Gleanings in Bee Culture 



321 



currence of Bee Diseases in the United 

 States," can likewise be secured by address- 

 ing the Secretary of Agriculture, free of cost. 

 The object of this publication, in the lan- 

 guage of the author, is "to present the data 

 on this subject acquired by the Bureau pre- 

 vious to March 1, 1911. It is not claimed 

 that the work has been completed, for this 

 is, obviously, not the case. . . The Bu- 

 reau makes it its policy not to give the name 

 of the person sending samples of bee dis- 

 eases. The records are made only by coun- 

 ties; and it is believed that no 'bee-keei)er 

 will consider this a betrayal of confidence." 



For some years the Bureau has been gath- 

 ering information, and filing the same in a 

 card index that shows where foul brood has 

 been located; that is, in what counties and 

 States. Some of these data showing where 

 disease exists by counties are contained in 

 the before-mentioned bulletin. The list will 

 be valuable to the one who is thinking of 

 buying bees from a i)articular locality or go- 

 ing into a locality to embark in business. 

 It is best that one should know wdiere the 

 diseases are located, or at least be placed in 

 position where he can secure the information. 



As Dr. Phillips intimates, it does not nec- 

 essarily follow that because Adams or But- 

 ler Co." in any State has disease that the dis- 

 ease necessarily exists in even/ apiary in 

 those counties. 



Perhajis there are some bee-keepers living 

 in some counties which they suppose con- 

 tain no disease. It may be worth while for 

 them, if they don't positively know, to send 

 for this bulletin. They may be surprised 

 to know that disease is within a few miles 

 of them. 



In this connection the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology will be glad to examine infected 

 samjiles of foul brood, free of charge. Don't 

 send them to Medina. 



FOUL-BROOD LEGISliATION. 



The foul-brood bill, passed by both Houses 

 of the Pennsylvania legislature, as previous- 

 ly announced, was signed by the Governor. 



The Michigan foul-brood bill passed both 

 Houses, but was vetoed by Governor Osborn, 

 April 24. The Michigan bill provided for 

 an approi)riation of SloUO ]>er annum, and 

 this, according to newspaj^er reports, did 

 not coincide with Governor Osborn's econo- 

 my i)lan. Either the Governor was mis- 

 informed as to the importance of the bee- 

 keeping industry in Michigan or else acted 

 on the theory that bills requiring ajipropria- 

 tions should be vetoed to conserve the funds 

 of the State. But the Michigan bee-keepers 

 are not going to give up. We understand 

 they propose to go at the thing again with 

 renewed vigor when the next General As- 

 sembly convenes. 



Tennessee has just passed an efficient 

 foul-brood law. .T. M. Buchanan, of Frank- 

 lin, says especial thanks are due to A. Gibbs, 

 President of the Tennessee Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation, and also to the Representative 

 from Williamson Co. Mr. liuchanan is too 

 modest to give himself any credit; but if we 



are not very much mistaken he was very 

 active in securing this needed legislation. 



Minnesota is another State that has re- 

 cently enacted an efficient foul-brood law. 

 This was ajjproved April 20, and will com- 

 ])are favorably with any law in force in any 

 State. A good start has already been made 

 looking toward a chair of a])iculture at the 

 Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. 



So the good work is going on in all of our 

 important honey-i)roducing States. While 

 Michigan and Illinois did not succeed in 

 getting such foul-brood laws as they desir- 

 ed, it should not be understood that there is 

 no bee-disease legislation of iiny sort in 

 either of those States. Michigan and Illin- 

 ois both have foul-brood laws; but because 

 they are defective it was thought best to 

 enact new measures. 



Illinois, unfortunately, has one or two per- 

 sons who style themselves bee-keepers who 

 have opposed foul-brood legislation of any 

 sort in their State, for the last two or three 

 sessions. What their motives have been we 

 do not know. It is hard enough to get legis- 

 lators to see the necessity of protecting our 

 industry from the ravages of disease; worse 

 still, when any one who is a bee-keeper goes 

 before those law-makers and represents that 

 there is no need of such laws — that the only 

 people who want them are the su]iply-man- 

 ufacturers and dealers, and the ])ublishers 

 of bee journals. The silly argument has 

 lieen advanced that these laws require the 

 burning of thousands of hives; therefore the 

 manufacturer of bee-supplies would sell 

 thousands of new hives. The fact is, no law 

 of any State requires the burning of hives 

 except in some very extreme cases. Intelli- 

 gent treatment, using the old hives, melting 

 up the combs, is all that is required. 



But two or three malcontents can not long 

 stop legislation. So many States now have 

 foul-brood laws that it will becomi)aratively 

 easy to get other States to fall into line by 

 the mere force of example. It is a powerful 

 argument to put up to a State without a 

 foul-brood law. that 27 States have passed 

 such laws, ^^'hen bee-keepers act unitedly, 

 and make sure that the governor, as well as 

 the members of the General Assembly, is 

 l>roperly informed, they are usually success- 

 ful. ' 



The following list from J. L. Byer, of foul- 

 brood inspectors in Ontario, came too late 

 for insertion in his regular department, so 

 we give it place here: 



J. S. Schrank, Port Elgin. 

 D. Chalmers, Poole. 

 John Artle.v, Blantyre. 

 W. A. Chrysler, Chatham. 

 James Newton, Thamesford. 

 James Armstrong, Cheapside. 

 Arthur Adamson, Erindale. 

 Henry Johnson. Craighurst. 

 Homer Burk, Highland Creek. 

 W. Scott, AVooler. 

 Alex Dickson, Lancaster. 

 I. B. Checkley, Linden Bank. 

 Herbert Doherty, Long Bay. 

 Xlorley Pettit, Guelph. 

 R. C. Fretz, O. A. C. Cuelph. 

 G. L. Jarvis, O. .V. C. Guelph. 

 F. E. MiUen, O. A. C. Guelph. 



