28 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 



In 1831, again, Dr. Jerome V. C. Smith" says (p. 41) : 



Great lamentations are heard about the bee-moth, * * * whoso devasta- 

 tions in the New England States have been described as something frightful. 



More specifically he says (p. 43) : 



In the interior of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut the 

 farmers have become heartily discouraged in their attempts at cultivation, and 

 lamentably appear to have abandoned them entirely. 



Such reports strongly suggest that some unknown agent, as dis- 

 ease, depleted the bees and made them subjects for the devastations 

 of bee moths. Even at that early date Doctor Smith intimates 

 (p. 41) that all the damage " attributed to it [the bee moth! . . . 

 admits of some doubt." Without being conclusive, such evidence 

 must be accepted as strongly indicative of the existence of disease, 

 probably of American foul brood, in Massachusetts. 



About 1896 the writer saw in Worcester a hive in which the bees 

 had died from some affection of the brood. It was diagnosed then 

 as a disease which is now designated as American foul brood. Only 

 one hive out of several was affected. 



European foul brood, on the other hand, is of more recent intro- 

 duction in the State. It was first recognized in New York State in 

 1895, where it is thought to have been introduced in importations of 

 bees from the south. As the map shows, this disease has probably 

 spread into Massachusetts from New York. 



The late Mr. James F. Wood, of North Dana, noticed in the Con- 

 necticut and Swift River valleys of Massachusetts a brood disease 

 of bees which made its appearance in that region about 1901. It 

 did much damage, destroying all the bees in the yards where it 

 appeared; but, as it was apparently not American foul brood, Mr. 

 Wood regarded it as a new disease. From a description made in an 

 address before the Worcester County Bee Keepers' Association by 

 Dr. James B. Paige, 7 ' of Massachusetts Agricultural College, who 

 was closely associated with Mr. Wood and who made a study of 

 the disease, it would appear to have been European foul brood. 

 Being first observed in Massachusetts in 1901, it would have had 

 ample time to have spread from New York State. 



With so little recorded data, it is difficult to draw positive con- 

 clusions regarding the distribution of these diseases in years gone 

 by. It is far more important, however, to realize that they have 

 existed in the State for a considerable time, that they have been 

 and are a decided check on the progress of bee keeping, but that 

 they can now be counteracted. 



"An Essay on the Practicability of Cultivation of the Honey bee * * *. 

 By Jerome V. C. Smith, M. D., Boston, 1831. 



6 Wood's Bee Disease. American Bee Keeper, Vol. 16, pp. 00-70, 100G. 



