STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 45 



gives us the authority to destroy the man's bees .if they have 

 foul brood, that made us give up all hope of getting 

 anything. We tried to get that law through with those con- 

 ditions — to give the inspector all protection that the foul 

 brood law could give him. The last bill with those authori- 

 ties left out went through, but every man was for it and I 

 suppose the influence brought to bear was what brought it 

 through. The senator was pleased because he was flooded 

 with letters he got. Go on Mr. France. 



Mr. France — I called there and what few bees he had 

 were infected. I said shall I treat these? He was busy pick- 

 ing apples one day and could not attend to it, so he put me 

 off every day till I said my time is worth too much, and 

 told him to build a fire under the kettle; we will cure them 

 right now. But his time was worth too much, and in the 

 other case the man's bees were in a dying condition. He 

 said, "I will burn them up." So destroy in cases like that, 

 ])ut generally it is not necessary. If it comes to the last I 

 show them my authority ; and that goes a long way with 

 sorrre people. If the State Veterinarian is on the farm and 

 he finds a horse that is diseased, will he allow you to keep 

 that horse? Can the man keep it as long as he wants it? 

 I think the State Veterinarian would take care of jt. It is 

 only the eradication of the disease that you are after. If I 

 have a diseased horse or a cholera hog, the State places an 

 appraised valuation and that animal is destroyed to eradicate 

 the disease. 



Mr. Stone — I would like to ask Mr. France another 

 question. When you have the authority given to you to 

 inspect these apiaries, then would it not be sufficient to have 

 a law that would compel them to eradicate the disease and 

 not destroy the property? Then you would not be destroying 

 property and no question of personal rights could come up. 

 That is just what you need in your law. 



Mr. Smith — In my trips as inspector for this State I 

 visited the past season, in 32 counties, that is about 1-3 of 

 the State. I traveled over 2,000 miles, inspected something 

 over 300 colonies of bees, and I will say that I found only 

 one person who objected to having his bees inspected. But, 

 on the other hand, I find the people willing and anxious to 

 have them inspected. In a great many places I had corres- 

 pondence with the bee-keepers that have foul brood, and they 

 would notify their neighbors that the inspector was coming, 

 and they are all anxious to know what they shall do in 

 regard to treatment. I believe that by sending out the proper 

 educational printed matter as to treatment, we would have a 

 great deal of help. They have read the bee-papers of late 

 years and they all say so much about foul brood that they 

 are anxious to escape it if possible, and get rid of it if they 

 have it. 



Mr. Stone — Did you not find the trouble with the people 

 who had just a few colonies? 



Mr. Smith — That is the only trouble. About 18 years 

 ago 1 had 102 colonies of bees in fine condition. Of course 



