Oct. 5, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



697 



What was first-class practice 2J years ago is bad to-day. and \ 

 it is only by experiinenting and testing that we wdl ever 

 get at the right thing. There is no question— I found a 

 doctor here just the other day who told nie that operations 

 that were frequent two years ago are condemned to-day Ijy 

 the bulk of the profession, that is. by the advanced profes- 

 sion, and yet they were the popular and proper thing two 

 year's ago. It may be the same thing in regard to foul brood. 

 Tentative work is the only thing. 



Mr. Root— Mr. Abbott has struck the key-note, it seems 

 to me, as to how foul brood is transmitted. If we take Mr. 

 McEvov's experience, and the experience of foul-brood in- 

 spectors, it does not seem to be transmitted by the hive ex- 

 cept through the honey, and if this theory is correct it solves 

 nearly all the trouble. The danger lies in shaking the combs 

 and using them over again, because in shaking the combs you 

 may shake the honey onto the hives. 



Mr. Wilcox — I am not going to shed any light on the 

 subject, but I wanted to finish the thought presented by 

 Mr. Wheeler. He said we should spend some of this money 

 for investigation. So far as I am concerned, and many others, 

 we came here for that very purpose, to investigate. I didn't 

 know where to go to find men better informed on the subject. 

 I don't know how to conduct an examination or investigation 

 that would be more satisfactory than to be at a convention 

 with such men as we have here. If we cannot learn it from 

 the combined wisdom of the best bee-keepers in the country, 

 I don't know where to find it. That is the way to spend 

 the money. 



Pres. York — I think Mr. Wheeler meant that we should 

 have scientific investigation by scientific men. 



Mr. Moore — I want to take exception to Mr. Wheeler's 

 remarks. He says we must not go ahead with this thing 

 until we know exactly where we stand. That would apply 

 to everything in the world. We must not try to keep bees 

 until we know all about it. How do we learn except by 

 starting and using the things we know? The idea that we 

 should not try till we know- all about it is all bosh. Where 

 would our medical profession have been on that basis? Mr. 

 Wheeler says the bees will take these germs and scatter them 

 all around, and then those foul-brood germs will get every- 

 where. Dr. Howard gives the answ-er to that. By exposing 

 foul-brood germs to light, air and dust they die. We know 

 that light and air and dust are present evervwhere. .-Vsk 

 your wife, if you don't believe it. And those foul-bmod 

 germs scattered anywhere are exposed to light and air and 

 dust, and that is fatal to them. Some more scientific man 

 than myself can tell you how soon. Two of our members 

 have said that which is an insult to our intelligence, and to 

 inspectors everywhere; they say we are going to favor cer- 

 tain parties; that we are going to be prejudiced; that we are 

 not going to do right. Every man who has ever gone around 

 inspecting bees knows that is not true. We are meeting 

 everybody, and I tell you we are hunrtin ; we w-ant people 

 to like us; we want to be popular, and the w'ay to do that 

 is to do right, and to be just, and honest, and help our 

 brothers where we are right. 



Dr. Miller — How can you favor? 



Mr. Kimniej — By skipping foul Iirood and savinc; it is 

 not foul brood. 



Dr. Miller— Suppose you do skip a man. would vim f;i\. ir 

 that man by doing it? 



Mr. Kimmey — Of course you wouldn't. 

 Mr. Wheeler — I was misquoted, or misunderstood, I 

 didn't say it was best to do nothing tilTwe foiuid out e\tiv- 

 thing. That is a misstatement. I .don't mean that. I didii't 

 say anything of the kind. I believe all such investigations 

 are good, but I believe there is no use going to an extreme 

 in the matter, and doing things that are unwarranted, until 

 we have good ground. 



Mr. Reynolds — I will relate my txperience in that reaard 

 Mr. Moore came to my place last July about 20 minute- to 

 32, and asked how my bees were getting along, and I t'llil 

 him pretty fairly. He said. "Have you any trouble- I 

 said. "Yes, with one hive; it is marked there. He said, Lii^ht 

 the smoker and we will go and see it." We lit the siuok. r, 

 and just then my wife put her head out of the door and ^.nd 

 dinner was ready, so we went and had dinner. That was the 

 end of it. .\ neighbor of mine acknowledges that his apiary 

 is rotten with foul brood, but a short distance from me; 

 he hasn't the money to clean it up. I sent Mr. Moore to 

 somebody else whose apiary was fairly rotten with it, .-'.iid 

 he left orders there as to what was to be done. The i ■!! 

 came to me to ask me to help him out> and I told 1 ' 



didn't like to go there amongst his bees for fear I would 

 carrv it home, Mr. Moore said to me he would be glad to 

 put 'in a few days more if he only got his expenses. 1 told 

 him to write to him and get his address. This man is worth 

 over $.M),000 and would gladly pay to have it done. He wrote 

 to Mr Moore and the letter never came back, and Mr Moore 

 has never answered. I was there nine tunes trying to get 

 that man to do it. His wife said to me he would be fined 

 if he didn't have this done, bv the State. After that I could 

 do nothing. The bees are all hanging in five frames m soap- 

 boxes to-day. . . , • 1 , 

 Mr Moore— I had no appropriation for answering let- 

 ters, but I paid the postage and answered every letter as far 

 as I know. It was wholly unintentional if anybody was 

 neglected. I answered a number of inquiries w-here I couldn t 



personally go. , , • r .■ j ai, 



Mr. Smith— I will just say for the information of -Mr. 

 Wheeler, that there is now in Washington a scientific process. 

 Mr France is on his way there with foul brood, and the 

 best scientists in the United States are trying to solve that 

 problem and it is better than we inspectors can do, and 

 we expect information from there that will be nublishcd in 

 all the bee-papers. 



Mr Moore— I feel very deeply in this matter, to state 

 that any man who goes abroad and tries to help the bee- 

 keepers ought to go for two vears to the Agricultural Col- 

 lege at Champaign and take a regular scientific course in 

 entomology and microscopy. That ought to be done, ihe 

 question is, Who is going to pay for it? I was appointed 

 by the chief inspector, Mr. Smith, as deputy inspector. In 

 the pursuit of my duties I spent 33 days calling on bee- 

 keepers within my reach, I followed a totally different 

 scheme from my chief, Mr Smith. He gave me no instruc- 

 tions as to what I should do. So I took the addresses that 

 I had of the members of our .Association, and there is some- 

 thing like 300, and attempted to call on everybody. It was 

 published in the American Bee Journal, and we tried to ad-- 

 vertise to every one that we would go and see whoever called 

 for us within say 20 miles of Chicago. But we got no re- 

 sponses. I think there was one or tw^o who wrote to me, 

 suggesting that they would like a visit. I called in, on my 

 own plan and out of 135 apiaries I found about 25 diseased. 

 Now you see, if I had attempted simply to go where there 

 were' complaints I would have had two out of 25, I found 

 23 diseased apiaries by dint of calling on everybody and 

 examining the hives in the apiary that seemed to show disease 

 or weakness. , 



Dr. Miller— How many of those 23 knew before you 

 called that their bees had foul brood? 



Mr Moore— Not to exceed two or three. I would have 

 to guess at that. Thev knew that the bees had not done as 

 welt as they did some time before, and they had not gotten 

 any honey from that hive or from other hives, but that they 

 had this awful disease that we understand as foul brood, they 

 didn't know. . . 



Mr. Dadant— Were they foul-broody m every case .' ^ 



Mr Moore— You understand it is a great deal easier to 

 ask questions than answer them. I myself had about 3d 

 colonies and lost practically the whole thing with foul brood. 

 I had no experience with it, and it got into a dreadful state 

 before I knew it was foul brood; and I didn t go at it in the 

 scientific way that Mr. McEvoy and Mr. France teach, and 

 that we all practice nowadays, and the result was I lost the 

 whole thing I found foul brood in quite a number of dif- 

 ferent stages in the hives. I saw foul brood, as I say, in 

 those 25 apiaries, which would mean 75 to 100 colonies af- 

 fected ; and after a while one gets the idea in his head, and 

 I am satisfied now that I know foul brood when I see it. 

 It is not necessary to smell anything at all to find foul brood. 

 The expression has been used that one who cannot tell foul 

 brood in his hives when he smells it is not competent to treat 

 the disease. I believe that is true, because you can see foul 

 brood with your eyes a long time before you will smell it at 

 all, a good sunlight helping you. That shows to me that 

 the disease is much more widely distributed than any one has 

 an idea. I believe the only w.iy to do these things is to 

 make a clean sweep of them. With infectioiis diseases we 

 make laws to protect the public and we don t care a snap 

 of the finger for the individual who is injured, as long as the 

 welfare of the entire people is at stake. Some laws are made 

 paying injured individuals for the loss of their goods, such 

 as cattle and some other things, but as far as I know there 

 is no law in the United States compensating any bee-keeper 

 for the loss of his bees. Now. the reason has occurred to 



