982 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 16 



very important that there te a State bee- 

 keepers' association; and that the first bus- 

 iness of that association should be to pass 

 suitable resolutions calling- attention to the 

 prevalence of foul brood in that State, and 

 the need of legislation; that it would not be 

 possible, ordinarily, to get a foul-brood bill 

 passed unless the law-makers of the State 

 know that the State org-anization of bee- 

 keepers is back of the movement. 



Mr. Wanser, complying- with' my sugges- 

 tion, is very desirous that such an organi- 

 zation be formed in his State. Every per- 

 son interested in the welfare of the bee in- 

 dustry is therefore requested to send him, 

 at Cranford, N. J., his name and address, 

 so arrangements can be made for a date 

 and place of the first meeting. 



Mr. J. B. Mason, of Mechanic Falls, Me., 

 is making a similar effort to call a State 

 meeting for a like purpose. Those inter- 

 ested will of course put themselves in com- 

 munication with him at once. 



FOUL BROOD IN MICHIGAN ; INSPECTOR 

 RANKIN'S REPORT. 



We have just received a report which 

 will speak for itself. I well remember 

 when we were trying to get the law pass- 

 ed, under which Inspector Rankin was 

 working, the statement was made that there 

 was no need of this law; that foul brood 

 was confined to small localities, and quite 

 isolated from the great honey sections of 

 the State. But what are the facts? Out of 

 3286 colonies, the Inspector finds 402 dis- 

 eased. This does not look so bad ; but when 

 he says he found the disease present in 119 

 apiaries, or 57.7 per cent of the whole num- 

 ber, then the situation is worse than we had 

 reason to suspect. It goes to show that the 

 law was passed none to soon. If it had 

 been enacted two years ago, foul brood 

 would not have got such a start. 



Another fact, somewhat alarming to Ohio 

 bee-keepers, is that the disease is "more 

 prevalent in the older sections of the coun- 

 try; that is, they are more diseased in Cen- 

 tral and Southern Michigan than in the 

 northern part of the State." Italics mine. 

 That means to the Ohio bee-keepers that 

 the disease is working very fast over into 

 our State already. Originally it was in 

 Ontario and Wisconsin; and it became so 

 bad that foul-brood legislation had to be 

 enacted in those States. When it was 

 brought under control in Ontario and Wis- 

 consin the disease naturally worked towiird 

 the State where there was no law — Michi- 

 gan. After getting a good foothold, then 

 the law was passed. The whole logic of 

 events shows that Ohio must follow suit, 

 for we can not and must not be the dump- 

 ing-ground of Wisconsin, Michigan, and 

 Ontario. 



In a similar way the bee-keepers in the 

 States bordering on New York ( where there 

 is a good law ) can well stop and reflect. 

 In fact, an effort is already being made in 

 New Jersey, or will be made, rather, to get 



protective legislation. California has a 

 good law, but it is already evident that the 

 disease had got a big start before the in- 

 spectors could get in their work. 



To the Honorable Dairy and Food Commissioner : 



Sir -I herewith submit my report for the work done 

 during the months of July, August, September, and 

 October, as State Inspector of Apiaries I have visit- 

 ed in all 206 apiaries, having in them a total of 32S6 

 colonies. I have found 402 diseased colonies, making 

 a total of 12 1 per cent of those inspected. I have 

 found the disease present in 119 apiaries, which is 57.7 

 per cent of the whole number inspected. It will be 

 noticed that the majority of the yards that contained 

 the disease have in them only a few, and many times 

 only one colony. It is impossible to tell exactlj- hi.w 

 many of the diseased colonies have been destrovtd by 

 the owners— perhaps 50 per cent of those conde'mned. 

 I have been compelled to burn only one colony against 

 the will of the owner. These apiaries were scattered 

 through the counties of St. Joseph, Hillsdale, Lena- 

 wee, Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun, Barry, Katon, 

 Ingham, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb, St. cla'r, I„a- 

 peer, Genesee, Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia. Muskegon, 

 Montcalm, Gratiot, Saginaw, Tuscola, .Sanilac, Oceana, 

 Mason, I^ake, Manistee, Wexford, Benzie, Kalkas-ka, 

 and Antrim. 



I have found the disease more prevalent in the older 

 sections of country; that i.s, there is more disease in 

 Southern and Central M-chigan than in the northern 

 part of the .State. In the north it is confined to local- 

 ities, and is not of very long standing. In almost every 

 case it can be traced back to the bringing-in of dis- 

 eased bees or fixtures from the South. In the South- 

 ern part, however, the disease is scattered promi-cu- 

 onsly, and breaks out in yards, infecting many .-olo- 

 nies, without any apparent source of contamination. 



I have found many bee-keepers who are perfectly ig- 

 norant of the disease; and. even when it is present in 

 their yards, and a large proportion of their bets are 

 diseased, they fail to see that any thing serious is 

 wrong. 1 hese bee-keepers, of course, belong to the 

 class who keep a few bees as a side issue, and are not 

 posted in modern apiculture. 1 hen, again. I have 

 found the disease present in the apiaries of specialists 

 in bee culture, who are unfortunate enough to be 1 - 

 cated in the same vicinity with one of these other bee- 

 keepers who are not posted The uninformed man 

 will not listen to the advice and pleadings of the spe- 

 cialists, but will leave diseased colonies to die, and be 

 robbed out by the bees from the larger yard, in this 

 way working ruin on the helpless specialist, who can 

 n^t control the action of his ignorant neighbor. Then, 

 oftentimes, when this specialist resorts to the protec- 

 tion of the law to compel his neighbor to clean up the 

 diseased yard he is looked upon by the people of his 

 vicinity with the utmost contempt. 



The most active agents in spreading the disease are. 

 first, that of robbing out colonies which have become 

 weak and run down ; and, second, that of using old 

 hives in which the bees have died from the disea.se. 



A grave difficulty arises when treating the bees to 

 overcome foul brood, in that it is a very hard matter 

 to impress upon the uneducated man the necessity of 

 caretul work and the nature of bacteria. He will eg- 

 lect some small but important matter, or fail to take 

 .some necessary precaution in order to insure succe.ss. 

 As a consequence, the treatment is frequently a fail- 

 ure. This is not always the ca.se, however ; many api- 

 arists are eager to learn all that is to be known about 

 the disease, and by careful, persistent work have 

 stamped it out of their yards. The treatment used by 

 many apiarists has been to kill the infected colony 

 with sulphur, remove the hive to a cellar, and cut out 

 and save for home use all good honey, scrape ch^an, 

 and disinfect the hive, finally burning all rt fuse, 

 scrapings, and inside furniture. This method of treat- 

 ment entails much less work than attempting t > cure 

 the colony, and the honey and also the hive are saved 



The needs are great, and many localities where the 

 disea.se is known to exist have not been visit: d at all. 

 Manj' of the localities visited this summer must be 

 covered again at the beginning of next season to in- 

 sure the effectual stamping-out of the disease. 1 have 

 met with the most hearty co-operation on the part of 

 the intelligent apiarists of the State They have ■ ot 

 only manifested an interest in the work, but in many 

 cases have materially assisted in the eradication of the 

 disease in their locality. 



Respectfully submitted, 



John M. R.ankin. 

 I<ansing, Mich. 



