E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



ONCE MORE we wish to impress on bee- 

 keepers the necessity for the i)ro(luetioii of 



a very considerable 



Comb-Honey amount of comb 



Production. honey this year. It 



becomes more and 

 more evident that the market is going to 

 demand a larger proportion of comb honey 

 than during the necessitous war times. Will 

 you do your part? Will you try to produce 

 as much of it as vou did before the war? 



■DQ 



.©P 



IN THE LAST six or seven months the edi- 

 tor has covered a large portion of the Unit- 

 ed States, and dur- 

 Foul Brood ing this time he 



Increasing — has had an oppor- 



the Remedy. tunity of studying 



a good many ques- 

 tions at first hand. One of those questions 

 (or problems, rather) is that foul brood is 

 not being brought under control, but is 

 lather increasing in some States, in spite of 

 all the bee legislation that has been enact- 

 ed. This is not saying that our foul-brood 

 laws have been of no effect. They have, in 

 fact, done a great deal of good. Had it not 

 been for them, bee disease wouh*! have run 

 rampant, and conditions would have been 

 infinitely bad; but there is this undeniable 

 fact — a condition rather than a theory — that 

 foul brood is not being cleaned up, and in 

 many localities in the United States, it is 

 becoming worse; and unless something is 

 done in the near future, more than has been 

 done in the past, it will come very near get- 

 ting beyond our control. The Editor, during 

 the period that the Short Courses were given 

 in California, had extended opportunity to 

 talk with Dr. E. F. Phillips and other mem- 

 bers of the Government staff, including 

 Frank C. Pellett of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, on the subject of bee legislation. 



Mr. Pellett has served as a foul-brood in- 

 spector in Iowa for a number of years. Dur- 

 ing all this time he was becoming more and 

 more convinced that the legislation of the 

 old days of the "big stick," or, to put it 

 another way, of judge, jury, and execution- 

 er, under the name of bee inspector, was in- 

 adequate. After thinking the matter over 

 considerably he went to his State legislature 

 and asked for a repeal of the law — the very 



law that gave him the job of State bee in- 

 spector of apiaries. This was a very un- 

 usual procedure; but, as will be seen, he 

 was inspired by the good of the beekeepers 

 of Iowa, rather than by a personal interest. 

 After a considerable amount of work he se- 

 cured the enactment of another law that 

 gives promise of solving the serious problem 

 of the control and final abatement of the 

 two foul-brood diseases in Iowa. Before we 

 go into the features of this law let us dis- 

 cuss some of the conditions that brought 

 about its enactment. 



LTnder the old laws there is usually creat- 

 ed the ofiice of a State bee inspector with 

 power to appoint deputy inspectors whose 

 duty it shall be to inspect the apiaries that 

 contain bee disease and prescribe treat- 

 ment. As a general thing they can cover 

 only a part of the State, and that imperfect- 

 ly. These bee inspectors are clothed with 

 police authority to compel treatment or the 

 destruction of colonies whenever, in their 

 judgment, either policy should be carried 

 into effect. The knowledge that they can 

 do this causes trouble. Their very title vir- 

 tually creates the function of judge, jury, 

 and executioner all in one person. If the 

 State bee inspector is the right sort of man, 

 an expert beekeeper, a diplomat, and if 

 that bee inspector keeps the "big stick" 

 out of sight, and, instead, becomes an in- 

 structor and a royal fellow with a glad hand, 

 everything goes w^ell. But if, as the editor 

 happens to know, the bee inspector is a man 

 of another type, a mere police officer with 

 no tact, harm is done. Or he may be con- 

 nected with a clique of beekeepers who are 

 his favorites. He may use his power of 

 discretion — judge, jury, and exeeiitioner — ■ 

 in such a way as to favor some and shut 

 out others. That some beekeepers have done 

 this very thing has been reported more than 

 once. Some may get their jobs thru a politi- 

 cal pull, and politics very often puts in the 

 wrong man. 



The form of legislation that Mr. Pellett 

 proposes creates the office of State Apiarist, 

 or bee advisor, who, in connection with cer- 

 tain deputies that he may appoint, not only 

 gives instructions on how to know and treat 

 disease, but how to keep bees in a wa,y that 

 will bring financial returns. He is not a 

 poii'>p o^f^er but an educator. 



Says Dr. Phillips, ignorance more often 



