320 JOURNAL OF ENONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 14 



disease through robbing out of colonies that have died of the disease 

 It is evident that the careless beekeeper, or the one who desires to injure 

 his beekeeping neighbors, can do much harm. Especially for this 

 disease it is often recommended that rigid inspection be carried out 

 and that those beekeepers who fail to treat the disease shall be punished 

 as provided by law. Nothing will so insure a feeling of malice as punish- 

 ment by the inspector, and it thus becomes a serious menace to the bee- 

 keeping of the region to apply the provisions of the law to those bee- 

 keepers who fail to do as ordered by the inspectors. Cases are known in 

 which this disease has been spread intentionally, and the damage done 

 is usually far greater than that brought about by normal spread. 



The proper treatment of American foulbrood can be applied only by a 

 beekeeper who has been taught how to treat the disease. The ignorant 

 beekeeper often does more harm than good when he conscientiously 

 tries to do what the law requires. The problem is therefore strictly 

 one of education, the training of the beekeepers in the region where the 

 disease exists how to combat it. In a few cases the inspector has felt 

 that his duty is done when he finds the disease, marks the hives and orders 

 a clean-up. Such work is practically valueless, and when the bee- 

 keepers of a region find that their inspector is doing that kind of work 

 they usually ask for his prompt removal. So-called sacbrood is not 

 sufficiently serious to need any inspection but only by education may 

 this condition be distinguished from the other brood diseases. 



The question then arises as to what should be done about the adult 

 diseases about which there is so much discussion in the beekeeping press. 

 The cause of none of these is known, unless perchance Nosema apis 

 actually does damage; there is no rational treatment that can be re- 

 commended and the only thing that can be done is to take good care 

 of the bees so that the troubles may disappear. There does not seem 

 much for a police officer to do under such circumstances. There is 

 really not much that the educator may do except to reduce the fear of 

 the beekeeper who sees some bees die and who takes at their face value 

 the alarming articles that appear from time to time. 



The only remaining question is whether there is some disease of bees 

 that is dangerous to the welfare of the industry and which is not wide- 

 spread. If this were the case, then beekeepers might rightly ask for 

 the quarantine of bees from that area. So far as we are able to judge, 

 European foulbrood is now present in practically every locality where it 

 can do damage, and even where it is present it is doing little harm to the 

 good progressive beekeepers. American foulbrood is present in almost 

 all parts of the United States, certainly present in every state where 



