IJISEASKD BKOOD. 269 



fail when thoroughly tested," &o. Mr. Weeks, in 

 answer, said, " that cold weather in spring chilling 

 the brood was the cause." (This was several years 

 prior to his article in the N. E. Farmer.) Another 

 gentleman said, ." dead bees and filth that accumulated 

 during winter, when suffered to remain in the spring, 

 •was the cause." A few years after, another corres- 

 pondent appeared in the Cultivator, giving particulars 

 of his experience, proving very conclusively to him- , 

 self and many others, that cold was the cause. Hav- 

 ing mislaid the paper containing his article, I will 

 endeavor to quote correctly from memory. He had 

 " three swarms issue in one day ; the weather during 

 the day changed from very hot to the other extreme, 

 producing frost in many places the next morning. 

 These swarms had left but few bees in the old stocks, 

 and the cold forced them up among the combs for 

 mutual warmth ; the brood near the bottom, thus left 

 without bees to protect it with animal heat, became 

 chilled, and the consequence was diseased larvas." 

 He then reasoned thus : " If the eggs of a fowl, at 

 any time near the end of incubation, become chilled 

 from any cause, it stops all further development. 

 Bees are developed by continued heat, on the same 

 principle, and a chill produces the same effect, &c. ; 

 afterwards, other swarms issued under precisely simi- 

 lar circumstances ; but these old stocks- were covered 

 with a blanket through the night, which enabled the 

 bees to keep at the bottom of the hive. In a few 

 days, enough were hatched to render this trpuble un- 

 necessary. These Jast remained healthy.'.' He fur . 



