MANUAL or THE APIARY. 261 



and discovery, have found this valuable fungicide in salicylic 

 acid, an extract from the same willows that give us pollen 

 and nectar. This cheap white powder is easily soluble in 

 alcohol, and when mixed with borax in water. 



Mr. Hilbert, one of the most thoughtful of German bee- 

 keepers, was the first to effect a radical cure of foul brood in 

 his apiary by the use of this substance. He dissolved fifty 

 grains of the acid in five hundred grains of pure spirits. 

 One drop of this in a grain of distilled water is the mixture 

 ke applied. Mr. C. F. Muth, from whom the above facts as 

 to Herr Hilbert are gathered, suggests a variation in the 

 mixture. 



Mr. Muth suggests an improvement, which takes advantage 

 of the fact that the acid, which alone is very insoluble 

 in water, is, when mixed with borax, soluble. His recipe 

 is as follows : One hundred and twenty-eight grains of 

 salicylic acid, one hundred and twenty-eight grains of soda 

 borax, and sixteen ounces distilled water. There is no reason 

 why water without distillation should not do as well. 



This remedy is applied as follows : First uncap all the brood, 

 then throw the fluid over the comb in a fine spray. This 

 will not injure the bees, but will prove fatal to the fungi. 



If the bees are removed to an empty hive, and given no 

 comb for three or four days, till they have digested all the 

 honey in their stomachs, and then prevented visiting the 

 affected hive, they are said to be out of danger. It would 

 seem that the spores are in the honey, and by taking that, the 

 contagion is administered to the young bees. The honey may 

 be purified from these noxious germs, by subjecting it to the 

 boiling temperature, which is generally, if not always, fatal to 

 the spores of fungoid life. By immersing the combs in a 

 salicylic acid solution, or sprinkling them with the same, 

 they would be rendered sterile, and could be used without 

 much fear of spreading contagion. The disease is probably 

 spread by robber bees visiting affected hives, and carrying 

 with them in the honey the fatal germs. 



I have found that a paste made of gum tragacanth and 

 water is very superior, and I much prefer it for either gen- 

 eral or special use to gum Arabic. Yet it soon sours 

 — ^which means that it is nourishing these fungoid plants — 



