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modern "apiators," Keys had an intense curiosity to procure a complete view of an intercourse between a queen and a drone, but alas! he died without the sight. By confining a queen and a drone under a glass tumbler, he had "several times been witness to those amorous preludes recorded by Reaumur." The queen would " caress the drone, frequently repeating such wanton gestures as would stimulate a torpedo, or any other male but a drone!" He repeatedly witnessed "a royal duel," under a tumbler glass between two queens taken from different hives, which always "terminated in the death of both." Describing a bee-dress, he says among other things, "an apron before will be useful to prevent these prying insects from tickling the belly." He adds, "Women should not meddle with bees, without this bee dress; nor then, without the addition of a man's coat, and I had almost said, breeches also,"

It will be highly unfair to conclude from the above extracts that the book as a whole is comical and laughable. On the contrary, it is wonderfully stored with good, sound, practical advice about bee-keeping, and some parts of it show that we have not made such prodigious advances in the art, as we are sometimes prone to flatter ourselves. But this article is already quite long enough, and we must reserve a further notice of this old bee-book for a future number or numbers. W. F. C.

New Zealand Clover and Bumble-Bees

The following is an item that has been "going the rounds" among the newspapers of this country:

An interesting experiment has been made in the shipment of two nests of bumblebees from Plymouth, England, for Canterbury, New Zealand. The principal object aimed at in the introduction of these insects into the antipodes is the fertilization of the common clover, the pollen of which the common bee is generally unable to collect, while the bumble-bee, having a longer proboscis, and being much stronger, is able to reach sufficiently deep into the flower to collect the fertilizing dust.

Incidentally bees do fertilize plants, by scattering the pollen that adheres to their legs from the flowers they work on. But what can "two nests of bumble-bees" do for the salvation of the clover of so extensive a country as New Zealand? Surely it must be in a direful condition if it is dependent upon "two nests of bumble-bees" for its prosperity!

Read our list for Clubbing papers.

Our Premiums for Clubs.

A. G. Hill has sent us one of his Gas Pipe Extractors to be presented to the person sending in the largest club of new subscribers to THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL before January 31, 1877. The Extractor is light and extremely simple. We will pay the express charges, so that it shall be "without charge" to the recipient.

D. A. Pike will present one of his beautiful Albino Queens-whose progeny will be one-half Italians and one-half Albinos-to the getter up of the second largest club of subscribers. The Albino will be sent, postpaid, May 1, 1877.

We will add the following:

For the third largest list, we will send a tested Italian queen in May, 1877.

For the fourth largest list, we will send 500 young tulip trees (4 to 8 inches high) in April or May, 1877.

For the fifth largest list, we will give a copy of THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNAL for 1877, post-paid.

For the sixth largest list we will send, post-paid, a copy of Vol. I. of THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, bound.

See our club rates on page 296 of this issue. Names and money can be sent in as received, mentioning that you wish to compete for the prizes, and we will open an account accordingly. Work should be commenced at once.

Bee-Keeping in Utah.

The editor of the Utah Pomologist gives his experience in practical bee-keeping in the following language:

Seven years ago we obtained a hive of bees, and from this colony have produced over four hundred colonies.

Last year we had no swarms, and this year but one, from 150 hives. At the swarming time we looked for queen cells and found none for these two years, though the hives were full and in good condition, so we concluded that they had been so widely propagated by division that their instinct for swarming had disappeared, and no queen cells are formed in spring as usual.

Our bees did splendidly all the early part of the season and filled up very handsomely, but when the dry weather came, few blossoms were left, and they produced little nectar, the bees fell upon broken and injured fruit, and laid up but very little honey. We must plant our bees in a five acre lot of mignonette, and then we shall not look in vain for plenty of sweets all the season.

Out of 40,000,000 people in this country, about 70,000 are bee-keepers and these send to market about 15,000,000 pounds of honey and wax yearly, representing in value $3,676,763 for the former, and $189,388 for the latter.

The Cause of Foul Brood.

More than two thousand years since,Aristotle described this terrible plague; it is, therefore not of modern origin. This disease, causing larvæ to die in the cells, and creating a foul stench which permeates the hive, bringing death to its inhabitants, has been a subject for discussion for many years; and anything that tends to throw light upon it will be of interest to the readers of THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. Dr. Schonfield, of Germany, has lately made a variety of experiments with it, and we present our readers with the following extracts from his paper, which has been translated by Mr. J. S. Wood:

Dr. Dzierzon proposed, by the wish of the editor (of Bienen Zeitung), at the last (Vandreforsamlingen) exhibition at Saltsborg, the following question: "What is to be looked upon as decided relative to foul brood, both as regards theory and practice, and what remains now undecided?" But, although he laid all his views and his name's influence in the balance in favor of the correctness of the Preusziske theory, he must still acknowledge that the incontestable proof was wanting, as at the conclusion of his answer he declared, "If also the theory brought forward by Dr. Preusz should prove correct, yea, even if it is the most probable, so is yet the questioncause, the sickness's real nature-even now enveloped in obscurity." Thus we stand in relation to the problem which I previously stated:

Firstly. It must incontrovertibly be proved that the spores of the fungus leave the dried-up fouf brood, and they must, inasmuch as they float in the air, be able to be caught.

Secondly. It must next be shown that such fungus spores, that are caught in the atmosphere, when placed on healthy larvæ, can grow and increase to an uncountable number, until at last they kill the brood, and so prove themselves the cause of the sickness.

Although the problem appeared difficult, I went even confidently to the work. wrote immediately to Herr Locher, in Sigmaringen, and asked him for a little foul brood. The 18th of June I received, enclosed in a letter, so much as I could form into a ball about the size of a pea. The substance was very dark, nearly black, moist, and tenacious, and its odor was exceedingly disagreeable. A careful examination under the microscope proved the presence of fungus of the same form as Micrococcus. Had I, after having solved my problem, began first to show that the spores could escape through the fly-holes (entrances) of hives containing foul brood, it would have been necessary for me (in order to have obtained such a hive) to dissolve the infectious substance in water, and therewith sprinkle a comb containing healthy brood. It is most probable that such a proceeding would have failed, as the bees would most surely have cast out the dead larvæ and pupa before the artificially produced sickness had had time to develop itself fully, and infect the whole hive. In every case there would have gone

a much longer time by that means before 1 had arrived at the result. I had not, however, in the mean time the opportunity, as I already wished to discuss my experiment at Halle. I, therefore, immediately made the experiment to catch the spores that were escaping, and were floating in the atmosphere, from the infected substance that had been sent me, and thereafter use them for infecting healthy brood. For this purpose I constructed the following apparatus: On a smooth-planed board I placed a bellglass, in the top of which was a round hole; in this I fixed a glass tube two feet long; there was also fixed a similar glass tube in the board. In the top of the uppermost tube was fixed a plug of cotton-wool, as also in the under end of the bottom tube, and the wool was not pressed tight, but so that the air could circulate freely through both tubes.

The foul brood substance that I had received from Herr Locher, was now placed under the bell-glass on the 21st of June, and left to dry slowly. If, then, the assertion that the spores escaped in the air when the substance was dry was correct, then it was only necessary for me now and then to place the apparatus by the window in my study, and expose it to the full influence of the sunbeams, as if the air in the bell-glass, by the power of the sunbeams, was warmed up to 40 deg., it must, by a well known physical law, escape through the uppermost tube, while the cooler air from the floor of the study must enter the bell-glass through the bottom tube, and at the same time it was quite as certain that therewithal the spores of the fungus, that were carried by the upward currant of air, would be caught in the wool above.

On the 5th of July, on which day the substance was quite dry, until the end of the month, I got four plugs of wool, each of which had served as the top plug for about eight eays; besides these I had two pads of wool, each of an area of about four square inches, which I had placed inside at the top of the bell-glass.

Had the spores from the substance really been escaping? and had the wool caught them as they were coming out into the world? All rested on the answering of these questions; and examination gave the following results:

1. When quite a small portion of the wool was washed in distilled water, and thereafter a drop of this water placed under a microscope, it showed a considerable quantity of fungus Micrococcus.

2. If a plug of wool, as large as a pin's head, was laid dry on a piece of glass thereafter moistened with distilled water, and placed under the microscope, the Micrococcus could be seen partly in the water, and partly adhering to the threads of wool.

3. If the wool was examined dry it was difficult to see the Micrococcus, and it could only be seen by aid of the strongest lens, and through three objectives.

4. Of gun-cotton, of which I had two plugs, which were prepared with water as sub. 1 and 2, Micrococci were to be seen in still greater quantities than in the ordinary wool, probably because the one is finer and better suited to retain the spores.

Thus,by a practical method, I have solved the first part of my problem; and it is without a doubt proved, though in an unequal degree, that the spores of the fungus

from the dried-up matter escape, and are borne away by the atmosphere.

Therefore there cannot be the slightest doubt of the fact, that in consequence of the bees ventilating so strongly as they. so often do, that the spores must be driven out of a severely infected hive in very large quantities.

When V. Molitor-Muhlfeldt, in order to refute this assumption, declares that there is no circulation of air in a bee-hive, but that, owing to the motionless air, the spores must sink down, and not pass from cell to cell, it sounds almost as if he had no idea of ventilation being caused by the bees, and as if he had not read paragraph 3 of Von Berlepsch's Der Biene. When Gunther has succeeded in working a small windmill of paper by placing it at the entrance of a hive containing a strong stock, then it is evident that the circulation of air produced in the hive by the bees must, in proportion, be a much stronger hurricane for these light spores than any such hurricane Von Molitor-Muhlfeldt has witnessed on the earth. And when the same opponent declares on the whole that the atmosphere cannot be the bearer of the infection, so has that invalid assertion been so thoroughly refuted by Dr. Ulde, of Halle, that I will not waste a word on the subject.

It is quite certain that it is not over all, and at all times, that the atmosphere will contain such a quantity of seed-germs; and Dr. Preusz goes too far when he declares that the atmosphere is everywhere loaded with these germs. If such was the case, foul brood infection would appear in every district where there are bee-keepers; but there can be shown many districts where this disease is quite unknown; as in my district, up to the present time, it has not appeared.

I certainly succeeded in producing a whole comb of dead rotten and stinking brood; but although I experimented with this comb in the most various ways, placed it at the fly-hole at the open door, and exposed to the sun's warmth and the atmospheric currents about my pavilion, I, after examination, found no more fungus than Fischer, who never had anything to do with foul brood.

Where there is no fungus present, there can never arise infectious fouf brood."

Herewith we have approached nearer to the solution of the second part of my problem.

It next requires to show and afterwards to prove that pure fungus collected from the atmosphere by means of cotton wool, has the power to kill larvæ, and by so doing cause foul brood. To do this, I took, on the 30th of July, a comb with brood from a first swarm, brushed off all the bees, and covered about 100 larvæ with wool, which was made fast by means of some thread. The comb was hardly replaced again before the bees attacked the wool, and commenced casting it out in small pieces. On examination of the comb on the 1st of August, it showed that all the larvæ that had been covered with the wool were cleared away by the bees. Three larvæ above the previously closed cells died shorty after the bees had sealed the cells which they were in. The bell-covers were sunk, and the well known small hole was in the centre.

After this, about 100 other larvæ were covered with wool; but again, as also a

third time, the larvæ and wool were torn out. I had nearly lost my patience, and I had only now two plugs and one of the squares left, which should be used for other experiments.

I now, rather anxiously, for a fourth time covered a brood-comb, and this time, fortunately, the bees let most of the brood remain in the cells. After an interval of four days, 7 larvæ died. An instantaneous and conscientious examination, by aid of the microscope, revealed the presence in their bodies of immense numbers of Micrococci.

Unfortunately, I was obliged now, on the 12th of August, to defer my experiments, as I could not postpone for a longer time a Bath tour on which I should have started at the beginning of the month. I forgot now to slide in a wire netting to prevent those larvæ that remained being torn out by the bees, but on my arrival at home from the Baths I found all in the best order.

Still the fact that Microccoccus possesses an enormous power of infection, and that it also attaches itself to perfectly healthy brood until it kills them, cannot longer be denied. As incomplete (which I myself acknowledge) as the above proof turned out, owing to the scantiness of material that I had at my disposal, and the haste with which I was compelled to operate, as strikingly and as unrefutably have I succeeded by another process to prove it.

As I at once saw beforehand that under the circumstances before mentioned, and the well-known strong propensity of every strong hive of bees to remove as quickly as possible every sickly or dead larva from the hive, it would be extremely difficult to arrive at a complete and satisfactory result, so the idea occurred to me to try the experiment of infection on the larvæ of other insects, which it would be possible to observe without obstruction.

As specially adapted for the purpose of this experiment, it occurred to me that the larvæ of the blow-fly would be the best, as these larvæ especially possess an extraordinary vitality, that, notwithstanding its voraciousness, it suffers hunger and thirst, and in defiance of its nudity, can withstand cold and heat most astonishingly; and besides the above, this insect resembles the bee in its development, insomuch as it is as larva 14 days, and it is as pupa about the same length of time. I could, without difficulty, procure and nourish these larvæ, and, what at that time was of most importance, I could take them with me to Johannisbath, and there comfortably observe them under the ordeal.

I, therefore, on the 11th of August, laid a juicy piece of meat in the window, and a fly of metallic lustre, desirous of laying, soon deposited a heap of eggs on it. The next day about 100 were hatched, and these grew with their well known rapidity. The second day of my stay at Johannisbath, to where, of course, besides these larvæ, I brought my microscope, some of the wool that contained the fungus, and also a few bell-glasses, under which latter I placed three separate sets of larvæ.

The first and second had each ten, and the third the remaining larvæ. The larvæ under the first bell-glass on the same day, together with the meat which was their resort, were covered with wool. Six days after this the larvæ attained their normal size, and this without my being able to

detect the slightest unhealthiness; on the same ten larvæ, under the same bell-glass, and on the top of the wool, I laid a fresh piece of meat, which, together with the wool, was well saturated and smeared with the excrement of the larvæ.

Two days afterwards, seven of the larvæ were dead; some lay on their backs, others on their sides, but all were stretched out. The others lived and transformed after one, two, or three days' interval.

A very careful microscopical examination the next day of a dead larva showed that the whole surface of its body was covered with Micrococci. I might wash any portion of the larvæ and examine the water; I might place the minutest piece of skin under the objective and then moisten it, but always the same result-Micrococci in innumerable numbers.

As the remaining six larvæ soon decomposed, three of them were dried on a piece of wadding so that they could at a latter date be used for experiments of the same kind. Again, two were examined while decomposing, and were found full of uncountable Micrococci; and these last were spread on a piece of meat and given as food to the ten larvæ in the second bell-glass, which, up to this time, had not shown signs of transformation. While we for the present leave these ten unfortunate victims to their fate, let us turn to the three pupæ, which, to all appearance, fortunately have transformed, and whose cocoons gradually get of a darker color.

Our first closer examination convinced us that they were dead, as the cocoons here and there were sunken in. Two of them that I cut out of the middle in the direction of the length revealed such large quantities of Microccoci fungi, that they, without a doubt, must be acknowledged as the cause of their death.

The third pupa, like the three before mentioned larvæ, was reserved for future experiments.

When I to the above add the ten larvæ from the second bell-glass died berore trans formation, after a few days' interval, being the result of having eaten their funguscontaining sisters-that one larvæ that I examined before its death already contained an enormous amount of fungi, and that all the others after death proved to be full of fungi inwardly-more especially in the intestines-while the larvæ in the third glass transformed and came into existence as flies, that I for many days bent over the microscope, and had examined more than a hundred pieces; so there can be no longer doubt of the fact that Micrococcus also infects perfectly healthy larvæ, and in the end kills them.

This result, willingly and without opposi tion, will be accepted by the scientific, as there is nothing to find therein that is opposed to experience or research.

Herr Molitor Muhlfeldt rightly enough declares in answer to my earlier articles, that no fungus-spores can take root on the undamaged skin of healthy animals, be cause the main principle-the suitable underlayer-is only found when the animal is unhealthy, or when about and unnoticeably has already begun to decompose or dissolve; and this assertion does not allow of scientific_proof. And even if it were correct, Dr. Preesz's theory is by no means refuted thereby, or even threatened, as in

reality every larva that is seized by infection, finds itself in an extremely sickly state, which may be traced to another

cause.

In general, the larva dies soon after the cell is closed, and before it envelops itself as a pupa; during the time that the larva changes itself to a pupa; not alone the skin of the larva decomposes, but the larva, certainly as the result of the natural metamorphosis, finds itself in a sickly condition, and to every deadly attack peculiarly and specially adapted for infection.

We could, therefore, if we might allow Muhlfeldt's assertion a little attention, very easily say at the sickening time of preparation for transformation, and during transformation, the dying and decomposing skin of the larva is the very best and most suitable condition for the support of the fungus' growth so that it multiplies at a rapid rate, and kills the larva before transformation is at an end. Therefore, since Dr. Preusz and Vogel, at Saltsborg, have given the decided assurance that there are always found Mi!crococci in foul brood, and since I have practically proved that healthy brood can be infected by Micrococci, so can there no longer be doubt that where foul brood appears as an epidemic, there the infection is produced and carried to effect by Micrococ

cus.

The Situation of an Apiary.

It is two thousand years since Columella lived and penned his thoughts about bees. The following is his advice for the situation of an apiary, and it will be interesting to the many readers of THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.

It were desirable that it face the south, and be situate in a place neither too hot nor too much exposed to the cold. That it be in a valley, in order that the loaded bees may with greater ease descend to their homes. That it be near the mansion house, on account of the conveniency of watching them, but so situated as not to be exposed to noisome smells, nor to the dim of men or cattle. That it be surrounded with a wall, which, however, should not rise above three feet high. That, if possible, a running stream be near them; or, if that cannot be that water be brought near them in troughs with pebbles or small stones in the water for the bees to rest on while they drink; or that the water be confined between gently declining banks, in order that the bees may have safe access to it, they not being able to produce either combs, honey, or food for their maggots without water. That the neighborhood of rivers or basins of water with high banks be avoided, because winds may whirl the bees into them, and they cannot easily get on shore from thence to dry themselves. And that the garden in which the apiary stands be well furnished with such plants as afford the bees plenty of good pasture. The trees in this garden should be of a dwarf kind, and their heads bushy, in order that the swarms that settle on them may be the more easily hived.

Mrs. Tupper has been released from custody at Davenport, having given bonds for $800 for her appearance at court.

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SECOND.-In the normal condition of a colony, the queen is the only perfect female present in the hive, and lays all the eggs found therein. These eggs are male and female. From the former proceed the drones; from the latter, if laid in narrow cells, proceed the workers or undeveloped females; and from them also, if laid in wider, acorn-shaped, and vertically suspended, so-called royal cells, lavishly supplied with a peculiar pabulum or jelly, proceed the queens.

THIRD.-The queen possesses the ability to lay male or female eggs at pleasure, as the particular cell she is at any time supplying may require.

FOURTH.-In order to become qualified to lay both male and female eggs, the queen must be fecundated by a drone or male bee.

FIFTH.-The fecundation of the queen is always effected outside of the hive, in the open air, and while on the wing. Consequently, in order to become fully fertile, that is, capable of laying both male and female eggs, the queen must leave her hive at least once.

SIXTH.-In the act of copulation the genitalia of the drone enter the vulva of the queen, and the drone simultaneously perishes.

SEVENTH.-The fecundation of the queen once accomplished, is efficacious during her life, or so long as she remains healthy and vigorous; and she never afterwards leaves the hive, except when issuing with a

swarm.

EIGHTH.-The ovary of the queen is not impregnated in copulation; but a small vesicle or sac situated near the termination of the oviduct, and communicating therewith, becomes charged with the semen of the drone.

NINTH.-All eggs germinated in the ovary of the queen, tend to develop as males, and do develop as such, unless impregnated by the male sperm while passing the mouth of the seminal sac or spermatheca, when descending the oviduct. If they be thus impregnated in their downward passage (which impregnation the queen can effect or omit at pleasure) they develop as females.

TENTH.-If a queen remains unfecundated, she ordinarily does not lay eggs. Still, exceptional cases do sometimes occur, and the eggs then laid produce drones only.

ELEVENTH.-If, in consequence of superannuation, the contents of the spermatheca of a fecundated queen become exhausted; or if from enervation or accident, she loses

the power of using the muscles connected with the spermatheca, so as to be unable to impregnate the passing egg,she will thenceforward lay drone eggs only.

TWELTH.-As some unfecundated queens occasionally lay drone eggs, so also, in queenless colonies, no longer having the requisite means of rearing a queen, common workers are sometimes found, that lay eggs from which drones, and drones only, proceed. These workers are likewise unfecundated; and the eggs are uniformly laid by some individual bee, regarded more or less, by her companions as their queen.

THIRTEENTH.-So long as a fertile queen is present in the hive, the bees do not toleraté a fertile worker. Nor do they tolerate one while cherishing a hope of being able to rear a queen. In rare instances, however, exceptional cases occur. Fertile workers are sometimes found in hives immediately after the death of the queen; and even in the presence of a young queen, so long as she has not herself become fertile.

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