134 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 26, 1903. 



Kj^vt^vi^vj^j^vi^i 



Convention Proceedings. 



"WTfTTI'rWTt 



Chicago-Northwestern Convention. 



Report of the Chieag-o-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held in Chicago, 

 Dec. 3 and 4, 1902. 



BY OUR OWN SHORTHAND REPORTER. 



(Continued from pafre lis ) 

 Mr. Moore — I move that we proceed to discuss the ques- 

 tions appearing in the President's address seriatim. 

 The motion was seconded and carried. 



LAWS ON BKE-DISEASES. 



Pres. York — If Mr. France were here he could start us 

 off on that. 



Mr. Wilcox — At the first convention I ever attended 

 that subject was up as the most prominent subject for dis- 

 cussion. Dr. Miller was present, and he was the only 

 champion there was on the affirmative side of the question. 

 It had been referred to a committee and laid over a year. 

 One of the committee was Prof. Cook, and the other was 

 Prof .McLain, and they reported that legislation for bee-keep- 

 ers was inexpedient, and not advisable. And that seemed 

 to be the sense of that meeting' or convention, Dr. Miller 

 alone standing out in favor of his theorj' that legis- 

 lation for bee-keepers is desirable, and I believe he has 

 something to say yet. How many times I have thought of 

 it, since foul brood laws and pure food laws became en- 

 acted, and since our Association was formed to protect each 

 other as far as possible from dishonesty. It seems to me a 

 good thing. I don't know about legislation, or how we can 

 bring it about, but I would like to see and hear much on 

 that subject. 



Pres. York — We would like to hear from Dr. Miller if 

 he hasn't forgotten what he said 25 years ago. 



Dr. Miller — I confess I did forget. When Mr. Wilcox 

 spoke first I thought he had gotten the men mixed, but I do 

 recollect now. There is this about it : There are States all 

 about us that have felt the need of this very thing ; they 

 have secured the legislation, and they are better for it. I 

 very much doubt if you can find a man in the State of Wis- 

 consin — a bee-keeper — who thinks it was a bad thing to have 

 the law. Perhaps there are some. How is that, Mr. Wilcox ? 



Mr. Wilcox — I have never found one who is against it. 

 We are in favor of pure food laws, foul brood laws, and any 

 other good laws that can be enacted. 



Dr. Miller — Regarding foul brood, I never saw a case of 

 it. I was once where it was, and I was foolish not to look 

 at it. I don't know, but I hope I may never see it in my 

 place. One of the investigators across the Ocean has told us 

 that the bacilli alvei, the germ of the foul brood, is nothing 

 more nor less than one of the common microbes — bacillus 

 mesentericus vulgaris — that is pretty nearly everywhere. 

 Once at our house we had trouble with bread that would get 

 soft and stringy. 



Mr. Moore— Mold ? 



Dr. Miller— Not dry, though ; and that's made by the 

 same thing that makes the foul brood. 



Pres. York — Then your wife didn't make that bread ? 

 [Laughter.] 



Dr. Miller — (I wish the president would keep his au- 

 dience in order, and not interrupt me.) The only point I 

 wish to make in that is, that there is more danger than we 

 think of in foul brood. I have always felt, so long as there 

 was none of it near me, I was entirely safe. I don't feel as 

 safe as I did. Now, I would feel much less safe if I knew 

 of foul brood within two miles, within ten miles of me. I 

 don't know what day there may be a case of foul brood ten 

 miles around me. For that one case I want to be provided 

 in advance. I have no foul brood in my apiary, but I want 

 the law so that if something of that kind does come I will 

 feel safer than I am to-day, and you are all in the same 

 boat that I am. You may not feel anxious about it, but you 

 are not safe as long as there is no law to keep somebody 

 from bringing foul brood next to you, on the next farm. 

 No inspector to come around and look at it. You are paying 



for fire insurance, and some of you for life insurance, and 

 you would think it was very bad if you let your policy lapse 

 and have no fire insurance. Now, you need all the insur- 

 ance you can get against foul brood. You need the laws, 

 and right along with that comes closely connected this mat- 

 ter of Wisconsin. Any one of you can't do much about 

 getting foul brood laws, but as an organization here to- 

 gether you can do something. 



Pres. York — This is certainly very important, and if we 

 are going to attempt to get a foul-brood law during the 

 coming winter we must start soon. The State Legislature 

 meets in January. I have suggested that this Association 

 co-operate with the State Association. Mr. J. O. Smith is 

 the president, and Mr. Jas. A. Stone is the secretary. Mr. 

 Stone lives near Springfield, and could have the matter in 

 charge. 



Mr. Moore — One thing that occurs to me. We don't 

 exactly think that Illinois is aback number in laws. For 

 the protection of women it stands, I think, in the front 

 rank of all the States. If you will read some of the law 

 books you will find that women are classed as idiots and 

 insane persons, and in Illinois they are classed as the supe- 

 rior of man, and their property rights are accorded to the 

 very highest degree, and there are ftiany laws in Illinois 

 that are up to the times. There is not a law on the statute 

 books of Illinois about bee-keepers' interests. Not a single 

 law. That alone shows you the great need of something 

 being done. All around us, one State has a law on foul 

 brood, another has a law against spraj'ing of fruit-trees in 

 blossom, but Illinois has no laws whatever except the gen- 

 eral food law which has just been passed, the old food law 

 which has been a dead letter. With this exception there is 

 no law for the benefit of bee-keepers especially. 



Pres. York — We would like to hear from Mr. Clarke on 

 this. I know several times at my office he has spoken about 

 doing something. 



Mr. Clarke — I think it is a most important thing. Now 

 there is absolutely no protection to a man who understands 

 the business, because some party t'nat may have bees with 

 foul brood, if he is 10 or 20 miles away from him, still as a 

 kindness to one of their friends he may ship in a foul- 

 broody colony to a man whose bees haven't got it. If ship- 

 ped within a mile or two, it is only a question of a short 

 time until he will have it in his own apiary. Of course, 

 where a man thoroughly understands it, and it is within a 

 mile or two of him, he can practically get clear of it. If he 

 lets it get developed thoroughly in one or two colonies, and 

 does not know it is amongst them, directly a frost comes 

 and cuts off the flowers, the bees are going to look around 

 and do some robbing, and they are going to take the foul- 

 broody colony. The odor is offensive. They have no more 

 than a bottle of honey in the hives because bees won't lay 

 in the cells filled up with foul brood, so when they go into 

 winter quarters they will have very few bees to protect 

 their honey, and the others will rob them out, and when 

 you get robbing in 80 or 100 colonies it is going to spread 

 in every colony. Though one colony taken into your api- 

 ary in the fall would not develop at once, but directly the 

 queen begins to lay in the spring they are going to take 

 them, as well as two or three, and distribute them in the 

 three or five hundred hives, and that goes to develop foul 

 brood so that the man who has 200 colonies, with foul brood 

 within two miles, isn't safe. This man can at the present 

 time ship them to some friend half a mile from you, and 

 you have no recourse at all. You can't say, " Here, destroy 

 that colony," for if he doesn't want to he can keep them 

 and throw them open to your bees if he wants to. There is 

 absolutely no protection to a man. Besides that, I think it 

 is needed as a protection to the public. Now we know that 

 the instinct of the bee is that when there is a super put on, 

 or a box to remove the honey from the brood-chamber up, 

 if opened down below where the honey can be started over 

 the foul brood scale, they will move that honey up into the 

 super and drop down. That honey is sold. Under these 

 circumstances I think that the law is not only a protection 

 for the bee-keepers, but the public as well. 



Dr. Miller — How many are there here whose bees are 

 now troubled with foul brood, have it either in their own 

 apiaries or near by ? 



Pres. York — How many have it at the present time ? 



Six held up their hands. 



Mr. Clarke — I may say this, that although you can get 

 an idea of the number here practically up-to-date bee-keep- 

 ers that will be at a convention, still how many bee-keepers 

 are there that don't take any interest in these conventions ? 

 These are the men we want to get after. The men who 

 come here want to keep up with the times. We have dis- 



