.384 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



than a year ago, ii ha; been a more 

 serious matter with me the past sum- 

 mer than it ever was before. Many 

 of my colonies were badly weakened 

 by it, a few swarming out and leav- 

 ing lots of brood and some honey, 

 and others dwinding and dying out. 

 It continued longer this year than I 

 ever knew it to do before and 

 to affect the adult bees, too, as some 

 pretty fair colonies would get very 

 "motiiy," and I had to take their 

 combs from them or lose them. 1 

 don't thmk that it is a specific disease 

 like foulbrood, but that it is caused 

 by the food partaken of by the bees. 

 I do not pretend to know what it is, 

 but would suggest that it may be 

 caused by the juice of fermenting, 

 rotting fruit, probably blackberries, 

 as it always appears while such are 

 to be had, and at no other time — at 

 least in my experience. 1 suppose it 

 was made worse with me this year 

 by the failure of the early crop and 

 the general scarcity of good forage 

 at the time of its usual recurrence. I 

 am sorry that I can see no practical 

 remedy'for it. but do not think it has 

 been very serious in this region here- 

 tofore, and perhaps will not be again 

 fi ir many years. 



T. W. LIVINGSTON. 

 Norman Park, Ga. 



The Iowa Convention 



We have received word from Presi- 

 dent Millen that they are expecting 

 a "Best Ever" time at Des Moines 

 on November 6 and 7. They expect 

 Prof. Morley Pettit, formerly Pro- 

 vincial Apiarist of Ontario, to be 

 present and give an illustrated lec- 

 ture on "Beekeeping in Canada." It 

 is expected that many middle west 

 beekeepers will avail themselves of 

 this opportunity to see and hear Mr. 

 Pettit. The complete program has 

 not yet been announced, but we are 

 advised that it will be up to the us- 

 ual Iowa standard. It is expected 

 that a visit to Camp Dodge and to 

 the Mid-west Horticultural Exposi- 

 tion will be a feature of the conven- 

 tion. Since so many have relatives 

 at the camp and the meeting coming 

 at the same time as the Horticultural 

 Exposition, it is expected that tin a) 

 tendance will be large. 



Report From Missouri 



This is line location for bees, ex- 

 cept for considerable foulbrood. 

 There is about 5.(100 acres of bearing 

 apple orchards, perhaps 200 acres of 

 peaches, 500 acres strawberries, some 

 Mi of raspberries and blackber- 

 ries; also cherry orchards, quite a 

 few acres of sweet clover and white 

 clover. Our greatest drawback is 

 that nearly every fruit man has some 

 [nghram apple trees Mattered pro- 

 miscuously about in his orchard, and 

 they bloom about lo days after other 

 varieties, and as the spray applied lo 

 i in hard after petals fall on i ither 

 varieties finds the [nghram in full 

 bloom and many of them carelesslj 

 spray all at once, thus filling the In- 

 ghram blossoms that are full of bees, 

 with a strong arsenate spray and 

 killing the bees by the thousands just 

 when they are needed so badly to 



build up for raspberry and white clo- 

 ver. 



I have very little trouble keeping 

 down the foulbrood. but we are 

 never safe from it. as this is a timber 

 country of many large hollow trees. 



The beemoth is at its best here 

 and is a blessing, as it soon cleans 

 up the badly diseased colonies. 



I. E. JOHNSON, 

 Marionville, Mo 



California Conditions 



It has evidently started in to be a 

 great year next year, to put it in 

 that way. Early last week we had 

 our first rain — there were full two 

 days of it and it did not stop until 

 we had some four inches of it here- 

 abouts, and diminishing quantities in 

 various other portions of the Stale 

 It was the earliest rain that I know 

 of in California — and it was far the 

 heaviest. It usually rains by the end 

 of September; the 28th seems to be 

 the fortunate date for the first pre- 

 cipitation. 



Of course, such a heavy rain did 

 much damage to uncovered hay and 

 grain, but prunes and grapes in the 

 drying districts are the heaviest suf- 

 ferers. Millions of dollars worth of 

 these fruits are ruined. Wine grapes 

 will not suffer so badly, though I 

 suppose the quality will be lowered 

 by the excessive moisture. 



The tomato crop is badly damaged 

 —that is, the ripe and ripening crop, 

 The green fruit has yet many months 

 of warm weather before the Novem- 

 ber or December frosts put the 

 plants out of commission. 1 have- 

 seen tomatoes in full swing here- 

 abouts away off into January. Near- 

 ly all other vegetables except, per- 

 haps, ripening beans, will be bene- 

 fited by the aforesaid rain. 



And the bees, what a boon it has 

 been to them! And it is for this rea- 

 son that I stated in the opening sen- 

 tence of this letter that "next yeat 

 is to be a great year." Two years of 

 dry weather had a bad effect on 

 vegetation; some plants made little 

 or no growth. The rain coming so 

 copiously at so early a time, will 

 cause many plants to -.tart into 

 growth and become strong for the 

 next season's flowering period At 



any rate, tl. root-systems will 



have ample opportunity to expand 

 and be ready for vigorous "nectar- 

 campaigning" next spring and sum- 

 mer. 



Tin: annual crop of honej secret 

 ing flowers will get an early start 

 and be benefited in a two-fold ration. 

 Take, for instance, the alfilaria or 

 pin weed class; we have two varie- 

 ties that are invaluable to the api- 

 arist. In two or tin.' days after the 

 early rains the seeds of these plants 

 sprout, and I believe there is no 

 other plant that comes to its season 

 of inflorescence so soon after coming 

 up as does this plant, botauically 

 called Erodium. It is not a native of 

 California, as many residents sup- 

 pose. Its native habitat is the Euro- 

 pean shore of the Mediterranean 

 Sea, mostly, I believe, in Spain. It 

 was brought to tins country, as near 

 as can be learned, in the wool of 

 sheep impoi led Ii .mi Spain by the 

 early settlers of what is now the 

 southwestern portion of the United 

 States. 



In moist places alfilaria may be 

 found in bloom the year around, but 

 it expands its petals in carh 

 and into summer if die season is pro- 

 pitious, as it surely will be from now 

 on. It is an abundant yielder of 

 nectar, which is largely used in 

 brood-rearing, as it comes at the 

 proper season 



Bees kept in the neighborhood of 

 places where fruit is spoiling from 

 the effects of the unusual rains, will 

 be apt to unduly concentrate their 

 foraging propensities upon its juice 

 and in consequence store up food 

 which will cause mortality among 

 the bees. And so it behooves the 

 apiarist, whose bees gather such 

 stores, to deprive them of the combs 

 containing them. 



These days my bees may be merrily 

 bringing in nectar in fair amounts, 

 largely from Eucalyptus viminalis. 

 There are many flowers in bloom in 

 the gardens throughout the city of 

 Berkeley on the north of me, and in 

 the city of Oakland on the west and 

 south, while off on the east the hills 

 begin, on which wild flowers are in 

 bloom, the nio-i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ions being wild 

 buckwheat, lint the fall flowerage is 



■ 



