12 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Now I wish to say that no greater blunder could be perpetrated 

 than to work from that standpoint alone. In order to make my 

 position clear let us consider briefly the nature of foul brood. 1st, 

 It is disease of the larval state of the bee; 2nd, it is communicable 

 from one colony to another; 3rd, a specific bacillus has been iso- 

 lated and proven to be the essential cause of American foul brood. 

 In other words we have an infectious and possibly contagious dis- 

 ease of the infant bee. 



QUARANTINE. 



Now on what basis do all civilized communities act in order to 

 prevent the spread of infectious and contagious diseases? And 

 what method alone has proven effective? Only one, and that is 

 rigid quarantine. 



When an individual is quarantined because of some contagious 

 disease only such persons, who, by virtue of special training, know 

 how to render their clothing and person absolutely aseptic are per- 

 mitted to see him. 



My contention is that no queen breeder ought to be permitted 

 to mail queen bees or otherwise transport them who has foul brood 

 in his yard or in his immediate vicinity. I will admit that queen 

 breeders could qualify themselves so as to send queens from a 

 foul brood yard without danger to the purchasers, but what are 

 the essential things that he must rigidly adhere to in order to do so 

 with safety to the queen buyer? First, he must know how to be 

 surgically clean himself. He must know how to make his cage 

 honey sterile, and how to keep it in that condition, and how to ren- 

 der the cage, queen and attendants aseptic. Further, he must keep 

 every tpol, object, container, and in fact everything, including the 

 building in which he works, free from this bacillus larvae by means 

 of heat or chemical disinfectants. It would take the special training 

 of a nurse or surgeon to qualify for the place and queens could not 

 be profitably handled under prevailing prices. 



There is only one safe course, and that is to quarantine all 

 queen breeders who have foul brood near them. 



FOTTIi BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



The season of 1910 saw foul brood for the first time in the 

 Yakima Valley and I am informed that it is spreading rapidly over 

 the Pacific States. The old adage that "an ounce of prevention is 

 worth a pound of cure" is very pertinent in this connection. But 

 if we blunder along with the fanciful idea that the queen breeder 

 who boils his honey for his queen cages, with foul brood present 

 in his yard has done his full duty we are closing our eyes to all 

 that science has laboriously learned regarding the prevention of 

 communicable diseases. Methods of preventing the spread of foul 

 brood is of the greatest importance to bee-keepers, and the assump- 



