Chapter I: P. Wilson

Burlington, Iowa, March 4, 1881.

=Died of Disease.=—I have lost about all the bees I had, yet
I love to hear of others' success in the bee business, and
read of others' way of management; but I am convinced that my
bees died of some disease, the same as Mr. Carver reported
from Greencastle, Indiana, although bees have not died so
universally throughout this country as mine have. I have the
hives and combs left, with lots of honey in them; these I can
sell for something, perhaps, or melt them into wax, or get
a few colonies of bees to begin anew, but it is very poor
encouragement to put much stock in bees, the way it looks now.