232 DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES 



equipped hive is worthless, as it will cost more to transfer the 

 bees, as a rule, than a diseased colony is worth. 



The man who is fully informed concerning up-to-date 

 methods of bee-keeping will be able to handle disease in his 

 own apiary if he can be protected from further infection. The 

 problem then becomes one of making every man who keeps bees 

 an up-to-date bee-man. In localities where disease gets well 

 established it will be impossible to eradicate it entirely until 

 every bee-keeper becomes expert. Disease has the effect of 

 making expert bee-keepers anyway, for those who do not become 

 proficient are likely to lose all their bees within a short time. 



The bee inspector is usually regarded as the official repre- 

 sentative of the industry and should be able to represent it 

 creditably under any circumstances. It is not enough to be 

 informed concerning detection and treatment of disease, but 

 he piust be able to deal with problems relating to any branch 

 of bee-keeping. Bee-keepers whom he visits will give him their 

 hardest problems to solve and people in other walks of life will 

 turn to him with any question relating to the business. He will 

 be called upon to give expert testimony in case of litigation in- 

 volving bee-keepers and to settle various disputes between per- 

 sons where the rights of one or the other are in question. 



Opportunity. — The various State agricultural colleges are 

 rapidly taking up bee culture, and it bids fair to take its legiti- 

 mate place in the college curriculum. Within a few years the 

 inspection work, instead of being under direction of a separate 

 State department, as now in many States, will be organized in 

 connection with extension work in bee-keeping. As the business 

 of bee-keeping is taking on new life the demand for properly 

 equipped men will probably exceed the supply for several years 

 to come. That this condition has not developed sooner is because 

 the bee-keepers have been slow to recognize the great advantage 

 that would come to the industry as a result and to demand the 

 same recognition given other lines of agricultural activity. A 

 few who have not caught the spirit of the times are loud in their 



