AMERICAN FOUL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 59 
any treatment whatever. Mr. B. Dickens, one of the most intelligent 
and observing apiarists, had marked a colony for treatment. Not being 
able to attend to it for several weeks, he was surprised when he did 
open it to find every trace of the disease gone. I had the same expe- 
rience this season. The most amazing case of this character, however, 
was the experience of Mr. W. J. Oates (now my business partner) in 
1903. He purchased an apiary of 30 colonies, nearly every colony 
being badly affected with foul brood. The former owner, Mr. J. H. 
McGee, desired to get rid of the colonies, not caring to go to the 
trouble of shaking them. Mr. Oates treated the whole apiary by 
the shaking treatment. As soon as there was sealed brood in the 
hives, it was seen that disease had developed in about three-fourths 
of them. I examined these colonies myself, and if they did not 
have the disease after the shaking, then I never saw a case of Amer- 
ican foul brood. Mr. Oates did nothing more to them, and, becoming 
disgusted with the proposition, he sold out to Mr. F. S. Moorehead 
and went to Nevada. The year 1904 was a poor season here, and 
honey was extracted from these hives once, I think. Nothing was 
done for the disease. In 1905 I inspected these bees, expecting to 
find them reeking with disease, but to my surprise I could not find 
a single case of foul brood; it had completely disappeared. Mr. 
Oates was surprised when informed of this, but he managed this 
apiary that season on the shares, and no disease developed. I had 
occasion to look through this apiary just last week, and not one case 
of disease exists there to-day. That is a case I can not understand, 
unless it is that by the shaking the bees were relieved of all diseased 
honey, and, being shaken in the fall, the queens ceased laying 
entirely later, and the: bees cleaned out all infection. But I am 
unable to account for the wholesale reappearance of the disease, 
unless the treatment was carried out in a careless manner. I am 
certain that the circumstances occurred just as related. The Simmins 
plan is not a drug plan, and I intend to test it next season, if I find 
any American foul brood. 
Sometimes disease spreads quite rapidly here, infecting one-half 
or more of the colonies in two seasons. Then I know of some apiaries 
where a few cases have existed for years without any perceptible 
increase. I know of one instance where an apiary was entirely 
destroyed by the disease in one season. Whether our climatic con- 
ditions have anything to do withthe matter I do not know, but it 
is a fact that foul brood as it exists here is of a very erratic nature. 
Furthermore, it is dangerous, and a relentless war should be waged 
against it until it is exterminated. 
A paper entitled “ The appointment of inspectors,” by Fred A. 
Parker, of California, was then read, in which the writer showed 
