540 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



M. Bertrand, editor of the Rcvuc 

 yntionale d' A^nculteur, an eminent au- 

 thority, is reported as saying that 

 ••chilled brood has a great deal to do 

 with spreading foul-brood. Chilled brood 

 might exist without ever becoming foul- 

 brood ; but if there was chilled brood in 

 a hive, and the conditions were favor- 

 able for the spores of foul-brood to get 

 to it, then foul -brood would arise." 



Mr. Grimshaw, a prominent contribu- 

 tor to the columns of the British Bee 

 Journal, is reported as follows: "He 

 quite believed in M. Bertrand's opinion, 

 that chilled brood was very likely to 

 result in foul-brood, and strongly ad- 

 vised that the brood-nest should not be 

 disturbed in the sharp nipping time of 

 Spring, but be kept well quilted. Brood 

 that was decomposing just gave the very 

 sort of soil which noxious bacilli, float- 

 ing about in the air, were in search of — 

 at least that was the opinion of bacteri- 

 ologists. He should think that chilled 

 brood was not a cause of the disease, but 

 an accessory before the fact." 



Mr. T. W. Cowan, editor of the British 

 Bee Journal, writes : "I do not believe 

 foul-brood can break out in any district 

 if the germs of the disease are not pres- 

 ent in that district ; and it is only if the 

 disease germs are in the district that 

 chilled brood can form a nucleus for the 

 spread of the disease. I am quite sure 

 that in a healthy district, where the dis- 

 ease germs do not exist, foul-brood could 

 not originate spontaneously, however 

 much chilled brood there may be. I 

 have known hives affected with foul- 

 brood where there had been no chilled 

 brood, and on the other hand apiaries 

 perfectly free from it where large quanti- 

 ties of brood were chilled by incautiously 

 spreading the brood in the Spring." 



Some years ago Mr. D. A. Jones 

 stated, at a convention, that he believed 

 he could start foul-brood at will in any 

 apiary, by decapitating the drone brood, 

 and placing the combs containing the 

 dead brood under a nucleus. He tried 

 it in his own apiary later on, and failed, 

 after doing everything he could think of 

 to infect healthy larv£e by means of the 

 putrid matter from the drone combs. He 

 had the seed bed, but the seeds of the 

 disease did not happen to be floating 

 around in Beeton just then. 



By keeping the hives free from dead, 

 brood, we shall avoid one of the means 

 which assists the spreading of the dis- 

 ease, but if we rely on this alone for its 

 extermination, we shall never be able to 

 say that " foul-brood is a thing of the 

 past." 



Lindsay, Ont. 



Do Not &iye Yoar Honey Away. 



M. M. BALDEIDGE. 



Friend Heddon says he thinks con- 

 sumers of extracted-honey will buy just 

 as much at 10 cents per pound, when 

 sugar is worth 4 cents, as when it is 

 worth 8 cents per pound. 



That is my belief, also, because it is 

 my experience. But I will state the case 

 stronger : Consumers will buy and use 

 just as much extracted-honey at 10 

 cents, 15 cents, or 20 cents per pound, 

 when sugar is worth one cent, as when 

 it is worth ten cents per pound ! Why ? 

 Simply because honey is not used gen- 

 erally for the same reason, the same 

 purpose, nor as a substitute. The price 

 of sugar should have no more influence 

 on the price of honey, than lard has on 

 the price of butter. 



I do not see as the price of cane sugar, 

 or cane syrup has any influence on the 

 price of maple sugar, or maple syrup, 

 when pure. Why ? Because they are 

 not used for the same purpose, nor for 

 the same reasons, generally. Consumers 

 use honey, maple sugar, and maple 

 syrup for precisely the same reasons, so 

 far as my experience goes, namely, the 

 peculiar flavor they each possess. 



Take away from honey, or maple, its 

 peculiar flavor, and consumers would 

 just as soon have cane syrup for table 

 use. They would, in fact, prefer cane 

 sugar to honey, or maple, for cooking or 

 preserving purposes, at the same price 

 per pound, and simply because cane 

 sugar is richer in saccharine. 



It is my belief that all who claim that 

 the price of cane sugar should or will 

 effect the price of honey, whether in the 

 comb or extracted, have not yet learned 

 how to present the facts about honey to 

 consumers. It might pay them to serve 

 an apprenticeship in the art of selling 

 honey, with some one who 'is an expert 

 at the business. They might then, per- 

 haps, be surprised to learn how simple 

 and easy it is to sell honey, especially 

 extracted, to consumers at 15, 20, and 

 even 24 cents per pound. The latter 

 has been my price for the past six 

 months, and I still adhere to it, notwith- 

 standing the price of cane sugar has 

 been reduced 2 cents per pound since 

 April 1. 



As a rule, I do not sell honey to con- 

 sumers by the single pound, but only in 

 5-pound packages. Five pounds is my 

 smallest package, and 10 pounds, or 

 two packages, is the largest quantity I 



