Gr. W. BULLAMORB 55 



hands of many farmers and small owners. A year ago this spring there were upwards of 

 2000 colonies of bees lost. It was thought a year ago that it was owing to the very cold 

 winter weather and changeable weather in the spring; but the strange part of it is that in 

 some localities not any warmer, but if anything, colder, the bees survived all right, with 

 scarcely any loss at all. 



I lost last year 300 colonies of bees, and in some localities in Cache Valley there were 

 upwards of 500 colonies that went under; and in this valley (Salt Lake) last year there were 

 fully 800 colonies that perished. It was thought by all those who were interested that it 

 was due to the hard winter and cold spring. 



This writer, who had lost nearly all his stocks, bought 225 colonies in a 

 district that disease had not visited, and moved them into his apiary. He 

 continues : 



I was there yesterday, and a large part of the entire 225 colonies are affected with what 

 appears to be paralysis. While there is no trembhng, they drop down in the grass in front 

 of the hives, and are unable to fly; they seem to mount the grass and twigs with great 

 difi&oulty, and in taking them up in my hands they were unable to fly away, and, if thrown 

 into the air, would drop to the ground. They seemed to have no desire even to sting. It 

 appears to be contagious, for it seems to affect a certain part of a row, while another section 

 of the row seems to be strong and swarming. A number of hives have all gone under. The 

 entire yard, of course, is exposed for the reason that a few, perhaps twenty, colonies from 

 what were left of the lot last year were put with them without any thought of anything 

 being wrong, except that they were weak. 



I am fully satisfied now that the loss last year, which would number at least 2000 

 colonies in Cache Valley, was due entirely to this condition. 



II. The Outbreak of 1906 commonly called Isle of Wight Disease. 



In 1906 we first began to hear of the bees in the Isle of Wight suffering 

 from "paralysis," a disease of world-wide occurrence and of which the cause 

 is unknown. On account of the deadly nature of the Isle of Wight visitation, 

 however, it was afterwards decided that the disease was a new one and the 

 name of Isle of Wight disease came into use. It was found to have been pre- 

 sent on the Isle of Wight in 1904, so it was consequently assumed to have 

 then originated and to have spread thence to the mainland. It usually mani- 

 fested itself by the presence in the apiary of numbers of crawling bees with 

 their abdomens distended with undischarged faeces. In a few months all the 

 colonies in the apiary were dead. 



III. The Symptoms of disease in Adult Bees. 



The whole subject of bee diseases teems with difficulties, and it is improb- 

 able that any method of differentiating them other than the demonstration 

 of the causal organism is Hkely to prove of value. Inabihty to fly, which is 

 the chief symptom in any disease of the adult bee, may originate from a variety 

 of causes, e.g. the ingestion of fungi, mineral poisons, fermenting honey, syrup 

 or fruit juice, or from weakness due to starvation. 



Inability to fly leads to a retention of the faeces, which are voided normally 

 by the bee in the open air while flying. We find that a crawling bee may be 



