FEBRUARY 15, 1913 



107 



Davidson. Maury, and Rutherford counties, 

 only one yard being found infected, and 

 this was treated. 



The Tennessee agricultural train started 

 on its tour over the State July 1. and on 

 July 4 Dr. Ward was instructed to join the 

 train with an exhibit which he ha-d hastily 

 prepared, consisting of an observatory hive, 

 supplies, various races of bees, etc. The bees 

 actually working proved one of the most 

 attractive exliibits of the train. Demon- 

 strations and instructions in beekeeping 

 were given at every stop, and a hundred 

 open-air lectures were given besides. 



The inspector has found some trouble in 

 getting reports of disease, due to a possible 

 fear on the part of the owners that the 

 colonies may be destroyed, or because of 

 discouragement or indifference. 



The work for the winter includes a con- 

 tinuation of the illustrated lectures and 

 demonstrations in the field, and an energetic 

 campaign is to be carried on for the pur- 

 pose of getting statistics in regard to bees 

 wliieh will include the name and address of 

 the owner, the number of colonies, source 

 of honej', whether comb or extracted or 

 bulk comb honey is produced, average yield 

 per colony, diseases, etc. 



OUR APICULTURAL SCHOOLS : ARE THEY MAK- 

 ING MORE co:mpetitive producers rather 



THAX HELPING THOSE ALREADY IN 

 THE FIELD? 



The initial article in this issue, under the 

 heading of General Correspondence, by Mr. 

 J. L. Byer, discusses the question whether 

 the apicultural school at Guelph is not mak- 

 ing a mistake by making more beginners 

 when it should rather take those we have 

 and make better ones of them. 



Mr. Byer and ]\rr. Holtermann, as well as 

 the editor of the Canadian Bee Journal, ap- 

 parentlj^ feel that these new recruits do not 

 fully understand the difficulties that con- 

 front the beekeeping industrj' of the day. 

 From their point of view these beginners go 

 into beekeeping, run up against foul brood, 

 then go out of the business, leaving the in- 

 dustry in a worse condition than before. 



Let us assume for argument's sake that 

 the apicultural schools at some of our agi'i- 

 cultural colleges are making leeruits rather 

 than instructing the beekeepers already in 

 the field. We have visited jiractically all 

 such schools in the TTnited States and Cana- 

 da; and the brood diseases, or any other bee 

 disease, so far as we have been able to see, 

 has been properly pi'esented to the stu- 

 dents. Not only that, but the schools have 

 taken pains to point out fairly and candidly 

 some of the difficulties, so that the no^"iee, 



when he takes up beekeeping, will be in- 

 formed in advance of the problems that he 

 will have to solve. The student comes in 

 actual contact with an instructor who thor- 

 oughly understancs the business. In many 

 cases they have access to a full equipment. 

 The practical management of bees is fully 

 explained so that the novice or old timer 

 can go out into the world, learn how to 

 handle them, and then go into the business 

 with a better knowledge of when and how 

 to proceed. Such a beginner, ninety-nine 

 times out of a hundred, will be more care- 

 ful about letting bee disease get into liis 

 apiary than the average " old-timer " who 

 does not fear foul brood, and who feels that 

 he can cure it when it does come. It is a 

 lamentable fact that many of the profes- 

 sional beekeepers either do not care if they 

 get disease or do not understand ; and if our 

 agi'icultural colleges did notliing more than 

 lo stir up these men to the real danger that 

 lies before the practical honey-producer, 

 they will have served their purpose. They 

 are doing this veiy thing. 



But, as Mr. Pettit points out in his reply 

 to Mr. Bj-er, his agricultural school is com- 

 posed largely of students who are already 

 in the business, to the extent of nineteen 

 out of twenty. What is true of the school 

 at Guelph, Canada, is to a great extent true 

 of similar schools in the United States. Hav- 

 ing visited all of them, and having seen the 

 class of work that they are doing, we are 

 convinced that they are putting the industry 

 as a whole on a safe and sane basis. 



It is exceedingly difficult to get an appro- 

 priation in the first place sufficient to carry 

 on apicultural schools with a competent man 

 or men in charge; and we can not but regard 

 it as unfortunate that criticism of this sort 

 should arise at this time ; for if there is any 

 institution that is protecting the beekeeping 

 industry, outside of our books and journals 

 and our foul-brood inspectors, it is our api- 

 cultural schools. The more of them the bet- 

 ter. We believe we have traveled over more 

 bee territory in the United States than per- 

 haps any other person in this country. We 

 have just finished a trip of 2500 miles visit- 

 ing beekeepers and two institutions where 

 bee culture is being taught. Careful exam- 

 ination of all the facts in the various local- 

 ities convinces us that we have ten times as 

 much to fear from the inroads of foul brood 

 and price-cutting from the don't-read-the- 

 journals class of beekeepers as from any 

 other class we have to deal with. Those 

 who do not read a bee journal probably do 

 -not read even agricultural papers, and much 

 less are they in touch with our apicultural 

 schools. 



