REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL INSPECTORS 231 



attention. In such cases the bees will be left to menace the 

 surrounding apiaries until such time as they shall finally suc- 

 cumb to the disease. 



Requirements for Successful Inspectors. — ^o man should 

 be intrusted with police powers who does not have proper regard 

 for the rights and feelings of those with whom he is required to 

 deal. He should be able to meet a trying situation and to 

 reason with those who are disposed to resent his visit. For- 

 tunately most bee-keepers are coming to be very anxious to learn 

 of the presence of disease on its first appearance in their apiaries 

 and will communicate with the inspector at the first suspicious 

 sign. In such cases the inspector will be welcomed and infor- 

 mation will be gratefully received. However, when disease is 

 found it becomes necessary to examine other nearby apiaries 

 to ascertain to what extent the disease has been spread. Many 

 of the bees will be found in boxes, kegs, or hives where the combs 

 are built crosswise for lack of foundation. The conditions are 

 such as try the patience of a mild-tempered man, and to ascer- 

 tain the condition of the colony and leave the owner in good 

 temper requires the exercise of much skill and diplomacy. 



If the inspector is able to give the owner of such bees en- 

 couragement and advice about proper care of bees without 

 offence, his visit has been of value aside from the possible check 

 of the spread of disease. The time bids fair to come very 

 shortly when the inspector's field shall be broadened until his 

 duty will be to instruct in the general management of the apiary 

 as much as to find disease. The great difficulty with present laws 

 lies in the fact that no man who is not a well-informed bee^ 

 keeper is competent to deal with disease. The inspector's in- 

 structions regarding disease will be imperfectly understood by 

 the box hive bee-keeper, nine times out of ten, and if he under- 

 takes to treat his colonies himself he will destroy them or scatter 

 the disease instead of checking it. It thus becomes necessary 

 for the inspector to personally supervise the treatment or destroy 

 the diseased colony. A diseased colony in anything but a modern 



