as will be noticed (fig. 3), are fewer than those in the juices of a healthy larva. We shall also find, as the disease makes rapid progress, chains of bacilli-the leptothrix form-becoming common. In fig. 4 we have a representation of a later stage of the disease when the larva is dead and decomposing. Here the fat and albuminoids will be found disappearing, and the bacilli assuming the spore condition. In fig. 5 we see the disease in its latest stage, when the whole rotten mass has become coffee-coloured, or has dried to a scale. Blood-discs, fat globules, and molecular movements have disappeared, only a few bacilli are seen, and at last, as the nourishing material becomes exhausted, only spores remain. It will now be understood that, owing to the great resistance of the spores, chemical substances have no effect at all upon them unless administered under such conditions as would destroy the bees. From this it will be seen how great is the difficulty in curing foul brood unless the disease is attacked in its earliest stages. It has previously been stated that adult bees are sometimes attacked by the disease. To prove this, it is only necessary to take a weakly bee on the point of death, and examine what remain of its fluids under the microscope, when a large number of active bacilli will be found. Such bees leave the hive to die, whereas the infected larvæ remain in the cells, unless disinfectants to arrest decomposition are used, in which case the bees remove them from the hives. Cause of the Disease and Means of its Propagation. Although many theories have been advanced, the causes of the disease are not yet quite known. Experience has, however, plainly shown that with foul brood-as in all epidemic diseases the weak, sickly, and badly nourished are attacked and become centres of infection to others. So rapidly does the disease spread by contagion that in one season, unless precautions are taken, a whole neighbourhood may become affected in a short time. Combs which have contained foul brood retain the spores. The queen lays eggs in the cells and the workers deposit their honey and pollen in them. Both honey and pollen in this way become vehicles for the transport of the disease to the larvæ in the process of feeding these by the nurse-bees. The workers in endeavouring to clean the combs scatter the spores, which may also be driven out of the hive by the current of air produced by the fanners at the entrance, in their endeavour to rid the dwelling of the foul odours. As colonies become weak, bees from healthy hives rob them, and thus carry off the germs of the disease along with their ill-gotten gains. Bees in straw skeps often die without the owners knowing why, and as these skeps are frequently allowed to remain on their stands, in the hope of catching a stray swarm, the result may be imagined. Formerly, when few bees were kept, and these in the same garden, and swarms seldom sold out of the neighbourhood, it was possible to keep foul brood within bounds by destroying the bees. Now, however, the facilities for its propagation are greatly increased by the large traffic there is in bees. The bee-keeper even may himself be a cause of spreading the pest by indiscriminately manipulating first diseased and then healthy hives without taking proper precautions to disinfect himself or his appliances. Bee-keepers also, who have not succeeded with their bees in consequence of foul brood, have been known to sell by auction hives in which the bees have died, without the slightest attempt at disinfection on their part, the purchasers being frequently beginners who have no idea of the danger they are incurring. Method of Treatment. The superiority of the modern frame hive over the straw skep is here strikingly apparent. The latter was as a sealed book to its owner, who had no means of detecting the presence of foul brood except by outward signs, and these, as already pointed out, are only manifested when the disease is in its last and most virulent stage, at which time any treatment short of total destruction is entirely hopeless. The owner of a movable frame hive, on the contrary, can, by the facilities it affords for examining the combs, at once detect the disease in its earliest stages, and adopt measures for arresting its progress or for stamping it out altogether. Unfortunately the disease is seldom noticed on its first appearance, but it has nearly always to be dealt with when more or fewer spores are already in the hive. If, on examining combs, to all appearance healthy, with brood compact and larvæ bright and plump, we find here and there a cell with young larvæ moving uneasily, or extended horizontally instead of being curled up, and changing to a pale yellow colour, we at once detect the first symptoms of foul brood. The further progress of the disease can, at this stage, be arrested by feeding the bees with syrup, to which 3 grains of napthol beta are added to every pound of sugar used. This is employed by the nursebees in preparing food for the larvæ. We can further assist the bees by putting naphthalene or eucalyptus in the hive. The bees then usually remove the dead larvæ. Apart, however, from experienced bee-keepers or trained experts, very few are fortunate enough to detect the disease at such an early stage, or to effect a cure so easily, and it becomes advisable to describe the method of procedure in ordinary cases, that is, when the combs have irregular patches of brood, with sunken and perforated cappings to the cells (fig. 1, p. 311) containing the coffee-coloured mass inside. If the colony be weak, destruction of bees, combs, frames, and quilts, together with thorough disinfection of hives, is by far the best course to pursue. We thus destroy the spores, and so remove the source of infection. If, on the contrary, the colony be still strong, the bees may be preserved by adopting the following method:-An artificial swarm is made of the bees, which are then placed in a straw skep and fed on syrup medicated with naphthol beta. The frames, combs, and quilts are then burned. The bive is disinfected by being either steamed or scrubbed with boiling water and soap, and then painted over with a solution of carbolic acid (one part of Calvert's No. 5 carbolic acid to two parts of water), and when the smell has disappeared it will be ready for use. The bees are allowed to remain in the skep for forty-eight hours, by which time the honey they may have taken with them, and which might contain spores, will have been consumed, and the diseased bees will have died off. They are then shaken from the skep into a clean frame hive furnished with six frames, fitted with full sheets of comb foundation, and are fed with medicated syrup for a few days longer. The skep used as their temporary home should be burnt. All such work should be done in the evening when the bees have ceased flying for the day, to avoid chance of robbing." The bee-keeper in his endeavours to rid his apiary of foul brood must also raise to its proper standard the lowered vitality of the bees, which enabled For other methods of treatment the reader may be referred to the writer's British Bee-keepers' Guide-book, published by Messrs. Houlston & Sons, Paternoster Buildings, E.C. the disease germs to get a footing. This he must do by keeping the bees strong with young and prolific queens, good wholesome food, cleanliness, and proper ventilation. Foul brood is extremely contagious, and being prevalent in so many places, it is advisable to adopt preventive measures against infection. Naphthalene in balls is generally used, and two of them are split in half, and placed on the floor-board of the hive in the corner farthest from the entrance. The temperature of the hive causes the naphthalene to evaporate. All syrup used for feeding should also be medicated with naphthol beta. Clothes, appliances, and hands must be washed with carbolic soap, and other articles disinfected by spraying with a solution of 1 oz. Calvert's No. 5 carbolic acid in 12 oz. of water. It was formerly thought that honey was the only source of infection, so that if bees were starved until they had got rid of the honey carried by them from the diseased hive, a cure would be effected. We now know that this starvation method, good as far as it goes, has always failed from the fact of its not embracing disinfection of hives and appliances. The spores, which were not destroyed, and whose vitality was only latent, were possibly lurking in hidden places to be some day brought into contact with suitable nourishing material, when they would again start into growth, and thus the disease constantly broke out. From what has been said, it will be seen that unless great precautions are taken it is very difficult to get rid of the disease. It thus becomes obvious that those who fail to realise the danger of infection, and who will not take proper means of ridding their apiaries of foul brood, or of preventing its introduction, are a real danger to the industry. If foul brood were under Government inspection, and all bad cases promptly dealt with by destruction, the disease could soon be stamped out. This is what the British Bee-keepers' Association have asked the Board of Agriculture to bring about, and by this means the industry would receive an impetus which would benefit not only bee-keepers, but also-to a far greater extent-farmers and fruit-growers. Analyses of the Artesian Waters of New South Wales, and their Value for Irrigation and other Purposes. BY JOHN C. H. MINGAYE, F.C.S., M.A.L.M.E., In a previous paper read before the *Royal Society of New South Wales, treating on some of the well, spring, mineral, and artesian waters, some fifty-three analyses were given, and a large amount of information re value for irrigation, &c. Since this paper was published, analyses have been made of a number of waters obtained from the artesian bores in the western district, and, by permission of the Honorable the Minister for Mines and Agriculture, I have much pleasure in placing the results obtained before this Society. The paper comprises some twenty-one analyses, and in every case where possible a complete analysis has been furnished. The results are expressed in grains per imperial gallon; also calculated into parts per 1,000 for comparison with other analyses published in England, America, India, and elsewhere. The value of a water for irrigation purposes depends largely on the nutrient matters in solution, and the absence of large quantities of injurious salts. The ingredients valuable for this purpose are the nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, and lime. The presence of large amounts of alkaline salts, especially carbonate of soda, are very detrimental to plant life, and act on the soil and injure all useful vegetation by their corrosive action, chiefly upon the root-crowns and upper roots of plants. The neutral salts-i.e., chloride of sodium (common salt), sulphate of soda (Glauber's salt), sulphate of magnesia (Epsom's salt), and others-are injurious in a lesser degree, and only when they occur in large quantities can relief be obtained by washing them out of the soil by under drainage, &c. It will be noticed on comparing the analyses of these waters that the total solid matter, excepting in five of the samples, is small, the main constituents present being carbonate of soda, chloride of sodium, carbonate of potash, with lesser amounts of carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, alumina, silica, organic matter, &c. A most important constituent in these waters is the rather large proportion of potash present, thus contributing this important fertiliser to the soil irrigated with artesian waters. Jour. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. xxvi, 1892, p. 73. The composition of the soils in the neighbourhood of these bores is one of great interest. The great trouble contended against in parts of India and America on their irrigation works is that a large number of the soils already contain "reh." or alkaline salts. Analyses made of the soluble salts, in two samples of soil taken from near the Barringun artesian bore, yielded as follows: No. 2. No. 1. Sulphuric anhydride (SO) Chlorine (C1) Carbonic acid (Co2) and organic matter The soils gave a very slight alkaline reaction. Mr. F. B. Guthrie, F.C.S., Analyst to the Department of Agriculture, has kindly furnished me with the analysis of a mixture of seven soils obtained from the neighbourhood of the Native Dog Bore. The soils had been cropped. A large amount of valuable work has been performed in India and America with regard to the use of artesian waters for irrigation purposes, where in places great difficulty has occurred as to the rise of "reh" in the soils. Our soils in the western districts, where these artesian bores are situated, being of a sandy nature and good depth, a water containing a fair amount of saline matter could be used for irrigation, where the same water. if applied to another class of soil for some years, especially if a system of drainage was not properly carried out, and occasionally the soluble salts |