616 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



hindrances. From the standpoint of an inspector I will try to briefly line 

 up the helps on one side and the hindrances on the other and come to 

 some practical conclusion as I have found the situation in southeastern 

 Iowa the past season, and I presume the situation here is not altogether 

 unlike we would find in other places. 



The Bible says: "No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to him- 

 self." This is true in beekeeping as in any other line of work. We are 

 are either a help or hindrance to one another. This leads me to say that 

 I believe the beekeeper himself can be either the greatest help or hin- 

 drance pertaining to the foul brood situation. I quite agree with Mr. 

 Pellett in what he says in his article in Gleanings for December 1st, page 

 856: "Making the best of inspection," that the greatest good to the bee- 

 keepers of the state in general can come through some state-wide educa- 

 tional system." It is surprising how many beekeepers we find who know 

 nothing about even the inside life of the bee-hive, saying nothing of the 

 ignorance of bee diseases. Then there is the man who thinks he knows 

 all there is to be known about bees, and is not willing to learn. He is 

 the hardest to convince. One man whose bees we inspected this summer 

 had known about foul brood for 25 or 30 years he said and held himself 

 up as a model for other beekeepers. He let three swarms die out where we 

 had marked the bees diseased and asked him to treat them. He failed 

 to do so, and we liad to go to the extreme as much as we were loath to 

 do so and burn one weak colony that we knew would not winter, before 

 he would believe we meant to carry out the letter of the law. This same 

 man even made his threats that he would shoot the inspector if he came 

 back to his place again, but we made up our minds at our first visit that 

 he was like a barking dog that never bites, perfectly harmless only so 

 far as his talk would harm. I am glad to say we left him in much 

 better humor even than he was at our first visit, and we hope he may 

 profit by this experience. 



This is only one of the many cases: "Where ignorance is bliss it is folly 

 to be wise." This is the most extreme case we have found, and as a rule 

 we find the beekeepers ready to get all the information and help they 

 can. One of the greatest helps we have is good foul brood and quaran- 

 tine laws backed up by a loyal fraternity of beekeepers and friends. 

 While the laws of the different states may differ somewhat, they are as 

 far as I have been able to ascertain essentially the same. Iowa, I believe, 

 has as good a foul brood law as any state in the Union, and what we need 

 most in Iowa is a larger appropriation of money from the state to carry 

 the law into effect in a more general and educational way. 



Two other helps should be mentioned and those are the bees and the 

 hives in which they live. Mr. W. D. Wright, of Altamount, New York, 

 has the following to say in an address on the subject: "The Italian bee 

 as a Factor in the Extermination of European Foul Brood," delivered 

 at the New England N. S. & Canada Bee Inspectors' Convention at 

 Amhurst, Mass., February 7, 1912: "Facts are greater than the actual 

 reason in favor of the Italian bee." He said he always advised intro- 

 ducing the Italian bee wherever he inspected bees. At first the New 

 York beekeepers were slow in Bsing this method and after using it a 



