11 6 A Modern Bee-Farm 



vincing evidence on this point, from extensive experience 

 gained while carrying out his onerous duties as Foul 

 Brood Inspector in Canada. 



He gives numerous instances ©f foul brood resulting 

 wholesale in large apiaries, hitherto free from disease, after 

 being flooded so that most of the brood was killed, and 

 the colonies of bees being so reduced, that after trying 

 in vain to clear out the enormous amount of dead matter, 

 continued to rear brood in small patches, until the usual 

 result proved only too plainly that the living and the dead 

 may not thrive and procreate in the same limited space 

 without ultimately inducing an organic state of disease ; 

 the natural warmth, with its consequent fermenting effect 

 being not the least agent in bringing about the final act. 



2. — The Secondary causes of Foul Brood are : (a) Robbings 

 from an already diseased stock ; (b) Carelessness on the part of 

 the owner in working from an infected to a clean hive; (c) 

 Mixing diseased combs and appliances with those of clean 

 stock ; (d) Feeding with diseased honey. 



My second proposition does not, apparently, contain 

 much that is new, and most of the clauses considered are 

 already established fact. It was, however, only in recent 

 years that some of the more prominent scientists could be 

 brought to believe that honey contained the spores of the 

 Bacillus Alvei. But there can be no doubt, and never has 

 been in my own mind, that honey has always been the 

 most dangerous medium for the propagation of the 

 disease ; certainly it is the most tempting bait one may 

 leave within reach of the olfactory senses of the bees, who 

 are ever on the alert ready to appropriate that God-given 

 sweet, even though the death-dealing touch of the dark- 

 angel may be upon it. 



In years long gone by I have found repeated cases of 

 disease being started in the previously healthy combs of 



