U. S. I). A., B. E. Bui. T-"), Part III. A., June 30, 1008- 
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON APICULTURE. 
BEE DISEASES IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
By Buuton N. Gates, 
Expert in Apiculture. 
INTRODUCTION. 
In Massachusetts bee keeping is not an industry conducted by a 
few, as in the Hawaiian Islands, where four corporations harvested 
600 tons of honey last year ; but there are more than 2,100 men who 
derive some profit from their bees and who have interests at stake. 
There is besides, a vast, concentrated, and steadily increasing popu- 
lation which, fortunately for bee keepers, provides an almost unlim- 
ited home market. In order to point out the status of the industry, 
the writer estimated in 1904, a that two tablespoonfuls of honey per 
person as a year's ration is all that is now consumed, and of this less 
than one-fourth is produced in Massachusetts. Theoretically it is 
possible for Massachusetts to support approximately 40,000 colonies 
of bees, which could more than equal in amount Hawaii's honey crop 
for last year. There is reason to believe, however, that bee keeping, 
if it is not actually decreasing, is not progressing along with the 
steadily increasing population of the State. This is borne out by the 
general feeling among the country people that to-day there are fewer 
bees kept on the farms than there were fifty years ago. 
One of the fundamental reasons for this condition may be found in 
the presence of brood diseases of bees, which exist in practically every 
quarter of Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as in the other New 
England States, and which from time to time have doubtless killed 
out the bees in many localities. There is undeniable proof of this; 
furthermore, from evidence of former outbreaks it must be concluded 
°Bee Keeping: How to Meet its Dangers and Difficulties. By Burton N. 
<;;itcs. wiili suggestions by Prof. C. F. Hodge. Fifty-second Ann. Rept. Sec. 
Mass. St. Bd. Agric, pp. 411-426, Boston, 1905. Massachusetts Crop Report, 
Vol. IT, N<». 6, October, 1!M>4, pp. 30-40. Boston. 1904, 
23 
