March 1. 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



195 



for that reason there should not be a foul-brood law pass' d? 



Mr. Wheeler — Yes; and for the reason that a gi I 01 

 a man who has a pull would probably get the place of in- 

 spector. 



Mr. Holtermann — Seriously speaking, I am a little sur- 

 prised to hear a discussion of this kind here. If it had beefi 

 in England where they were discussing the advisability oi a 

 foul-brood law, one would attribute it to their conservatism; 

 But I am surprised that we can be seriously discussin 



question in the United States. We know that foul br 1 cajp 



be cured. Mr. Wheeler may not have succeeded in curing 

 it. and we may have some sympathy with him in his trouble* 

 but there are too many of us who can say we know foul 

 brood can be cured. And even if it could not be cured, it 

 would need an inspector to see where the disease was, and 

 stamp it out. We are certainly not prepared to admit that it 

 cannot be cured. And I think Mr. Wheeler hardly means to 

 make the accusation that every foul-brood inspector is a 

 grafter or one who has a "pull." I think that is a little too 

 strong. There are good men among the inspectors. If I 

 may be allowed to say so. I w r ould be much in sympathy with 

 seeing that you get a foul-brood law passed. 



Dr. Bohrer — I do not know that a law will stamp out 

 foul brood, but as was just remarked, if we cannot afford 

 a permanent cure, if we can only check it, we should have 

 the law. I am satisfied that foul brood can be cured. I 

 never saw but one case in my life, and I cured it. I will 

 tell you how I did it, and the experience I had with it, and 

 for that reason, if no other. I would recommend a law 

 upon that subject. A neighbor of mine had only one 

 colony of bees, and he told me there was something wrong 

 with it. lie asked me if I would stop and inspect his hive. 

 I did so, and the most terrible stench that ever came to 

 my nostrils came out of that hive! I said, "My friend, I 

 cannot imagine anything that would be fouler than this, 

 and we will call it foul brood, anyway." There were very 

 few bees hatching. I said. "If you have some corral 

 foundation, and a new, clean hive, we will fit it into the 

 frames, shake these bees all off and drive them into it, then 

 take this bee-hive, combs, honey, frames and everything 

 and conceal them somewhere until after night, and then 

 put it all somewhere and burn it." I had 20 or 30 colonies 

 of bees at home, and I slipped into the house as quickly 

 as possible. I took off every particle of clothing, and 

 told my wife to go and boil them. Everything I had 

 about me was thoroughly cooked. I tell you, no foul 

 brood will ever start up where you adopt such measures 

 as that. You want your foul-brood law to give your in- 

 spector full authority. Do not tolerate or accept any 

 half-way legislation upon that subject. We have a law 

 in my State (Kansas), but I do not exactly like it. The 

 law provides for a county inspector, but it does not pay 

 him sufficiently to justify a man in leaving his home — only 

 $2.00 a day. You cannot get a man to do very much work 

 on that account. In our county they want me to take hold 

 of it and inspect the bees. I said, "I will tell you how to 

 cure it, and when the legislature meets again, let them 

 understand it is not graft at all. Frame your law so the 

 fact can be established that the disease exists and is doing 

 mischief. Then clothe your inspector with authority to 

 go and effect a cure." When you come to pass a State 

 law. be careful how you shape it. I am not sure bu1 a 

 law that will provide for a county inspector will cost the 

 people the least money. It is not very expensive for the 

 County Commissioners to appoint an inspector of that 

 kind and pay a competent man. But to say we don'i 

 want any law because somebody has made a failure — that 

 won't do! We might just as well say we don't want laws 

 upon the statute books prohibiting murder or robbery 

 because these things go on, and the law does nm > 



them. But if you can check the disease, it will paj to 

 have a law for that purpose, if no other. 



Mr. Kimmey — I would like, first, to know if Mr. Wheeler 

 was giving us his experience with foul brood? 



Mr. Wheeler — Ask any question you like. When you 

 get through talking, I will talk. 



Mr. Kimmey — That is what I wanted to know — 

 whether you were speaking from your own experience. 



Mr. Wheeler — In regard to the insinuation I made 

 about grafters and all that, we know what Mr. France is. 

 We all love him, I may say. He is a man, every inch of 

 him. What Wisconsin has had in Mr. France is ni n 



of what Illinois may have. We must look ahead to that. 

 Xot only that, but to neonle who have thousands o <h 

 lars at stake in the bee-business, it is a great deal m 01 

 a vital question than to a man who has one or two 



and I claim that the men who are doing a honey-produc- 

 ing business .hi a large >ca i ire in a great deal mori 

 danger of the disease continuing and staying than if he 

 has only one or two hues to put into a furnace and burn 

 up. He is only a few dollars out. Of course the bei 

 hive manufacturers want it. But if we can get along and 

 keep our hives, we arc going to do it. We can scour 

 them, burn them out. and all that, and I have no doubt 

 but The A. I. Root Co. cured the disease when they had it. 

 They could burn up their hives, foundation and all, and 

 get new suoplies out at their factory without much cost 

 to them. We cannot do that. You cannot do that. The 

 point is. there is so much stuff around. And these gen- 

 tlemen are satisfied to burn up the hives. I saw that done 

 once, and the next day after the hives were burned the 

 bees swarmed over that pile, licked up the honey they found 

 and carried it home. 



Dr. Bohrer — That honey was not burned. 

 Mr. Wilcox — You cannot burn up honey in that way. 

 I have seen the disease carried back to the hives in that 

 way. 



Mr. Wheeler — I consider myself just as careful as 

 any man can be. I have experimented just as carefully as 

 any man in the United States can, and I believe it is 

 absolutely impossible, unless bees are destroyed and the 

 hives burned up, to eradicate that disease if you get the 

 genuine thing. It has no terror to me. I do not believe 

 any man needs to be afraid of it. I do not believe there 

 is anything in it to be so much afraid of. It is simply a 

 question of taking care of your bees. Don't allow them 

 to get any diseased honey. But so far as absolutely cur- 

 ing it. I do not think it can be done. 



Mr. McEvoy — I cannot quite agree with Mr. Wheeler. 

 I will not stake my life that I can cure it every time, but 

 when you are going on the theory that it cannot be cured, 

 you are making a mistake. 



Mr. Dadant — I would like to give you one instance 

 where it would have been good to have had a foul-brood 

 law in Illinois. A person died near East St. Louis wdio 

 owned some bees that had foul brood. The administrator 

 was told the bees had foul brood, and he hastened to sell 

 them as quickly as possible to get rid of them. If we 

 had had a compulsory law. it would have been a criminal 

 matter to have so disposed of those bees. 



Mr. Kimmey — I asked Mr. Wheeler the question in 

 good faith, whether he was talking from his own experi- 

 ence. I expected to ask him if he believed the disease to 

 be contagious. I am talking about something I know 

 nothing about. I never have had foul brood in my apiary. 

 I am an amateur bee-keeper. It seems to me if you have 

 had foul brood and stamped it out, and it is contagious, 

 it had come from some place else. That is what I was 

 trying to get at. He might have gotten it from his neigh- 

 bors' bees. 



Mr. Wilcox — There is just one feature of this case 

 that has not been touched upon yet that is important. 

 The fact is, you want to create an office. The inspector 

 must be a State officer, and you cannot have it unless you 

 prepare for it, and pass a law authorizing it. You must 

 have a fixed appropriation for this purpose and not de- 

 pend upon the Legislature to make an annual or biennial 

 appropriation for this purpose. It must be an appropria- 

 tion that will come, year after year, and to get that you 

 must proceed as we have done and make it a State office. 

 Make it a fixed appropriation after the manner of Wis- 

 consin. It is necessary to have such an officer. He may 

 be appointed by the Governor, or by some State board 

 after some civil service examination, perhaps. It is not a 

 matter for us to discuss as to the best method of having 

 him appointed. In Wisconsin we are satisfied to have 

 him appointed by the Governor, upon recommendation of 

 the bee-keepers. 



Mr. McCain — It seems to me we ought to bear in 

 mind that we are not legislating against ourselves. The 

 bee-keepers of this Association and of the National are. in 

 the majority, intelligent men, who can cure cases of foul 

 brood if they have it. 1 am no expert, but I have cured 

 two cases — not in my own yard, but in my neighbor's yard. 

 We are not legislating aginst ourselves. We ought to go 

 in heartily and support such a resolution as this in 

 that those who do not care may feel the force of the law. 



Mr. Kluck — I am in favor of a foul-brood law wl 

 we can force our neighbor, ivho does not care whether 

 his bees have foul brood or not, t • ► have the disease ti 

 and a compulsory law is tin only one that will do any 

 good in Illinois. The man who has 6, 8, 10 or 15 colonies, 



