78 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



So Gleanings has pronounced the most 

 words, but the A. B. J. has pronounced the 

 most words about bees, and thereby stands 

 at the head of the class. Attention to other 

 topics, for which Gleanings gets its ear 

 warmed sometimes, amounts to 22,4r)G words, 

 a little over one-third of its total matter. Ex- 

 actly what the size of the model journal should 

 be is a difficult problem. Certainly it should 

 be nowhere near the bed-blanket character 

 of our daily newspapers. Probably also 

 down below 10,000 words a month is not the 

 place to stay, except temporarily while get- 

 ting strength to go higher. Yet I suppose 

 there is a class of readers who take a journal 

 from a queer sort of sense of duty, and they 

 like the one best which they can scramble 

 over the quickest. They know their system 

 requires a dose, but they want the smallest 

 dose possible. 



THE GUIDE, 



When a new bee-paper is born the old es- 

 tablished ones can well afford to be polite in 

 speech toward it (soon die any way, you. 

 know) but if it forgets to die, and refuses to 

 be reminded of that interesting duty, it may 

 have thick slices of pretty cold shoulder to 

 feed on for many years. It looks rather sad 

 to me that such steady, patient merit and 

 perseverance as the Guide has shown for six- 

 teen years should have realized no more than 

 it has toward making it a good paying piece 

 of property. 'Pears like I have noticed, for 

 say a year back, that the leading papers car- 

 ry a little more sister-like air toward it, as if 

 they thought so too — as if they would say, 

 " Sister Guide, you don't die worth a cent, 

 come in out of the snow, and sit in the sit- 

 ting-room a spell." The Guide's strong 

 point is the ability with which it selects. 

 Doolittle's " Living hive," and Mackenzie's 

 foul-brood report, and our comrade R. L. 

 Taylor's " Funny little mouse " article, and 

 Prof. Cook's "Suyar Syrup Honey" are 

 conspicuous examples of its January loot. 

 Specially interesting things not pertaining to 

 bees are also continually drawn on. Among 

 its original matter Wm. Camm roconnoiters 

 scarlet clover, the Dadants discuss feeding 

 and feeders, and Demaree gives a strong ar- 

 ticle "kind 'o scattering round" some of 

 the shot whizzing quite close to the sugar- 

 honey "shebang." The Dadants are very 

 competent authority, and they give almost 

 unbounded recommend to the simple invert- 

 ed fruit-can feeder, with muslin tied over it. 



Let it stand in a dish a little while for the 

 excess to drain out. 



" I ouce tliouglit 1 knew a great deal about tlie 

 CAUSES favorable and unfavorable t<j nectar flow. 

 Butlknow mighty little now."— (t. W. Demaree. 



The Guide holds on with both hands to the 

 symposium method of answering apicultu- 

 ral questions, which is being abandoned in 

 some quarters. Four questions, covering 

 nine columns, appear in this number. Good 

 thing to hold on to, if respondents can be 

 held to a real interest in it, and not get to 

 regarding the whole thing with thinly dis- 

 guised disgust. 



The Canadian Bee Journal 



Is one of the journals that honestly tries to 

 be "worth its keep" to the subscriber.* 

 Over six pages of its new year's number are 

 occupied by a report on foul-brood by the_ 

 government Bacteriologist, J. J. Mackenzie. 

 Original investigations of this sort are so 

 few in number that we cannot afford to neg- 

 lect them when set before us in intelligible 

 shape. The modesty of this scientist is re- 

 markable. Witness below — 



" I certainly would not be prepared to ' sjjot ' 

 foul-brood in an apiary, although 1 certainly 

 think loan under the microscope." 



There are slight shades of difference in the 

 appearance of our enemy, the bacillus, as 

 seen by Cheshire in England, and by Mac- 

 kenzie in Canada. Here is the latter's 

 view — 



" It is a bacillus similar to tliat of CheBhiie in 

 size, produces spores which are somewliat thick- 

 er, giving the bacillus a clubbed appearance. 

 On agar jelly it grows rapidly, so as to cover the 

 whole surface. In gelatine its growtli is very 

 Dccnliar, shooting o\it from the infected point 

 in all directions On potato it produces a yel- 

 low gfowth." 



To throw light on the solemn question 

 whether foundation can communicate foul- 

 brood a great harvest of spores were raised 

 and stirred into melted wax, taking care not 

 to have the wax very hot. Wax from the 

 under side of this infected cake would start 

 a luxuriant growth of the bacillus. With 

 wax from the upper side of the cake he had 

 no success. With ordinary wax from foul- 

 broody combs he had repeated failures, and 

 only one success. But that one success is 

 sufficient to send a shiver down the spine of 

 the foundation-user who doesn't want the 

 disease. 



My own opinion and confidence all along 

 have been that melted wax had of itself power 

 to kill the germs, just as melted grease kills 

 flies, without regard to the degree of heat 



