FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 491 



CHANGES IN THE LAW. 



Without a very much larger appropriation than is now avail- 

 able, it would be impossible to follow the law as it now stands. 

 This being the case the department has been compelled to follow 

 it only as far as funds will permit. Section 2, of chapter 169, 

 requires the inspector to examine such apiaries as are reported 

 to be diseased and all apiaries in that locality. This should be 

 changed to leave the matter a little more to the best judgment 

 of the inspector. In some such localities are bee keepers who 

 have extensive apiaries that would require several days of an 

 inspector's time to examine thoroughly. These same bee keep- 

 ers may understand the treatment of disease fully and may be 

 able and anxious to find it on its first appearance. For an in- 

 spector to spend a week in such an apiary would be a useless 

 expense. Then the same section requires the inspector to make 

 a second visit to these same apiaries. Experience shows that 

 this is not always necessary. In fact only occasionally is it 

 necessary for the inspector to go to the expense of a second 

 visit. This should also be left to the discretion of the inspector. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE INDUSTRY. 



Quite frequently one can hear the total production of the 

 poultry and bees compared, to the disparagement of the bee 

 keeping industry. Such persons seem to forget that 75 per cent 

 of the total figures represented by the product of the poultry 

 yard have already been counted as corn, wheat or other grain 

 which had been fed to the poultry to produce the product, while 

 with the honey produced we have a net resource. The bees 

 gather the nectar from which the honey is produced direct from 

 the flowers and if it were not so used it would be lost. The few 

 millions that *honey adds yearly to Iowa's production is a net 

 addition to her wealth. The expenditure for hives and fixtures 

 can be compared to the investment in poultry houses and fences 

 which are not deducted in considering the returns. This is 

 rather an investment than an expense and is good for many 

 years. 



The presence of large numbers of bees also greatly increases 

 the production of fruits and seeds of many kinds by better cross 

 pollination of the blossoms so that but a small part of the rev- 

 enue derived from the bees is represented in the direct product 



