ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



83 



care of larvae is an unknown factor in 

 bee-life, as well as many other points 

 which may have an exceedingly import- 

 ant bearing on practical work. 



As far as the hearing of bees is con- 

 cerned, we may be safe in saying that 

 it matters little to the bee-keeper wheth- 

 er bees hear or not, but, still, almost 

 every bee-man wants to know. No or- 

 gan of hearing has yet been discovered, 

 and the evidence that bees hear is ex- 

 tremely meager. In spite of this fact 

 the majority of persons familiar with 

 bees believe that bees do hear. The 

 arguments generally advanced as proof 

 of this are absolutely valueless, and we 

 await impatiently a scientific investiga- 

 tion. 



Not only will Apiculture be benefited 

 by new scientific work on subjects re- 

 lating directly to bees, but comparisons 

 with results obtained in other fields will 

 yield results of great value. Bee-keep- 

 ing is not a science entirely apart from 

 all others, but is most intimately con- 

 nected with many sciences. For exam- 

 ple, if we look at bee-keeping from the 

 standpoint of breeding it becomes -evi- 

 dent that it is not necessary that all the 

 principles of bee-breeding be worked 

 out on bees. From multitudes of results 

 in such work it is evident that a few 

 underlying principles are concerned in 

 the improvement of a species, race, or 

 variety, by selection; it matters not in 

 the least to the bee-breeder whether 

 these principles are discovered by work 

 on bees. There are already scores and 

 hundreds of papers detailing the meth- 

 ods used by the breeders of other spec- 

 ies, and these papers await the persons 

 who are to take up the one great prob- 

 lem of Apiculture. Improved appliances 

 and manipulations are valuable, but 

 their importance becomes infinitesimal 

 when considered with the improvement 

 of the bees themselves. The problem 

 is so great that it is not to be wondered 

 that it has not been undertaken syste- 

 matically, but the day will come when 

 it is begun, and then the results of other 

 scientific breeders will be of inestimable 

 value. 



The second great problem which con- 

 fronts American bee-keepers is the dis- 

 eases to which bee-flesh is heir. Per- 

 haps no one factor is so great a draw- 

 back to advance in Apiculture. The 

 two virulent diseases of the brood are 

 spreading through the States of the 

 Union at a rate which is truly appalling, 



and heroic measures are necessary. I 

 do not wish to become an alarmist, but 

 during the past year I have traveled 

 several thousand miles studying condi- 

 tions of diseases and the rapidity of their 

 spread, and I cannot refrain from say- 

 ing that conditions are serious. The 

 scientific work which has already been 

 done on the subject is of very great 

 value. We know that these two diseas- 

 es — European foul brood and American 

 foul brood — are of bacterial origin, and 

 we know from scientific work on other 

 bacteria that certain methods of treat- 

 ment are necessary. The result is that 

 with this work we now have reliable 

 methods of treatment. 



The control of diseases of knimals 

 and plants by inspection methods has 

 been the object of a great deal of 

 thought on the part of very competent 

 men, and inspection is really a science. 

 Horticultural and veterinarian inspec- 

 tion methods are well worth study b> 

 those interested in the extermination or 

 control of brood-diseases, and for this 

 purpose there will be a meeting of bee- 

 disease inspectors in this city next Mon- 

 day. How. much good will result from 

 such a meeting remains to be seen, but 

 it is certainly a worthy object. Bee- 

 keeping must be up-to-date in its meth- 

 ods of disease control, and to accom- 

 plish the maximum good our inspectors 

 must work in the greatest harmony. 



In addition to the direct good result- 

 ing from scientific work, great good re- 

 sults from the publication of scientific 

 results in the stimulating effect which 

 such work has on practical methods and 

 discussions. As an example of this I 

 need only refer once more to the work 

 on bee-diseases. The recent work on 

 this subject has given us a better in- 

 sight into the causes of the two forms 

 of foul brood, yet it must be confessed 

 that these results are of minor value, 

 since methods of control are not changed 

 in the least. In spite of this the an- 

 nouncement of results and public dis- 

 cussions have stimulated the persons in- 

 terested in disease work, and we now 

 are in a better position to take up the 

 practical question of ridding ourselves of 

 these plagues. 



Over and above all this, scientific work 

 makes better bee-keepers, in that the 

 more a man knows about bees the better 

 bee-keeper he is, and the better man he 

 is. We must not lose sight of the fact 

 that a bee-keeper has some mission in 



"K 



