536 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



taxes, 5 cents on each stand [colony] of 

 bees, which tax shall be paid into the 

 State treasury at the same time and 

 manner as other State taxes, and be 

 used for the suppression of foul-brood 

 among bees, and the promotion of the 

 apiarian industry of the State, as may 

 be, from time to time, voted by the 

 Illinois Bee-Keepers' Association, and 

 approved by the Governor. 



Sec. 18. The revenue derived from 

 the operations of this statute, or so much 

 thereof as may be necessary for 

 the purposes specified in the foregoing 

 section, is hereby appropriated to defray 

 the expenses contemplated by this act, 

 to be paid by the State Treasurer upon 

 warrants drawn by the Auditor of the 

 State, which warrants shall be drawn 

 only upon vouchers and bills signed by 

 the President of the Illinois Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, countersigned by the 

 Secretary thereof. 



In Hng^laiid the season is reported 

 by the BriUsli Bee Journal to be "all 

 that one could wish." Spring has 

 arrived in good earnest, and "the time 

 for the singing of birds has come," the 

 bees are merrily buzzing and bringing in 

 pollen. The British Bee Journal thus 

 refers to the matter : 



Luckily for colonies which have lost 

 heavily in bees this Winter, the warm 

 weather of February did not last long 

 enough to induce breeding to any con- 

 siderable extent, otherwise the cold dur- 

 ing the greater portion of March has 

 been quite severe enough to cause 

 shrinkage of already attenuated clusters, 

 sufficient to make certain that, in some 

 cases at least, chilled brood would have 

 been inevitable. So far, however, as we 

 can learn, no harm has been done, and 

 the welcome return of cool weather has 

 no doubt saved the lives of an enormous 

 number of bees which would inevitably 

 have perished had warmth accompanied 

 the late boisterous weather of the early 

 part of March. Any day, however, may 

 see a wonderful change, and the season 

 be on us before we can look around. 



The following from the Bee-Keepers- 

 Record on the same subject will also be 

 read with interest : 



Bees have passed through one of the 

 severest Winters on record, and are 

 found to-day in better condition than 

 for some years past. In confirmation of 



this assertion, we direct attention to the 

 numerous reports in this issue, and it 

 will be seen that in the all-round good 

 condition of the great majority of our 

 readers' apiaries, there is substantial 

 cause for congratulation. A few days 

 of much-needed warmth in February was 

 followed by a " close " March — close, 

 fortunately, in the sense of keeping bees 

 in-doors, and thus avoiding the heavy 

 losses often incurred when March has 

 been a mild but boisterous month. Few 

 bee-keepers can help feeling a pang 

 when scores of bees, tempted by the 

 treacherous warmth outside, are seen to 

 leave their snug homes only to be carried 

 off by the high wind, the force of which 

 prevents their return, and this at a time 

 when bee-life is so precious. The recent 

 storms, however, have been productive 

 of no loss in this way, for scarce a bee 

 took wing while the fierce gales lasted. 



Microbes, even though we think 

 of them only as enemies, have uses in 

 the world. They are friends as well as 

 foes. Dr. Byron D. Halsted writes thus 

 to the New York Tribune about their 

 uses in the economy of Nature : 



A few years ago, when, with the 

 advent of the better lenses, it was stated 

 that all diseases would, in time, be found 

 due to bacteria, it was then thought that 

 these microscopic germs were, only our 

 enemies. Now the sight has deepened, 

 and we conclude that we live, as well as 

 die, by them. They are the minute 

 scavengers of the world, and by means 

 of their ever-presence and great rapidity 

 of multiplication, the earth is kept 

 sweet — or, at least, the bacteria do their 

 part to remove filth by hastening decay. 



Within the past few years it has been 

 found that the very important list of 

 changes in the soil known under the 

 name of nitrification, is due to the action 

 of bacteria. They have gone further 

 than this, and claim that the superior 

 power that some plants, as the clovers, 

 lupins, peas, and other leguminous 

 crops, are able to draw upon special 

 sources of nitrogen because of the bac- 

 teria associated with their roots. They 

 find tubercles or small galls on the roots, 

 which are the places w^iere the bacteria 

 breed. 



Let the study of these germs be 

 prosecuted fully, for only good can come 

 of it. It may be found that it will be 

 unsafe to exclude bacteria from any- 

 thing in which changes are desired. 



