BEE DISEASES IN MASS.U ' 1 1 ISI.TTS. 27 



the year 1902 or 11)03 he lost forty-five colonies of hoes. From East 

 Brookfielcl and Charlton, from New Braintree, Sturbridge, and War- 

 ren, all located around and adjoining Worcester and Auburn, reports 

 of heavy loss of bees, not alone by one bee keeper in a town but by 

 several, are at hand. A bee keeper in Warren says, "Bees all died 



about five years ago; I had nine colonies which I lost; Mr. lost 



about five colonies also, as did others, so that at the present day only 

 three to four colonies remain in town." Similar reports come from 

 across the county and Connecticut State lines adjoining this section 

 of Worcester County. It is highly probable, then, considering the 

 positive knowledge of foul brood in Worcester and Auburn and con- 

 sidering collectively the widespread and yet individual reports from 

 the country about these two towns, that these diseases are present 

 throughout this section of Massachusetts and Connecticut. In other 

 parts of the State similar conclusions are obvious. 



Considering the distribution as a whole, it is apparent that Euro- 

 pean foul brood has swept in from New York State, where the 

 disease has existed for years. Moreover, were the bees in western 

 Massachusetts systematically examined, this portion of the State 

 would doubtless be found thickly infected with European foul brood. 

 American foul brood in Connecticut has apparently invaded Litch- 

 field County in the western half of the State. In Massachusetts, 

 on the other hand, and in one small area in New Hampshire, where 

 there is less thorough information, American foul brood is largely 

 confined to the eastern half of the State. Ultimately, when more 

 information is at hand, if decisive and immediate steps to suppress 

 these diseases are not taken, Massachusetts, as well as the rest of New T 

 England, will undoubtedly reveal a mass of infection. 



EVIDENCE THAT BEE DISEASES WERE NOT RECENTLY INTRO- 

 DUCED INTO MASSACHUSETTS. 



In 1828 Dr. James Thatcher wrote (p. 4) :« 



The destructive ravages of the bee-moth have in many places almost anni- 

 hilated our bee establishments and discouraged all attempts to renewed trials. 

 No less than a hundred hives have, the past season, been entirely destroyed 

 by that enemy within the towns of the county of Plymouth, and in places 

 where a single hive has yielded one hundred pounds of honey. 



At first reading this might appear, so far as bee diseases are con- 

 cerned, of slight import. General experience shows, however, that 

 strong, healthy colonies of bees are seldom if ever destroyed by 

 wax moths, the presence of the latter being secondary as a result of 

 a weakened condition of the colony from loss of its queen, disease. 

 or the like. Consequently, wherever there is extensive complaint of 

 damage from moths, there the presence of disease is to be suspected. 



°A Practical Treatise on the Management of Bees. * * * By .lames 

 Thacher, M. D., Boston, 1829. 



