SEPTEMBER 15, 1912 



597 



Remnant's book is specially interesting 

 because it contains the first precise refer- 

 ence to that fell scourge, foul brood. Here 

 is the extract: "Some putrefaction sticks 

 fast in the cells, and is of a brown or 

 deepish yellow colour, wliich should have 

 been brood, but came not to perfection. 

 Other putrefaction looketh soinewhat white, 

 and was a brood, but afterwards took 

 cold, and so was chilled, and perished be- 

 fore it came to maturitie." Chilled brood 

 and foul brood ! 



Banff, Scotland. 



MORE ABOUT THE IMPERIAL COUNTY ORDI- 

 NANCE 



Two Other Counties Have it in Force 



BY A. F. WAGNER 



As you have given Mr. J. E. Ross, of 

 Brawle}^, Cal., space in your paper for 

 his article in the July 15th number I think 

 it no more than fair that you accord me 

 the same privilege. 



In the first place, I want to eliminate all 

 personality. In order to enlighten the 

 readers of Gleanings I will give them a 

 brief history of the situation here. 



In 1909, when I was appointed inspector 

 of aiDiaries this county contained some- 

 where in the neighborhood of 5000 colonies 

 of bees. Bees were being brought in from 

 other parts of the State, without any in- 

 spection. In some cases the shipments 

 were accompanied with a certificate where 

 the inspector of apiaries never opened a 

 hive. This was done in order to cover the 

 State law, I understand. 



When I explained this situation to the 

 beekeepers a committee went before the 

 Board of Supervisors and asked for some 

 protection. The supervisors suggested 

 that I might hold them up at Imperial 

 Junction for inspection. Imperial Junc- 

 tion is no place to inspect bees, it being 

 away from the water and on the barren 

 desert. No bees were inspected there. 



During the year 1911 several shipments 

 of bees were made into this county, and 

 through these shipments more foul brood 

 was introduced. In September, 1911, I 

 met Mr. Pleasants, the inspector of apiaries 

 of Orange Co. I explained the situation 

 briefly to him. He told me Orange Co. 

 had an ordinance that would suit our case, 

 and said he would send me a copy of it. 

 I handed the Imperial Valley Beekeepers' 

 Association one of them, not for endorse- 

 ment, as ^Ir. Ross would have you believe, 

 as we were not ready for that then, but 

 for their consideration. At the close of 



the meeting they appointed me a commit- 

 tee of one to secure signers to a petition 

 to be presented to the Board of Supervis- 

 ors. As you no doubt know, this is a large 

 county ; and for me to see every beeman and 

 obtain his signature would take consider- 

 able time — in fact, more time than I could 

 spare — so I sent each beeman a card, ask- 

 ing him to attend a meeting, stating the 

 purpose. At this meeting the whole county 

 was represented, and a committee of three 

 was appointed to obtain signers to a peti- 

 tion to be i:!resented to the Board of Super- 

 visors for the enactment of this ordinance. 

 Eighteen signed this petition at this meet- 

 ing. When the petition was presented to 

 the Board it contained 48 names. This 

 petition is on file at the County Clerk's of- 

 fice noAv, and open for insjection. The 

 Board passed this ordinance, and it be- 

 came a law Feb." 1, 1912, and is in force 

 now. 



what were the results? 



Upon its passage I immediatel}' notified 

 all the inspectors, and also general freight 

 agent of the railroad companies. In the 

 latter part of Febi'uary a carload of bees 

 was shipped into Imperial from Los An- 

 geles Co. Working under Sec. 7 of said 

 ordinance, I asked that these bees be 

 moved to Imperial Junction, or three miles 

 from any other yard, and be held thirty 

 days, not to exceed sixty days, in quaran- 

 tine, or to remove them from the county. 

 I am convinced that I was fully within 

 the bounds of the law. This was done for 

 two reasons — first, an irregular certificate, 

 not giving name of proper owner and date 

 of inspection; and, second, shipped from 

 a district where European foul brood was 

 known to exist. Immediately a great howl 

 was raised — not from beemen, however. 

 All kinds of tactics were resorted to, from 

 threats of personal injury to large suits 

 of damage. I was determined, however, to 

 test the ordinance on this case. Seeing 

 that I could not be bribed nor coerced, 

 while I was away (during the night) in- 

 fluence was brought to bear somehow on 

 the supervisor of that district so that he 

 himself took the responsibility of having 

 the bees released, and the District Attorney 

 asked me to work under Sec. 2 of said 

 ordinance. Now, I am no attorney at law, 

 and do not pretend to understand all the 

 ordinance; but I surelj^ tloink the framers 

 of tliis ordinance had legal advice, as three 

 counties now have such ordinance in force 

 ■ — nameh', Orange, Riverside, and ImiTerial. 

 I also understand several other counties 

 have similar ordinances. So far as I know, 

 it has never been tested in coui't. So far 



