ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATIOX. 141 



Now that can be used with safety provided that a young Italian queen 

 is introduced at the time of the operation. 



Now, in order that this may stick in our minds a httle better, I 

 want to make a comparison. In the control of swarming we do one of 

 three things. We either take away the brood from the colony, or we 

 take away the queen from the colony for a little while, or we separate 

 the queen and the brood within the hive. Now in the control of 

 European foul brood we do one of three things. We either take away 

 the queen from the colony, or we take away the brood from the colony 

 and shake it, or we separate the colony and the brood within the hive. 

 In other words, the things which are successful in swarm control are 

 the identical things which are successful as remedial measures for 

 European foul brood. Now why, I don't know. There is a certain 

 parallel between remedies for swarming and remedies for European 

 foul brood. It helps us to remember it, at any rate. There must be 

 some underlying thing that brings about this parallel, and it is enough 

 to justify the bee-keeper in believing that swarming is a disease. But 

 I will not speculate on that, except to point out the exact parallel 

 between the remedies used for the disease and the remedies used for 

 swarm control. 



Now, I will be very glad to answer any questions on European 

 foul brood, but I want to make just this one point; the thjngs which 

 we know of European foul brood we have known so long and so in- 

 timately that they have ceased to a large degree to stand out promin- 

 ently as the characteristics of the disease, and I have found this true 

 in talking of European foul brood the last few months, that bee-keepers 

 have said, ''Why, sure, I knew that; I knew that just as well as you 

 did," and then when I told them: "Well, I didn't know it very long 

 ago," then he comes around and says, "Well, I didn't either." 



So that we have come, I think, in the eradication of European 

 foul brood, to the point where we can say that the thing which is 

 needed for the control of this disease, which has caused enormous losses 

 in this country, is good bee-keeping, and when we get A. No. 1 good 

 bee-keeping, with good stock, we will stop worrying about this in- 

 fectious disease. 



Now, I want to emphasize this word "infectious." It is an infec- 

 tious disease; there is every evidence from 'a bacteriological standpoint 

 and from what we know of bee-keeping to know that it is infectious, 

 and the history of bee disease in this country has shown that European 

 foul brood has caused enormous losses here. But it is simply because 

 we have departed from the paths of righteousness in regard to the 

 keeping of bees. I can go back further than that to show that in the 

 history of American bee-keeping there was for a number of years a 

 tendency towards getting our colonies weaker and weaker and weaker, 

 according to the hives we used and the methods of practice 

 we used that were advocated and preached by bee-keepers in this 

 country. We are fortunately getting away from the bad practice which 

 was preached to us by our best bee-keepers in the countrj^, and as 

 we do get away from them and get back to the kind of bee-keeping 

 that Moses Quimby taught we will forget that there is any such a 

 thing as European foul brood. (Applause.) 



