease. In 

 other words, of the 112samplesof fo il brood examined, 

 Bacillus alrei was found in only thirteen, or, in round 

 numbers, in one sample out of every nine. This un- 

 expected result gave cause for considerable reflec- 

 tion and experiment. Food containing the bacilli 

 mentioned above was given to healthy colonies, and 

 foul brood failed to break out; nor was any effect pro- 

 duced when bacilli were brought in direct contact with 

 the larvte and nymphs in the cells. 



From this it would appear that Bacillus alvei is of 

 less importance than has hithertfl been attached to it. 

 Not only so, but in every case of foul brood another 

 microbe has been found, sometimes in company with 

 Bacillus alrei; but all attempts to produce the disease 

 with it failed; therefore it can not be considered as 

 playing any part in its production. 



In continuing the investigations a different microbe, 

 a Spiroclixte belonging to an altogether different fam- 

 ily of the higher bacteria, was found. It is spiral in 

 form, is not motile, and appeared in all samples of foul 

 brood as well as in the dried masses and scales, even 

 when these were several years old. 



According to the report, the researches were to be 

 continued during 1906, and it will be interesting to 

 know it this hitherto unknown organism has any 

 thing to do with the disease causing so much damage 

 to the bee-industry. In any case the results tend to 

 show that Bacillus alvei is not the real cause of foul 

 brood, and, when present, plays only a subordinate 

 part. 



