December 22, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



505 



prize points is in excess of the snm of the other two ; yet by the aid of 

 the very highly commended, the highly commended, and the com- 

 mended scores, Messrs. Wallace & Beloe are enabled to add the large 

 number of tifty-hve points to their small twenty-nine, and carry off 

 the cnp with an aggregate of eighty-four points. 



Of course, this is all according to the conditions under which the 

 cup was to be awarded, as set forth in the schedule, and is, therefore, 

 all strictly fair. It is only the absurdity of the conditions with which 

 I have to do. Anyone at all acquainted with Canary shows must be 

 aware that as an almost invariable rnle (for exceptional cases are so 

 very rare that the rule may almost be accepted as unvarying), no dis- 

 position of points can represent the relative values of the first, second, 

 and third-prize birds, and the next half dozen below them. No handi- 

 capping can bring them together. In the majority of instances the 

 difference between the first and second is very inadequately repre- 

 sented by the ratio 3 : 2, and the gap between the first and third is 

 wider still, while the mathematical genius has not yet been born who 

 can invent a scale of notation to represent in any known terms the 

 comparison between the prize birds and the very highly commended, 

 highly commended, and commended, which follow in a descending 

 scale, precipitously steep, terminating in a rubbish heap. 



The principle upon which commendations of any degree are awarded 

 is different from that which regulates the awarding of the prizes. It 

 is seldom we see two equal firsts or seconds — never, in fact, unless 

 the judges are empowered to give duplicates, and then the wisdom of 

 the step is questionable, and the position barely tenable ; but com- 

 mendations are scattered with a much more lavish hand, and any 

 sensible man knows the value of them. Sometimes judges are in- 

 structed to be liberal in their commendations, and it is not unusual to 

 see three or four very high commendations, and as many of the lower 

 grades in one class. But no one will venture to say that the three or 

 four very highly commended judged as being of equal merit are so in 

 reality, and that it would be impossible to separate the three without 

 an injustice to one or the other, or that the highly commended and 

 the commended are equally inseparable. They are judged on more 

 general terms, and may be considered as being divided into three 

 groups, not too closely sifted and classified according to their general 

 merit. But the most meritorious of them (and an exhibitor by enter- 

 ing a number of them may sco.-e many equal very high commendations, 

 or commendations in one class), is far removed from the third-prize 

 bird, and most certainly deserves to contribute nothing towards prize- 

 winning. 



Birds capable of holding their own against all comers are few and 

 far between, very difficult to breed, and very valuable when obtained. 

 Fourth, fifth, and sixth-rate birds are plentiful as blackberries, easy 

 to breed, and not worth the seed they eat in comparison with the 

 others. The one class, which represents an ideal standard of per- 

 fection, cannot be produced in large numbers, but the other can and 

 is ; and any man by procuring a sufficient number of them cau 

 render it practically an impossibility for an exhibitor of high-class 

 birds to win a prize he values more than money, and a schedule has 

 been found offering this facility. Even if there were only one very 

 high commendation, one high commendation, and one commendation, 

 it would be bad enough ; but it is, apart from the absurdity of the 

 thing, a manifest injustice to give one first, one second, one third, 

 and an unlimited number of equal very high commendations, hi^h 

 commendations, and commendations. A silver cup does two things — 

 it represents so many ounces troy at so much per ounce, and it also 

 tells a story. Surely if first, second, and third in the race were in- 

 scribed, upon it, it would like to turn its face to the wall. — W. A. 

 Blakston. 



FOUL BROOD. 



The above subject being again brought up, reminds me that 

 my contributions to "our Journal" have fallen very much 

 behind, ar.d that I owe your esteemed correspondent, Mr. J. 

 Lowe, an apology for not Adverting sooner to his last paper on 

 " Foul Brood," in Nos. 409 and 410, not that I have anything 

 particularly new to communicate, but on the principle that 

 "silence gives consent," I might be held as homologating the 

 peculiar views put forlh. 



While perusing with much interest, and very great pleasure, 

 Mr. Lowe's clever five years' resume, of this controversy, still I 

 must confess it left a rather perplexing impression on the 

 mind, to find your correspondent, who so long and persistently 

 derided the existence of such a disease, seemingly clinging to 

 his old hypothesis, that the appellation foul brood was syno- 

 nymous with chilled brood, induced by experimenting, and 

 curable by excision, even while quoting the ravages of the fell 

 destroyer to the extent of one hundred colonies in one year in 

 the American apiary of Mr. Quinby, and to no les6 than five 

 hundred in 1S48, in that of the German one of the celebrated 

 Dzierzon, while endeavouiiug in the most ingenious manner 

 to bend the most opposite opiuions as to its origin in support 

 of his pet theory, on no better foundation than that " ex- 

 tremes meet." 



I quite agree with your correspondent, that " it is strange," 



on the assumption that foul brood ia no disease, but simply an 

 effect of over- experimenting, that while Mr. Quinby should 

 have lost bo very heavily, his transatlantic brother, the Rev, 

 L. L. Lmgstroth, states that the malady never made its ap- 

 pearance in his apiaries, more particularly when it is borne 

 in mind that the latter gentleman first introduced the frame 

 hive, and may be held as the most experimental apiarian 

 on that continent ; and stranger still that " A Devonshibe 

 Bee keepek," for whose frank and graphic description of its 

 ravages we are all so much indebted, assures me that while 

 " more experimental than ever," it has never re-appeared in 

 consequence. 



It was with much pleasure I accepted Mr. Lowe's proffered 

 invitation to accompany him through his "lone mountain 

 pass." We there discover the remains of what was once a 

 living organism. While awaiting in wrapt attention his open- 

 ing the inquest, my metaphorical companion, sniffing the tainted 

 atmosphere, moves off with a rhetorical flourish, " What 

 matters it, whether that once living form was deprived of life 

 by frost or fire, by cold or heat, whether by an electric flash or 

 heaven's hot artillery, &c. ?" Not possibly very much to the mere 

 theorist, but everything to the unfortunate apiarian who has 

 had his apiary repeatedly swept by foul brood, and something, 

 too, one would suppose in a paper treating expressly on the 

 origin of foul brood. 



Its origin in its most virulent form in my apiary, now seven 

 years Biuce, was clearly traceable to infection through the in- 

 terchange of combs with a diseased colony received from " A 

 Devonshire Bee-eeepeb," before he discovered the cause oi 

 his "dwindling apiary," and he in like manner introduced 

 the disease by usiDg infected combs from a common straw 

 hive, which latter fact Mr. Lowe has all along very unfairly 

 ignored. 



Having suffered so severely from the devastating effects of 

 this most mysterious malady, I must confess to have acquired 

 such a salutary dread of the smallest trace of its insidious- 

 advance, that my efforts have all along been more directed to 

 " stamp out," than speculate or experiment with a view to 

 trace its origin. I can, therefore, appreciate and feel all the 

 more grateful to such correspondents as your valued contri- 

 butors, " R. S.," and " A Lanarkshire Bee-kveepee," for their 

 practical efforts in this direction. 



I am still of the opinion adduced in thi3 Journal in the be- 

 ginning of 1867, that "over-heating, rather than any amount 

 of exposure and chill, induces this most mysterious malady, "" 

 and I cannot comprehend how Mr. Lowe " hails this theory as 

 one virtuilly quite in accordance with my own." If we take 

 the oa6e of chilled brood in a hive, it has been abundantly 

 proved that such is temoved by the bees, then Mr. Lowe's 

 argumentative structure topples over; and if the pupa? die solely 

 from contamination with those in the adjoining cells, agreeably 

 to Mr. Lowe's theory, how comes it that we find perfectly 

 healthy bees frequently emerge from the very centre of corrupt- 

 ing masses ? but how opposite is the result in an " over-heated "■ 

 colony, I never said nor supposed that the death of the em- 

 bryo, as a matter of course, followed parallel to that of chilledV 

 brood ; on the contrary, heat is what young bees can stand a. 

 good deal of. Suppose we confine the inmates of a populous 

 hive during warm weather in summer, the temperature at once 

 rises, undue excitement follows, vapour is seen clouding the in- 

 ternal atmosphere, which, condensing on the windows, trickles 

 down in streams. No doubt, if persisted in to extremity, the 

 bees as well as brood would be suffocated, and the combs give- 

 way; but some time before such an extremity is reached 

 if we open the entrance the inmates pour forth in streams 

 to the fresh air over the landing board, and on to the ground,, 

 and seem for a time as if quite paralysed ; labour is brought to 

 a standstill, and although subsequently resumed, goes on but- 

 sluggishly, and if in the course of a few days we invert the 

 hive unmistakeable traces of foul brood will be too apparent, 

 induced, doubtless, by the effects of the heat and the con- 

 densed moisture mixing with the unsealed honey, causing it to 

 ferment, and acting in a deleterious manner on the larvas when 

 fed with it. The fermentation which is a consequence of 

 mixing even unsealed with sealed honey drained in summer, ia 

 well known to all practical bee-keepers. 



Confirmatory of this view, I may narrate an interesting case 

 I met with where foul brood was subsequently induced in a 

 healthy hive without the presence of brood at all in the first 

 instance. Driving, on the twenty-fourlh day after swarming, 

 a bought-in cottagei's common straw ekep, I could not bat 

 admire, on examining the combs, how thoroughly every bee 



