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36 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



that the Secretary be instructed to ask 

 some of the prominent bee-keepers in 

 the state to furnish papers on suojec-ts 

 which he may suggest to them as of 

 special interest at this time, for publi- 

 cation in our Annual Report. 



Mr. Stone: I would like to add to 

 that miotion that not only prominent 

 bee-keepers be invited to do this, but 

 ithat the invitation is hereby extended 

 to all the members, especially you who 

 are present here, to write papers for 

 publication in the report. 



Mr. Hinderer seconded Mr. Becker's 

 motion as amended by Mr. Stone and 

 it was' carried. 



Mr. Becker: There is one thing- I 

 would like to say yet. I think we lought 

 to have an addition to our premium list 

 and that is there ought to be a prem- 

 ium offered for any other variety of 

 honey outside of those named in the 

 list. They 'ought to be willing to give 

 us this additional premium. There is 

 this much about our exhibit — if you 

 were to take the honey out of the dairy 

 building this year there would not be 

 anything there hardly worth seeing. 

 I have been at the State Fair every 

 year .s-ince it has been located ajt Spring- 

 field and I want to say that the exhibit 

 of honey there this year was certainly 

 fine. With four such fine displays as 

 were there it was hard to tell which 

 one could be left out of the awards. I 

 think if the Fair Association would 

 look at the matter rightly they would 

 give us an increase. Our Superinten- 

 dent, Mr. Cater, is a very nice man, but 

 he is timid about going before the 

 board and afraid ito ask for an increase 

 in his department. They do not give, 

 nearly as much money as the depart- 

 'Tnent should have. 



Mr. Stone: When I asked for an in- 

 crease Mr. Ca,ter said the Board had 

 given him the amount to be used as 

 premiums in his' department, $25.00, 

 and he gave us all of that $25.00 for our 

 show, which I thought was very good of 

 him. 



President Smith suggested that a 

 sweepstakes premium be made and the 

 amounts to be offered be $10, $7, and $5, 

 but after talking the matter over a lit- 

 iMe further it was decided to ask only 

 for "case of any other variety of honey, 

 12 to 24 pounds" and make the amounts 

 offered in first, second and third prem- 

 iums $4, $3 and $2. 



Mr. Werner: I wish the Fair Asso- 

 ciation would build a cage for the ex- 

 hibit next year. If they will allow us 



to have it I will agree to do ithe work 

 and will furnish the bees to work with. 



It was decided that such an exhibit 

 be had at the State Fair next year. 



On motion ithe convention adjourned 

 to meet in 1908, Thursday and Friday 

 of the same week in November, the 

 date previously determined upon. 



Do We Need a Foul Brood Law? 



Lincoln, 111., March, 1908. 

 Foul brood bacillus alvei is a fatal 

 and contagious disease among bees, 

 dreaded most of all by bee-keepers. 

 The germs of disease are either given 

 to young larval bee in its food when it 

 hatches from the egg of the queen bee, 

 or it may be by contagion from a dis- 

 eased colony, or pollen in such combs. 

 If in any one of the above cases the 

 disease will soon appear, and as the 

 germs increase with great rapidity, go- 

 ing from one cell to another — colony to 

 colony of bees and then to all neigh- 

 boring apiaries — thus soon leaving 

 whole apiaries with only diseased 

 combs to inoculate others. The only 

 visible hindrance to the successful ex- 

 pansion of the bee industry is the prev- 

 alence of Foul Brood. Most all of the 

 honey producing states have Foul 

 Brood Laws, .and the bee keepers of 

 Illinois need the same protection as 

 other states. 



In view of the widespread distribu- 

 tion of infectious foul brood among the 

 bees of Illinois, it is of the greatest 

 importance that a Foul Brood Law 

 should be passed by the law makers of 

 our state; in my -experience as inspec- 

 tor I find that the practical bee-keepers 

 who are all the time exposed to the 

 careless or ignorant bee-keepers, suffer 

 from such parties. They may take 

 great pains and incur considerable ex- 

 pense to keep their bees free from the 

 disease, but if the careless neighbor 

 that has only a few hives and don't 

 care whether his bees live or die, and 

 won't clean his bees up when they 

 are diseased, what can the practical 

 bee keeper do to protect his bees from 

 the infection? It is virulent as small 

 pox and if he can not persuade the 

 neighbor to clean up, it will be but a 

 short time until his whole apiary will 

 be diseased and perhaps just at the 

 honey season, when it is the most fatal 

 to securing a honey crop. 



A Foul Brood Law will not work a 

 hardship to any one but will be a great 

 benefit to all. In my experience in 



