86 
TBE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
Feeding with poisoned food kills an immense 
number of ants, but as breeding goes on so 
rapidly we notice no diminution of numbers, 
unless the queens and egg's are destroyed 
also, which does not appear to be the case 
where poisoned food only is used. 
The fumes of sulphur are very destructive 
co ants ; but the difficulty is to get it to 
permeate throughout all the passages and 
galleries of the nest. One effectual method is 
to mix about an ounce of gunpowder with 4 
ounces of flour of sulphur, and pack the 
mixture into a paper case, like a squib. Light 
this, and thrust the burning end into the 
largest entrance, and if the smoke is seen 
coming out at the other entrances to the nest, 
most, if not all the colony, will be snffocated. 
The American Bee Journal of 3rd August, 
gives a number of receipts for destroying or 
poisoning ants, from which the following are 
selected. 
1. Sprinkling salt on the mounds. 
2. Water with hot water and borax. 
3. Water with strong brine. 
4. Pour kerosene into the nests. 
With each of these methods a second, or even 
third treatment, is generally necessary. 
Wherever ants have established a regular 
track from their nest to any place where they 
obtain food, the stream can be diverted by the 
use of carbolic acid water, and stopped alto- 
gether by repeated waterings. 
Iproceefcmgs of JSeefteepers’ 
Hssociations. 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
The usual monthly meeting was held at the 
Chamber of Manufactures on Thursday, 
October 7 ; Mr. A. E. Bonney in the chair. 
There was a good attendance. Eight new 
members were enrolled. 
Mr. C. F. Clough read the following : 
FOUL BROOD. 
As “ foul brood,” the most dreaded of all 
bee diseases, is making such rapid progress in 
this colony, and now threatens to seriously 
cripple, if not to extinguish, the industry of 
beekeeping, I make no apology for again 
drawing the serious attention of the South 
Australian Beekeepers’ Association to the 
subject, in the hope that efforts may be made 
to obtain some legislative assistance in our 
fight against the scourge. The disease has 
obtained so firm a foothold in the district of 
Mount Barker that there is scarcely an apiary 
that has not suffered, and it is to be feared 
this is the case throughout the province. 
Members will recollect that the statistics 
gathered by our Hon. Secretary at the end of 
the season just past showed that more than 
half of the beekeepers who forwarded answers 
had “ foul brood” in their hives, or had had 
it previously. With such a prospect before 
us, is it likely that capital will be invested 
in the industry, or that beekeeping as a 
national pursuit will make any progress ? 
South Australia is admirably adapted to 
become a honey-producing country ; the 
climate is much superior to that of America, 
where the largest production occurs. We 
have no hard winters ; the bees work for 
months instead of weeks. Our glorious 
eucaLypts secrete thousands of tons of the 
finest-flavored honey, and beekeepers only are 
wanted for this bountiful harvest to be 
garnered. The crop in the United States is 
enormous, California alone producing 5,000 
tons of honey per annum. Canada has an 
income of ,£100,000 from this source. In the 
Old World the industry has for years past 
yielded astonishing quantities of honey, but 
accurate statistics are not available. 
Why should not Australia, with such 
exceptional advantages, take her proper place 
amongst the great honey-producing countries 
of the world, and make honey and wax another 
of her staple industries ? If every inhabitant 
in these colonies consumed only a single pound 
of honey per annum nearly fourteen hundred 
tons would be required every year to supply it. 
If " foul brood,” the most infectious and 
exterminating of all tbe diseases the bee- 
keeper has to combat, be not earnestly 
grappled with and banished from our apiaries, 
this prospect will be impossible of realisation, 
and beekeeping will never assume any pro- 
portions. To meet this difficulty inspectors 
should he appointed, and power given them to 
enter upon any land were bees are kept, and 
to call for the hives, &c., to be opened in their 
presence. If “ foul brood” be discovered the 
proprietor of the apiary should be compelled 
to immediately eradicate the disease, or 
submit to all infected hives, &e., being 
destroyed by fire under the inspector’s 
directions and in his presence. Without such 
assistance on the part of the State all bee- 
keepers are completely at the mercy of any 
careless or thoughtless individual whose bees 
are infected. Men who have a few kerosene- 
box hives are the greatest offenders in this 
respect. They never examine- their hives 
except when the honey is taken, so that “ foul 
brood” runs its course unchecked ; and when 
all the bees are dead the proprietor generally 
uses the eases as feed boxes for his horses, 
after scattering the rotten combs about the 
ground, where his unfortunate neighbors’ 
bees soon discover them, and so carry the 
scourge into every hive in the vicinity. 
“ Foul brood” is by no means a new thing. 
It is supposed that Aristotle refers to it when 
he speaks of a bee disease characterised by a 
disgusting smell in the hive. Coming to 
modem times, Bonner, in his “ Beekeepers’ 
Companion,” published in England in 1798, 
devotes a chapter to what he calls “an 
uncommon disaster which sometimes, though 
