318 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 14 



the beekeeping of the state, a broad view of the subject and an ability 

 to weigh facts in order to divide up the work judiciously. It is not a 

 disparagement of the inspector to say that he needs supervision, for it 

 should be obvious that the man whose work consists of the many 

 details of the field work is almost certainly blinded to the broader aspects 

 of the problem on which he is engaged. 



When the work with bee diseases first began there were few states 

 which had Departments to which the regulatory work in agriculture 

 was assigned. Where such departments exist the inspection work, of 

 course, belongs there. Even in such states, it must be admitted that 

 the supervision given to the bee disease work has not always been 

 efficient. Even in the poorest cases that might be cited, the work was 

 uniformly better than that in the states where the bee inspector was a 

 free lance. 



In these states where there was then no regulatory department the 

 more desirable plan seemed to be to place the supervision with the state 

 entomologist, as the official most likely to have the proper regard for the 

 work and the requisite ability to appoint the inspector and to supervise 

 the work. At the 1907 meeting of the Association of Economic Entomol- 

 ogists the author^ attempted to enlist the support of the state ento- 

 mologists in this problem and he has not forgotten the kindly but 

 emphatic way in which some of those in attendance made it clear that 

 they did not consider it a part of their work to deal with diseases of bees. 

 Since that time, however, there has been a change in the attitude of the 

 state entomologists, evidenced, for example, in the keen interest mani- 

 fested in the meetings of the apiculture section of the association and in 

 the work which they have since undertaken in this field. 



The earliest laws, as well as those still in operation, provide for the 

 inspection of apiaries, either on request or at the option of the inspector- 

 The plan of having inspection only on request has not proven efficient, 

 as in many cases the inspector may be of service in places where he is not 

 asked to go. 



The laws further provide that where the advice or orders of the inspec- 

 tors are not followed out within a reasonable time, sometimes specified 

 in the law, the inspector is then authorized by law to destroy all infected 

 colonies. Presumably the power thus granted is for the purpose of 

 removing the danger of infection of other bees, but in reality it is a 



'Phillips, E. F., 1908. Bee diseases: a problem in economic entomology. Jr. 

 EcoN. Ent. I, No. 2, pp. 102-105. 



