262 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL 16 
in Michigan, where the bees were all fed only 
sugar sirup, and so, of course, had no nitro¬ 
gen. These bees are all dead, but there i3 no 
appearauce of diarrhea The intestines are 
full of sirup so entirely undigested that the 
taste and odor are precisely those of fresh sugar 
sirup. These bees were wintered out of doors, 
but well packed What is packiug in such a 
Winter as this? Here the cold checked the 
vital energy, stopped digestion, and so check¬ 
ed the very source of heat May we not say 
that these bees froze to death! I have also 
examined bees from our college apiary—bees 
wintered in a good cellar—which are bright, 
small, and apparently in mo3t excellent con¬ 
dition. I find almost nothing in the r intes¬ 
tines, only a little mucus like excreta. They 
bad no pollen In their hives, and have taken 
very little food. 
The bees which died of diarrhea, but which 
had no pollen in their intestines, are said, by 
the apiarist who sent them, to have been fed 
last Fall exclusively on a diet of sugar sirup, 
given in combs free from pollen, Yet he says 
bis other bees gathered pollen in October, 
though he thinks these did uot. As he was 
several days feeding them, they were undoubt¬ 
edly stimulated to brood rearing, and incited 
to gather either pollen or other nitrogenous 
food—perhaps meal. Sure it is they had such 
food. The apiarist says they reared brood iu 
February. The tissues of all larval bees con¬ 
tain nitrogen. To hold that brood can be 
reared upon pure carbohydrates would ally 
one to the old alchemists who believed that 
gold could be formed of the baser metals. 
Moreover, all experience and observation re¬ 
fute this statement, the thing is scientifically 
impossible. 
But we are not left to theory: for I found 
pollen, by the aid of the microscope, in the 
cells of the comb from this same hive. Again, 
the putrescent odor and bacteria argued the 
presence of nitrogen, even in the feces of the 
bees, where no signs of pollen could be found. 
In hopes of adding one more 
clincher, I took all the feces 
I could gather from these 
bees to Dr. R, C. Kedzie, with 
the question. Is there auy 
nitrogeu in this, and if so is 
Ny the proportion large? Ana- 
lysis said, Yes, to both ques¬ 
ts \ tions. 
(Hfe CONCLUSIONS. 
From the above, we have 
the strongest confirmation of 
the points which I have so 
often urged iu the Rural: 
To winter safely, every Win¬ 
ter, we must be able to pre¬ 
serve about our hives a uni¬ 
form temperature of about 
45 degrees. To accomplish 
this, nothing serves so well as 
a good cellar. Artificial beat 
is not safe, as it is difliult to 
manage it so as not to irritate 
the bees In such conditions, 
or in case we are sure our 
bees can fly every few days, 
they will Winter, with or 
without pollen, ou honey or 
sugar sirup. With severe and 
long-continued cold our bees 
will die, if not suitably pro¬ 
tected, even with the best of 
food. 
Again, It is safer to give 
no pollen, and even to 
feed sugar sirup in place 
this treatment for two months at least. The 
result was a complete cure. F. D. c. 
all that was said about this disease in the 
West was ‘‘baseless excitement.” 
I can understand his reference to suspicious 
motives—in its connection—in no other way 
tbaD that the veterinary officers of the United 
States or State Governments are referred to. 
If this is meant, I pronounce it an outrage. 
If this is not meant. 1 caunot see what is 
meant. “Stockman” says he has not written, 
as I staled, slightingly of the extent of bog 
cholera. I regret my error, but repeat my 
protest against the sweeping assertion that 
the disease is “wholly preventable.” 
Here 1 leave the whole matter, unless I am 
si own to have been wrong; then I will 
publicly apologize. 
e mx&tmau 
ANIMALS recovered from pleuro-pneu- 
MONIA STILL LIABLE TO SPREAD THE 
PLAGUE. 
Several of the most eminent veterinary 
surgeons, both in England and in America, 
say there will be danger of disseminating 
contagious pleuropneumonia from auimals 
which have been attacked by it, hovever per¬ 
fectly they nmj appear to have been cured; 
for a latent poison is left in the lungs, which 
it is rarely possible to drive out, and sooner or 
later it affects animals herding with,or even 
approaching near, those that have been af¬ 
fected. The only safe and effectual preven¬ 
tive is, as soon as the disease is discovered, to 
slaughter the animal, bury it deep, and diseu- 
fect all places where it may have stood or 
roamed around. For want of paying atten¬ 
tion to this precaution, or through ignorance 
of the danger, many herds have caught pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, which otherwise might have been 
saved from it. Experts say an animal may be 
apparently in perfect health, and yet have its 
longs sufficiently diseased to affect other ani¬ 
mals. A. B. ALLEN. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS, 
THE SHIRE HORSE PRINCE WILLIAM. 
The sixth annual show of the Shire horse 
Association, held at Islington, London, 
in the fourth week in Februery, wes a great 
success. More horses of this class were shown 
than were ever before together. Among the 
two-year olds was one whose m assive form 
and fine points attracted the attention of every 
visitor. This was Mr. Rowell’s Prince 
William, 3,95H We have had his portrait re¬ 
produced from the London Live Stock Journ¬ 
al, and present it on this page Fig. 147. This 
remarkable two-year-old last year headed the 
yearling class, and, after the show, was pur¬ 
chased by his present owner for 240 guineas 
($1,225), of bis breeder, Mr, W. H. Potter, of 
Derby This year, he was awarded the 100- 
guinea challenge cup for the best horse of any 
age in the Shire horse Show of 1885. In ad¬ 
dition to this great honor, be won the Society’s 
50 guinea cup for the best stallion in the 
Show; the Agricultural Hall 10 guiuea cup 
for the best stallion under fouryears old, and 
of course the first prize in the two-year-old 
class He is very large for his age, with 
strong limbs, plenty of bone, powerful quart¬ 
ers and good feet, and be is verv active. He 
is probably the best Sbire-borse in England. 
Take a good look at him. 
THE “KANSAS PROFESSOR” TO 
“STOCKMAN.” 
I wish to say to Rural readers that “a 
professor here in Kansas” who, according to 
“Stockman” (see Rural of March 28), has 
been circulating “wickedly, ignorant state 
ments aDent. foot-and-mouth disease, was en 
tirely “sarcastical” in his references to this 
disease. This every reader, I think, would 
have seen, bad Stockman quoted me cor¬ 
rectly, not to use a harsher phrase. Last 
year, when our people were nearly scared out 
of their wits by what was thought to be foot- 
and mouth disease, I ridiculed the idea in our 
college paper, the Industrialist, and strove to 
show our farmers that the reason why cattle 
were “shedding” hoofs, tails and noses, was to 
be found in starvation and lack of shelter for 
the most part. Some five weeks ago I drew 
attention to the fact that the same conditions 
for the production of ‘ foot-and mouth” dis¬ 
ease existed in the State as in the previous 
Winter, and that au “outbreak” of the dis¬ 
ease might be looked for. So far Stockman 
is the only one that l have heard of, who 
failed to catch the spirit of my poor joke. 
I agree with Stockman that “some one 
ought to sit down” on the author of “such 
.imntrn 
WINTER LOSS OF BEES, 
prof. a. j. cook, 
Every Winter that is characterized by 
severe and long continued cold, brings vexa¬ 
tion and loss to the bee-keepers of the North¬ 
ern United States. The present Winter is 
alike unprecedented for its extreme continu¬ 
ous cold, and for the mortality among bees. 
Day after day in February, and again in 
March, the thermometer marked many de¬ 
grees below zero. From all over our northern 
REPLY TO “STOCKMAN, 
PROF. g. e, morrow, 
The courtesy toward me personally, shown 
by “Stockman” in his reply to my protest, 
eads me to repeat that 1 have 
no hostility to him personally. 
If I have done him the 
slighest, injustice, I regret it 
sincerely. Controversy is not 
to my liking. It is not neces¬ 
sary to go back over “Stock¬ 
man’s” Notes I protested 
against assumption by him of 
superior wisdom, misleading 
statements, and charges or 
insinuations against men 
who?e opinions we have a 
right to regard more highly 
than those in any articles un¬ 
signed by the names of the 
writers. I am well content 
to let the justice of this pro¬ 
test be decided by a careful 
reading of “Stockman's” 
reply to it. This reply, as I 
understand it, states or im¬ 
plies that there is and has been 
no serious danger to our live¬ 
stock from contagious dis¬ 
eases ; that there is no suffieien t 
evidence of any recent cases 
of contagions pleuro-pneumo- 
nia; that the recent declara¬ 
tion of the bealthfulness of 
the Jersey herd in Ohio, 
charged with having been the 
starting point of the outbreak 
of this disease in the West last 
year, is proof that the state¬ 
ment that there was such an 
■nun 
Wt mm 
Shibk-Korse Prince William. Fig. 147 
out break of this disease was a 
ot honey, as honey cou- 
“blunder;” “that when a per¬ 
son is making money out of baseless excite¬ 
ment of this sort, his motives are justly open 
to suspicion;” that hog “cholera is wholly a 
preventable disease,” etc. 
Dr. Law is unreservedly indorsed by 
“Stockman.” He has positively and repeat¬ 
edly insisted on the very great danger to our 
livestock from existing contagious disease; 
he has been counted an extremist in this di¬ 
rection ; has urged the necessity for much more 
stringent legislation and a wide enlargement 
of the powers of the Bureau of Animal Indus¬ 
try; has explicitly pronounced the Western 
outbreak of last year contagious pleuro¬ 
pneumonia, or lung plague. I do not know of 
one veterinarian of wide repute who denies 
that this outbreak was of that disease. Widely 
known and presumably well informed veteri¬ 
narians have examined “recent cases,” living 
and dead, and positively pronounced them 
cases of this disease. As to the herd of 
Jerseys in Ohio, “Stockman’s" statement is 
astounding After the loss of a considerable 
number of animals, after separation of the sus¬ 
pected animals, disinfection of building and 
months of care, veterinary authority is able 
to declare it now free from disease. I can 
understand “Stockman” in no other way than 
that he counts this proof that the herd bad 
not been affected with lung plague, and that 
ignorant, alarming and injurious statements,” I 
but assure him, on the w ord of an old teacher, J 
that even so simple an operation as “sitting 
down” requires the exercise of a fair degree 
of judgment and discrimination in a country 
where pins will get bent and tacks get in posi¬ 
tion with their “business ends” pointed to the 
btars, E. M. SHELTON. 
» « » - 
TREATMENT OF A STIFF HORSE. 
If taken at once, a good sweat will some¬ 
times cure stiffness. 1 had a valuable pony, 
w bich became stiff, and alter six months’ 
standing was cured iu this way: We took off 
her shoes and every day put her feet in water 
as hot as we could tear our bands in. We 
had more hot water at hand to add as that in 
the tub got cold. In this way, we bathed her 
legs up to her body for half an hour or more, 
and then wrapped them in flannel bandages. 
We put a rowel iu her breast, and every day 
or two we turned it; first putting on some 
Venice turpentine. We kept this in until it 
dropped out. Every day we put on her feet 
fresh poultices of cow manure and salt. She 
ran in a roomy box-stall, and to keep her 
from biting the rowel in her breast, we used 
a leather apron, fastened by straps around 
her neck and to the circingle at each side. We 
took all grain away from her, and gave her 
every day warm bran mashes. We kept up 
State? comes the cry, “Bees all, or nearly all, 
dead.” 
For the pest few weeks I have been giving 
all the time at my disposal to the investigation 
of this bee malady. I have examined bun 
dnds of bees most carefully, seme from 
healthy colonies, more from colonies dead of 
diarrhea; a few fiom colonies dead, though 
not of diarrhea—bees which, as I believe, 
actually froze to death. In every case 1 
examined, thoroughly, the feces, or contents 
oi ihe intestines, with a high power micro¬ 
scope. In one case 1 submitted the excreta to 
Dr. Kedzie for u chemical examination. 1 find 
that all bees dead of diarrhea have the iutes 
tines somewhat distended, often excessively 
so. with fecal matter, which swarms with 
ba teria, and is rank with a peculiar putrescent 
odor, and which, with the exception of that of 
a lew bees from one colony sent me from New' 
Yoik State, is loaded with the husks or grains 
of pollen. Many of the bees from this 
col ny also contained pollen grains iu their 
intestines. In some bees from one of the lar 
gest apiaries in Michigan, where many colo¬ 
nies have died, 1 found pollen in (Lie iutestines, 
which was identical with that stored iu the 
hive where the bees bad died. The same is 
true of bees taken from a hive—bees all dead 
I —near the college. 1 have also received bees 
I from the apiary of one of our largest apiarists 
tains some pollen; for if the temperatuie 
does become too low, the bees—if they are 
like other auimals, and there is no reason to 
doubt it—will seek the more hearty nitrogeu 
ous food, and as it is not natural for them to 
void their excreta, they become loaded with 
polleu gruius or husks, and die of diarrhea. 
That they can more safely feed ou sirup or 
honey stands to reason, and is enforced by 
experience. 
Our higher animalsdie of azoturia, a byper- 
nltrogeDized condition of the body, why not 
bees! especially as in the winter confinement 
they retain their fecal excreta till forced to 
avoid it, through the impulse of disease. 
Very neat dogs are often diseased by frequent 
and long confinement, through retentiou of 
the excretu. That bees should be even more 
susceptible is uot strange or unlikely. 
--»— — 
Reversible Fhamks.—W# alt know that 
Prof. Cook is high authority in the bee cul¬ 
ture; but l think bis idea of reversible frames 
will meet with difficulties. The honey will 
ruu out uuless every cell is capped over, which 
will not alwuys be the case. And then if there 
should be some empty cells, the bees will likely 
tear them down. If 1 am not mistaken, Mr. 
Langstrotb said so iu his book many years ago. 
And as to the matter claimed or gained, I 
think that even if true, it will not pay for the 
