768 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



DBX3. 1 



bee-diseases in this valley " or the State for 

 that matter. 



Mr. Lee said he had charge of Fletcher's 

 apiaries in this vicinity two years ago, and 

 some of them were rotten with foul brood 

 at that time, and Mr. F. had given them 

 orders to extract all the honey they ct>uld 

 from the upper stories of diseased colonies 

 with the rest. Mr. Malone (present) said 

 that he bought all of the Fletcher apiaries 

 last spring, and found some foul brood 

 among them; so he sent for au expert at Kl- 

 sinore to attend to it. They themselves 

 went over them three times this summer, 

 and believed they had them all cleaned up. 

 They found 75 colonies diseased out of 1200 

 purchased, but no foul-brood inspector came 

 near. 



All present (at this meeting) agreed that 

 the law was inoperative, and that bee-keep- 

 ers themselves must take it in hand. I ad- 

 vocated stirring up the matter enough to 

 get a new law passed, giving the bee-men 

 the power to appoint one of their own num- 

 ber as inspector. But most of those present 

 said it would not work, as the bee-keepers 

 themselves were apathetic, and would not 

 come to the meetings even if called. Each 

 big be -keeper attends to his own, and lets 

 others alone. It was agreed that the small 

 bee-keepers keep foul-brood going through 

 carelessness. They get a few colonits by 

 catching natural swarms, and then hardly 

 ever look at them except to "rob" them 

 after the honey-flow. 



It is often difficult to tell, in this valley, 

 where there may be some foul brood, unless 

 one has authority to go into all places. The 

 boys about town often catch a few swarms, 

 and put them in old groeery-boxes, or any 

 old thing lo hold them. They sometimes 

 sell them cheap to a bee-keeper; but if not, 

 then they set them in the back yard, or any 

 old place, and so much shrubbery grows 

 here, with the orange limbs hanging to the 

 ground, no insiiector or any one else would 

 know there are bees kept there unless told 

 so. These bee men hardly ever watch their 

 bees through swarming time, and many 

 swarms get away. Some swarms are caught; 

 but many more get away. Some go to the 

 hills and some get into the walls of houses 

 or barns. Most of these small bee-keepers 

 pay but little attention to their bees unless 

 they are near where a team has to be driven, 

 and foul brood may lurk in any of those 

 places. F'or instance, when some bees were 

 moved from a lo ation not far away, some 

 old frames were thrown out, and some were 

 picked up by some boys who used them to 

 hive bees in, and then sold their bees to a 

 bee-keeper, thereby introducing foul brood 

 to his yard. 



Pomona, Cal. 



[California has what is known as a county 

 foul-brood law, and Colorado has the same. 

 We have already learned that the bee-keep- 

 ers of Colorado are dissatisfied with their 

 county law, and are now looking for some- 

 thing better, providing for a centralized au- 

 thority and inspectors for the entire State. 



We have known for some time that the Cal- 

 ifornia law also was practically inoperative 

 in many sections. Ohio for several years 

 has had a county law, but it was a dead let- 

 ter. We now have a new State-wide law 

 that makes the State Entomologist chief 

 Foul-brood Inspector, with power to appoint 

 deputies — as many as he may need. As in 

 most States, so also in our own, the Ento- 

 mologist is appointed by the Ohio Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. This is bi-partisan, 

 and the appointees under that arrangement 

 are not subject to political changes. Under 

 the Ohio law the State Inspector has eight 

 or ten men in the field; and during the six 

 months that the law has been in active op- 

 eration the inspector has covered half the 

 State. Under the county law absolutely 

 nothing was done during the eight or nine 

 years it was in force. 



Both Colorado and California, and other 

 States having county laws, should have a 

 law like that in force in Ohio, Indiana, and 

 some other States. It is not difficult to get 

 such a law on the statute-books, for the law 

 calls for no direct appropriation. It simply 

 creates a Division of Bee Inspection under 

 the general Department of Agriculture of 

 the State. It is then up to that Department 

 to see that funds are provided for all its dif- 

 ferent lines of work. The legislature is in 

 the habit of making annual appropriations 

 for the purpose of carrying on that work. 

 Now, if that Department of Agriculture asks 

 for $500, $1000, or $1500 more, the legislature 

 has no objection to increasing the approjiri- 

 ation, because the members of the General 

 Assembly are not personally held respon- 

 sible for the disbursement of that appropri- 

 ation. The result is that, under a law such 

 as we have in Ohio and Indiana, the State 

 Entomologist can have $500 or more if he 

 needs it, provided he can show his superiors 

 that such money is needed to protect certain 

 interests in the State. 



We wish to suggest right here and now to 

 the bee-keepers of every State in the Union 

 that does not now have a general State-wide 

 law, that it is none too early for them to be- 

 gin agitation. The publishers of this journal 

 will furnish the draft of a law prepared by 

 Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology. When such a law is placed on the 

 statute-book we shall nut have any more 

 such conditions as are found in California, 

 Colorado, and elsewhere. The great feature 

 of the new Ohio law is that the work of in- 

 spection is placed under a division that al- 

 ready has funds, a corps of men, stenogra- 

 phers, office equipment, and a chief who will 

 see to it that the machinery of the State is 

 brought to bear on every county alike. It 

 is not necessary that the State Entomolo- 

 gist be a bee-keeper, for it is easy enough to 

 find experts who, under the direction of 

 that official, will carry on the work. In Ohio 

 the regular nursery inspectors so far have 

 done splendid work in foul-brood inspection, 

 and at compa'atively little expense, because 

 the same railroad and hotel bills cover both 

 nursery and bee-inspeclion work. — Ed.] 



