162 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



eradicates foulbrood from an infected 

 district in five years, a foulbrood in- 

 spector is to be considered success- 

 ful, if lie does not, he is a failure. I 

 wonder how many bee inspectors will 

 toe the mark on that proposition. 



The shaking system to cure foul- 

 brood has been in vogue since 1891. 

 when McEvoy introduced it to ibis 

 continent; he published details in 

 1895, twenty-three years ago. It has 

 been tried from Maine to California 

 and from Ontario to the Gulf of 

 Mexico, so let us see what its advo- 

 cates have to say for themselves. 



In the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture Bulletin No. 75 there is a 

 paper written in 1908 by Dr. Burton 

 N. Gates, on Bee Disease in Massa- 

 chusetts. On page 30 I find a head- 

 ing "Brood Diseases Can Be Con- 

 trolled." Under it he says, "It has 

 been thoroughly demonstrated that 

 by judicious and persistent manipu- 

 lation both of them can be success- 

 fully controlled and suppressed." 



Then, to show what really can be 

 accomplished, he says, "The State 

 nearest to Massachusetts is New 

 York, where the annual loss of bees 

 alone is shown in the following fig- 

 ures : 



Previous to 1899, in a limited 

 area the loss of bees alone 



is estimated at $39,383 



In 1899, when concentrated ef- 

 fort to suppress bee disease 



was begun, it amounted to 25,420 



In 1900 20,289 



In 1901 10,853 



In 1902 5.860 



In 1903 4.741 



In 1904 2,220 



In 1905 1,725 



"In the other states the encourag- 

 ing results of inspection and persist- 

 ent effort to suppress the inroads of 

 disease are similar." 



Observe, this was a concentrated 

 effort, continued for seven years. Yet, 

 in the seventh year foulbrood was 

 still present, in fact the cases oi thai 

 year apparently amounted to 6.8% of 

 what was present in 1899. There was 

 assuredly no complete eradication in 

 five years in this case, so it fails by 

 the measuring rod provided by Foster 

 and Brookes. 



I would like to know the condition 

 of that district today, twelve years 

 afterwards, especially when I read in 

 September Gleanings on page 719 the 

 following note about this very same 

 State of New York: "Chief Inspec- 

 tor Geo. H. Rea drew out the fact 

 that bee disease, both European and 

 American, had wiped out a good 

 many small yards throughout the 

 State There were not half as many 

 bees as were formerly kept, but in- 

 spection was now under way. and he 

 hoped the disease would be brought 

 under control." 



After 18 years' experience thus is 

 chased the great delusion. 



Let us take all the references I 

 find in the bee journals for the past 

 year. In the American Bei lournal 

 for January 1918. I find Mr. Morb'v 

 1'eltit giving a report of a meeting 



i if die < Intario Apiary [nspecti n 



I am tempted to make a few quota 

 tions. The shaking system was be- 

 gun in Ontario by McEvoy in 1891, 



and has been kept up ever since; so 

 it has had 27 years' trial. For a great 

 many years there have been sixteen 

 inspectors in the Province, but it is 

 only fair to say that they do not de- 

 vote nearly all their time to the 

 work. If curing foulbrood is as ef- 

 fective as it is held to be by its ad- 

 vocates, then in 27 years surely the 

 disease in Ontario would be chiefly 

 conspicuous by its rarity. Let us see. 

 Mr. Pettit says, "Unfortunately, 

 comparatively few apiaries infected 

 with either disease have been found 

 to be entirely cured, yet it might 

 safely be said that the expenditure of 

 time and money from year to year 

 has not been without benefit, etc." 

 Again, "Seven hundred and seventy- 

 eight apiaries were inspected and 203 

 of these were found to be diseased 

 with either American or European 

 foulbrood. Eight thousand five hun- 

 dred and fifty-seven colonies were 

 examined and 1,132 were diseased." 

 That is to say 20 per cent of the api- 

 aries and 13 per cent of the colonies 

 examined were found affected with 



in that sentence to indicate that the 

 shaking treatment will eradicate 

 foulbrood from a district in 5 years. 



The situation in California is dis- 

 posed of by P. C. Chadwick on page 

 924 of December Gleanings in a few 

 words, "California has disease. There 

 is not a county in the State, unless it 

 be very remote, that has not disease." 

 And this is the home of the big pro- 

 fessional beekeeper. One of their 

 beemen told me they were shaking 

 all the time. 



On page 271 of April Gleanings. I 

 find A. C. Ames remarking about 

 conditions in Iowa, "It is rare when 

 we go through a county one year 

 that we are able to go back in that 

 county the next season; and we all 

 know, if one has much disease, that 

 it is very seldom that one clean-up 

 will get all the infection." In plain 

 English, shaking as practiced in 

 Iowa, cannot possibly eradicate. So 

 the situation is never in hand, and in 

 short cycles the bee inspector begins 

 the weary grind all over again. 



Lastly, I want to point out that in 



Wild Blackberry thicket.— Photograph by John R Dougla 



foulbrood. This after 27 years of cur- 

 ing. 



In July Gleanings, J. F. Byers lets 

 a shaft of light fall on the situation 

 when he says, "European foulbrood is 

 rapidly spreading in Ontario." But in 

 1911 a searchlight was thrown on the 

 situation in that Province when one 

 of its most famous beekeepers 

 summed up the situation by declaring 

 to me that what Ontario needed was 

 at least 1200 bee inspectors. I am be- 

 ginning to wonder if the disease has 

 not been shaken all over the Prov- 

 ince when the bees were shaken out 

 of the hives. 



I began my beekeeping career in 

 Cook county, Illinois, and am nat- 

 urally interested in conditions in that 



Slate, so I read carefully the report 

 of Inspectoi Kildow on page 961 of 

 December Gleanings. He says, "Nol 

 withstanding mi ire apiaries w ei e i ■• 

 amined than evei before last year. 



diseasi iva Fi 1 than during 



'In yeai before, proving that foul- 

 In 1 is ii- > i onl\ being held in check 



but that its ravages are being con- 

 siderably mitigated." I see nothing 



the A !'• C of Bee Culture there is 

 printed I'. S. Census Statistics to 

 show that in the whole country there 

 was a drop of one million farmer, 

 that is small, beekepers between 1900 

 and 1910, being a hiss of about 14 

 per cent. The heaviest losses occur 

 in the most densely populated States, 

 running from 23 per cent in Penn- 

 sylvania to 40 per cent in Vermont, 

 Utah tops the list with a drop of 49.5 

 per cent. 



When in 1911 I looked at similar 

 data as is given above it did not 

 take me long to make up my mind 

 that, as practiced, the shaking treat- 

 ment was not all that it was cracked 

 up to lie. And I could not get away 

 from the clear-cul statement about 

 the condition of little Belgium, foul- 

 In I wiped out in 10 years by fire, 



and none existing for 10 years or 

 more. 



Now I'm the other side, the test by 

 ine In 1914 I found American foul- 

 In I in ill.' toll,, wing districts : ( 'lnl 



liw.uk. ("oquitlam. Point Grey, Van- 

 couver City and South Vancouver. 

 From Chilfiwack to Vancouver the 



