328 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



At the present Avritiiif^ it is still before the Senate Committee on 

 Agriculture and Forestry. The chief purpose of this bill, which 

 has the indorsement of the department, is to regulate the importation 

 of adult bees by means other than the mails, since such importations 

 have been rather frequent in the past. In the event that this bill 

 becomes law it will be possible to modify the regulations from time 

 to time as importations from certain countries are found to be neces- 

 sary and safe. It will further be possible to obtain, under the pro- 

 visions of this bill, importations from any country which are needed 

 to improve the breeding stock of the United States, and at the same 

 time to prevent the importation of the mite causing the Isle of Wight 

 disease. 



During the present summer (1922) a large number of samples of 

 adult bees are being received and examined for the presence of the 

 mite, and up to the time of this writing no specimens of the mite 

 have been found in bees from the United States. This study is 

 greatly increasing the information available regarding other diseases 

 of adult bees in the Ignited States. 



Work on the brood diseases of bees is being continued. During 

 the past fiscal year 1,056 samples of suspected material were re- 

 ceived, in which were included 200 samples of adult bees. This 

 number is slightly smaller than that for the previous fiscal year, 

 but is much larger than for most years since samples of diseased 

 material have been received by the laboratory. There is an increas- 

 ing need for beekeepers and apiary inspectors to have laboratory 

 diagnoses of doubtful material, and it is believed that the examina- 

 tion of such material is one of the most important services which the 

 bee-disease work of the laboratory provides for beekeepers. 



The investigational work on the diseases of the brood of bees has 

 consisted chiefly of a biochemical study of healthy and diseased 

 brood in an effort to devise more suitable media for the study of the 

 causes of the brood diseases. So far it has not been possible to grow 

 BacUlus fluton^ the cause of European foulbrood. on artificial media, 

 a thing which is badly needed in a study of this disease. Some prog- 

 ress has been made in improving the media used in cultivating Bacillus 

 larvae., the cause of American foulbrood. The study of the composi- 

 tion of the larvae at different ages has served to explain fully the 

 differences in the behavior of the two important brood diseases with 

 relation to the age of the larvae attacked by them. 



The study of the factors influencing the distribution of European 

 foulbrood, to which reference was made in the last report, has been 

 continued, but it has been found necessary to clear up certain unde- 

 termined factors regarding the honey flows from various plants 

 before *iblishing the results, and this has made it necessary to 

 delay publication. It is still found to be true that certain important 

 beekeeping regions of the United States are free of this disease, 

 because of the character of the honey flow, and the results probably 

 constitute the most important advance which has been made in the 

 control of this disease, which has caused such great losses to Ameri- 

 can beekeeping. 



Regulatory work for the control of the brood diseases of bees has 

 always been handled as a State function, and there are now laws or 

 regulations regarding this in 35 States and in Hawaii and Porto 

 Rico. A gradual but definite change is taking place in this work, 



