234 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



gregation of so much foulness. To 

 my surprise, I found the disease was 

 gone, not a yellow fellow left, and, 

 so far as I remember, the disease 

 did not show up again in that colony. 

 Why? Did the developing of such 

 an immense force of young bees 

 have anything to do with the case? 



Marengo, 111. 



After having written the foregoing 

 article, 1 sent my friend a copy of 

 it. As soon as he could he wrote 

 back tilling me that (bacillus pluton) 

 doesn't have any spores, intimating 

 an easy way for me to make correc- 

 tion in my article before it got into 

 print, so as not to expose my ignor- 

 ance. I think, however, that I'll 

 make no correction. Exposure may 

 be good for me, for the fact is that 

 I supposed no bacillus was ever so 

 thoughtless as to be without its 

 spore, and perhaps I ought to be 

 more careful as to writing about 

 tilings concerning which I know so 

 little. So, instead of making any 

 correction, I'll let you make your 

 own corrections, after reading Dr. 

 Phillips' letter, in which I am sure 

 you will be interested. 



C. C. MILLER. 



Washington, D. C, May 25. 1918. 

 Dear Mr. Miller: 



Your interesting article, prepared 

 for the American Bee Journal was 

 received while I was on the road. 

 Our Mr. Sturdevant took it with him 

 to Ithaca, N. Y„ where he is to work 

 on European foulbrood for a while 

 and where I met him to help arrange 

 some of the details. We went over 

 the article together, and now I have 

 brought it home to acknowledge its 

 receipt. This will explain the delay. 



There are one or two comments, 

 one especially important, and which 

 I think you will want to use as tin- 

 basis of a change in your American 

 Bee Journal copy. 



You refer several times to spores, 

 while (bacillus pluton) does not form 

 M'ore-^ This fact upsets things a bit, 

 for it makes it all the harder to un- 

 derstand how the bacilli live over 

 winter. However, you can simply 

 change the word "spore" to "bacteri- 

 um" and not materially change the 



ii < We do not know how the 

 vegetative bacilli can live over win- 

 ter, .'iiid. since they cannot be grown 

 on any bacteriological medium, it is 

 difficult to get light. 



Vnii also Speak of a "bad ease in 

 the fall." but such a case is as scarce 

 as Inn's teeth. We have had sam 

 pies here every month ill the year. 



but after lulv it is usually dried ma 



I. rial. 



You could be more definite on 

 over-winter cures, for they are not 

 rare. In other words, when tile dis- 

 ease disappears in July, if conditions 

 are right for preventing the disease, 

 uently never i . app 



I 1" lii\ i' 1 ti ild \ . iii thai my 

 father's little apiary was bill', Euro- 

 pean foulbrood in 1915, when I went 

 out iii June. I showed my brother 

 how to shake on drawn combs (my 

 nd plan i ii treatment. I He intro- 

 duced Italians and (most important 

 of all) he built winter cases. No dis- 



ease has been seen in the apiary 

 since, but the region is full of it. I 

 examined the apiary one week ago 

 today and the colonies average 

 brood in IS frames. I have an idea 

 that the folks at home will not ex- 

 perience a sugar shortage this year. 

 A few colonies now have mismated 

 queens and I hope to get out home 

 and requeen these in August. 



E. F. PHILLIPS. 



Beekeeping in Jerusalem 



(Concluded from June) 

 By Ph. J. Baldensperger 



THE garden and thicket near the 

 slopes of Moriah and up to the 

 slaughtering place in the open 

 on Mt. Zion were then a diminutive 

 bee paradise. I found an ample col- 

 lection of honey-plants all about the 

 fields, in the hedges, on the ruins of 

 crumbling houses, and often the city 

 walls were lined with them on the 

 inside — for seen from the exterior 

 the walls are perfectly clean except 

 near the tower of Hippicus, and the 

 Jaffa gate dating, no doubt, from be- 

 fore the final fall of Jerusalem under 

 Titus. 



Broad-beans (fava), a favorite 

 plant with orientals for kitchen use, 

 were largely cultivated in early 

 spring and gave plenty of honey and 

 some pollen. The dried stalks and 

 leaves are excellent food for camels 

 and cattle. 



Cactus hedges, originally planted 

 to hedge in the fields, had become 

 the principal plants in some fields 

 there. The big yellow and orange 

 flowers give an excellent honey in 

 May, as well as plenty of pollen for 

 rearing brood. Camels feed on the 

 tender leaves, and the impenetrable 

 thickets were shelters of generations 

 of dogs — the hygienic police of ori- 



Ph. .1. Baldensperger, who is writing for us a 

 f articles on Beekeeping in the Holy 

 Land. 



ental towns — where refuse is con- 

 tinually thrown into the streets and 

 hardly ever swept. Hygienic princi- 

 ples have certainly been applied since 

 the Allies under General Allenby 

 have once more delivered Jerusalem 

 from the hands of the Turks. 



Dandelions, marigold, mignonettes 

 and one or two borages grow all 

 about the vacant spaces and bees 

 hum on them gaily. 



Big mignonette, as well as mustard, 

 seemed at home in the walls, and 

 great shrubs of capers (Capparis spi- 

 nosis) carpeted the walls, and the 

 graceful white flowers invited bees. 

 Some authors thought this plant the 

 hysop of Scriptures. Henbane (Hy- 

 oscyanus niger) and Horehound (Mar- 

 rubium vulgaris) grew about the 

 wrecks of old buildings and the 

 honey of the latter plant was so 

 agreeable that we called it Rah-el- 

 halcome. as resembling in flavor the 

 "Turkish delights," a sugar pastry 

 usually prepared in Damascus. 



Select cauliflowers grow all about 

 the dung hills of Zion and Moriah. 

 and the "fellahin" choose the best 

 plants for seed ; the immense bushes 

 give much honey in autumn. Except 

 for these last, all above-named 

 honey-plants could be classified as 

 swarm-preparing flowers, according 

 to the prevailing east or west winds. 

 The hives were usually in good shape 

 for the best honev-plants in Tune and 

 July. 



Wherever the bees could reach the 

 luxuriant thyme fields, which throve 

 around the town, they made a splen- 

 did harvest. Our Nahale used to say 

 that the thyme gave the best honey 

 to seal the combs and then it was 

 time to take out the crop. It is 

 identical with the renowned Hymet- 

 tus honey of ancient history. The 

 most progressive of Judean kings. 

 Herod the Great, had apiaries around 

 his private estates, in his paradises 

 of Ain-Rimmon and Herudium (a 

 desolate paradise now), and Jericho. 

 He used to send honey to the Roman 

 court, and since then Jericho honey 

 was greatly demanded by the Roman 

 emperors. Cleopatra received the 

 beautiful estate of Jericho with its 

 select plants and hives and enjoyed 

 them for some time. 



The "fellahat" (peasant women I of 

 Siloam and El Tur (Mount of Olives) 

 almost exterminated the magnificent 

 thyme bushes all around the town to 

 use as fuel and for culinary purposes. 

 They prepared their bundles and car- 

 ried them home on their heads as if 

 they were great wheels higher and 

 broader than themselves. We used 

 to admire their dexterity with their 

 immense load, in perfect equilibrium 

 as th. ■> toiled up the hills of Zion 

 towards their villages. They sang in 

 unison or chattered as if they were 

 picnickers. Their assiduity in pluck- 

 ing up the precious bee-plant has 

 rendered beekeeping almost useless 

 between the walls and the road lead- 

 ing all around the town There was 

 originally a broad and deep ditch 

 sometimes over a hundred feet wide. 

 The ditch has partly disappeared. 



From the lalfa gate to the corner 

 of Tancred's heights on the west, the 



