FIFTH ANNUAL KEPOET OF THE STATE INSPECTOR OF 



APIARIES. 



To the Honorable State Board of Agriculture. 



There is a considerable degree of satisfaction in presenting 

 the fifth annual report of the State Inspector of Apiaries for 

 the fiscal year ending November, 1914. Satisfaction has been 

 expressed not only among beekeepers but among the deputy 

 inspectors, who have worked faithfully and earnestly, as fol- 

 lows: John Shaughnessy of Stockbridge, who has previously 

 served as an inspector; O. F. Fuller of Blackstone, who was 

 appointed on June 23, 1914; and Edwards Thorne of West- 

 borough, who was appointed on July 24, 1914. The writer 

 acknowledges his appreciation of their services and congratu- 

 lates them upon their success. Success, too, could not have 

 been expected in some instances even by the most optimistic. 

 Particular evidence of the possibilities in disease suppression 

 will be shown below in the discussion of the results in Berk- 

 shire County, for instance, where disea.se was formerly exceed- 

 ingly prevalent. Your inspector, therefore, is under the im- 

 pression that with adequate facilities and further persistence, 

 Massachusetts may be relatively rid of infection, perhaps freer 

 of bee diseases than any other State in the Union. This is a 

 sweeping statement, but the success of the past year leads me 

 to hope for a relatively disease-free State. It is necessary that 

 funds be provided so that the entire State may be supervised; 

 at present the size of the appropriation limits efforts to certain 

 districts, which, as the writer has previously explained, are 

 selected according to the prevalence of disease in them. 



A notable illustration of the need of additional assistance has 

 come to light during the past season in southeastern Massa- 

 chusetts, where heretofore the disease situation had not been 

 considered serious. An inspector there discovered by a careful 

 apiary-to-apiary inspection that disease is rooted more seriously 



