February, '17] PELLETT: BEE INSPECTION 203 



to attend the demonstration can be shown disease in its various stages 

 and also be shown how to treat each colony as its condition demands. 

 Thus in one day ten to fifty persons can be given actual instruction in 

 recognizing and treating disease, instead of spending the same amount 

 of time in examining the colonies in one large apiary. Under present 

 conditions the inspector does not have sufficient time to give each man 

 visited sufficient instruction to enable him to care for the diseased 

 colonies properly, and it often happens that the inefficient owner will 

 not understand directions correctly and will succeed in spreading the 

 disease instead of checking it. 



In my annual report which has recently been filed with the governor, 

 I have recommended that the present office of state inspector of bees, 

 be abolished altogether. In its place I have suggested that a man be 

 employed on full time in the extension department of the college of 

 agriculture for the purpose of holding apiary demonstrations as above 

 mentioned, during the summer months, and lecturing on marketing, 

 production and other subjects of vital interest during the remainder of 

 the year. I would not repeal the laws requiring proper attention 

 to diseased colonies, and our proposed bill provides that the state 

 apiarist can be called on petition of the beekeepers in any locality to 

 examine bees which are supposed to be diseased. If he finds disease 

 to be present, he is required to give the owner written instructions for 

 the proper treatment or destruction, which instructions the owner is 

 required to comply with within the time specified. However, the en- 

 forcement of this law is left in the hands of others, and he is not handi- 

 capped by being required to see that his own instructions are followed. 



According to this plan it is hoped that by paying a salary for full 

 time, a competent man can be secured for the work. By making his 

 work purely educational in character it is hoped that he will be able to 

 reach many more people, and to avoid the prejudice which is apparent 

 under the present law. I realize that this plan is not perfect and that 

 valid objections may be raised, but in a state like Iowa where 50,000 

 square miles of territory must be covered, and where there are 30,000 

 beekeepers, big and little, I am convinced that far more can be accom- 

 plished with the small funds which can be secured for this work, than 

 by the present plan. It is hardly within the province of the state to 

 examine every individual colony of bees in localities where disease is 

 present, any more than it is to examine eveiy pig where there is an 

 outbreak of cholera, or other animal disease. Quarantine methods are 

 justified and necessary in dealing with some new malady which has not 

 yet become generally spread, but it is a hopeless task to undertake to 

 eradicate any widespread contagion by these methods. I am fully 

 convinced that this plan will shortly be abandoned and educational 

 methods substituted very generally. 



