20 



" Where the diseased colonies are weak la bees, pat the bees ia two, 

 " three or four together, so as to get a good sized swirm to start the care with, 

 " as it does not pay to spend time fussing with little weak colonies. 



" When the bees are not gathering honey, any apiary can be cured of 

 " foul brood by removing the diseased combs in the evening, and giving the 

 " bees frames with comb foundation starters on. Then, also, in the evening 

 " feed the bees plenty of sugar syrup, and they will draw out the foundation 

 " and store the diseased honey which they took with them from the old combs ; 

 " in the fourth evening remove the new combs made out of the starters and 

 " give the bees full sheets of comb foundation and feed plenty of sugar syrup 

 " each evening until every colony is in first-class order. 



" Make the syrup out of granulated sugar aod put one pound of water to 

 "every two pouads of sugar, and then bring it to a boil As previously 

 " stated, all the old combs must be burned or made into wax when removed 

 " from the hives, and so must all the new combs made during the four days. 



" The empty hives that had foul brood in them do not need any disin- 

 " fectant in any way. I have handled many hundreds of aolonies in the Pro- 

 " vince of Ontario and cured them of foul brood without getting a single hive 

 " scalded or disinfected in any way, and these colonies are cured right in the 

 " same old hives." 



McEvoy positively states that " No colony can be cured of foul brood by 

 " the use of any drug. All the old comba must be removed from every dis- 

 " eased colony and the hive got away from the bees before brood rearing is 

 " commenced in the new clean combs." 



Howard (40) is most emphatically opposed to the drug treatment. " I 

 regard," says he, " the use of any and all drugs in the treatment of foul brood 

 as a useless waste of time and material, wholly ineflEectual, inviting ruin and 

 total loss of bees. Any method which has nob for its object the eitire re- 

 moval of all infections material beyond the reach of both bees and brood will 

 prove detrimental and destructive and surely encourage the recurrence of the 

 disease." 



A. I. Root (45) says that " The starvation plan in connection with burn- 

 ing the combs and frames and boiling the hives has worked best in treating 

 foul brood. It never reappeared after sncH treatment, though it did in all cases 

 where the hives were not boiled, thus confirming the theory or fact of spores." 



These two authors, therefore, go further than McEvoy in both advising 

 the disinfection of the hives. 



McEvoy (56), however, admits that his method as described above cannot 

 be used for every case. His reports frequently refer to burned colonies ; and 

 he acknowledges that his method does not always cure. In 1890 he used the 

 expression, " 600 cases of foul brood and over 360 cured " ; and again in a 

 subsequent report, after mentioning the number of case^, he added the words, 

 " mostly cured " 



In a personal commuQioation, M. Bertrand of Nyon, Switzerland, states 

 that he does not believe in and will not recommend in his periodicil (Revue 

 Internationale d' Apiculture) the starvation method as used in America. 



3. Treatment hy Chemicals — In the treatment of bees by chemicals, we 

 assume that such substances as are used are employed as antiseptics, and that 

 their efficiency ia due to the fact that they destroy the bacillus or prevent the 

 germination of the spores, and thus bring about an internal disinfection ; but 

 we must remember that many of the substances used are more poisonous in 

 their efi'dcts upon the cells of the bae than upon B. alvei. As is -cell known 

 quinine is fn quently used as a specific for malaria; and ia such ca^e8 the 



