P.D. 123 17 



The appropriation for Apiary Inspoction in 1935 again stood at $2,000. 

 Four Deputy Apiary Inspectors and one emergency Inspector were employed. 

 As heretofore, these inspectors served respectively in Berkshire County, in the 

 Connecticut Valley, Worcester County, and east of Worcester County in Mid- 

 dlesex County, in Norfolk, Plymouth, and Bristol Counties. The effort has 

 been to maintain the position gained and to keep under observation those por- 

 tions of the State in which bee diseases have been brought under control, as 

 well as to extend the control work insofar as funds enabled. 



As has occurred in the past several years, European foul brood has been 

 encountered only rarely. It no longer can be considered a problem. Sacbrood, 

 not considered an infectious or contagious disease and hence not quarantinable, 

 has been regarded of minor importance, but invariably beekeepers have been 

 informed how to cope with it. 



American foul brood which is much more persistent and which exacts by far 

 the greatest toll from the bcekeepers; has been combated in various parts of 

 the State. An unexpected outbreak of this disease was fo.und in the vicinity of 

 Greenfield. Its extent was apparently determined and corrective measures have 

 been applied. American foulbrood should be reduced in this locality next year. 

 A similar outbreak discovered late in 1934, in the vicinity of Lunenburg, 

 showed noticeable improvement upon reinspection in 1935, having been re- 

 stricted to a single apiary. The control of this outbreak is practically com- 

 pleted. The disease condition in areas being brought under control, on the 

 whole, is satisfactory, some districts having exhibited marked improvement. 

 Other localities will require continued exact supervision. 



The limitation of apiary inspection, due to insufficient funds, is attracting 

 the attention of beekeepers, who are demanding a more extended and intensive 

 program. This is felt to be an imperative need and should be taken care of as 

 soon as additional funds may be procured. Funds are urgently needed to 

 enable the inspection in areas now not possible to cover annually. 



Fruit orchardists are quite as interested in honey, bees for pollinating agents 

 as heretofore. Although no accurate figures are available, it has appeared in 

 the press that approximately a ton of bees in packages, (three and five pounds 

 to the package) have been received from the South, in one or two counties 

 (Middlesex and Worcester) in Massachusetts, in a single season. Discussion 

 now ranges around the problem of whether colony bees, instead of package 

 bees, are not preferable for use in orchards. Year by year, favor for colony 

 bees is gaining, thereby offering greater opportunities to Massachusetts bee- 

 keepers who will become prepared to service bees for orchardists. Experi- 

 mental evidence is now appearing which tends to show that there is greater 

 efficiency for orchard use, of a given weight of bees in a normal colony, as 

 compared with an equal weight of bees in a package. 



The Division continued during 1935 to cooperate with the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture in connection with the control of the white pine 

 blister rust disease. 



The blister rust disease is caused by the growth of a parasitic fungus within 

 the bark of the five-needled pines of which our common white pine is the east- 

 ern species. This parasitic fungus, aside from its growth on white pines, has 

 what is known as an alternate stage; that is, a part of its life is spent in 

 the tissues of the leaves of Ribes (currant and gooseberry plants). This means 

 that if these alternate host plants can be eliminated from white pine growing 

 sections, the spread of the disease on white pine trees can be prevented. 



Work in the control of this disease, therefore, resolves itself into the task of 

 finding and uprooting thesa alternate host plants. In accomplishing the elim- 

 inating of plants of the wild species of Ribes the practice is to organize field 

 crews, whose function it is to systematically search white pine areas in which 

 these disease-bearing bushes grow, and to destroy the bushes when found. The 

 field crew unit consists of from five to seven laborers and a foreman. The labor- 

 ers line-up in formation similar to the line in a football team, the foreman fol- 

 lowing in the rear like the quarterback directing the work of the line, and 

 being certain that no bushes escape the attention of the laborers. Such a crew 

 starts at a given point usually on a road and proceeds across a tract of land 



