?5S 



122 



felGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



quired to change his bees within ten 

 days. The conditions are often such 

 that it isn't advisable. I was called, 

 for instance, to examine an apiary for 

 foul brood. It was during the hot 

 weather in September. It was about 

 all I could do at home to keep my 

 own bees straight. Everything was 

 dried up, and if the flow came at all 

 less than an average of ibees were 

 after it. I had to watch them. It 

 would be manifestly unwise to under- 

 take to examine l3ees for foul brood 

 under such conditions, and such con- 

 ditions might last for a month. Any 

 bee-keeper ought to have considerable 

 leeway. With regard to the time 

 when a man operates upon his bees, 

 if he does it within the season, within 

 the year, it seems to me that would 

 answer all requirements so far as the 

 prevention of foul brood was con- 

 cerned. 



Mr. Whitney: Isn't the proper place 

 to argue this question of what sort of 

 law you will have, before the com- 

 mittee who has charge of a bill for a 

 foul brood law, instead of arguing that 

 question here in convention? We 

 simply want a resolution that we shall 

 have a suitable, sufficiently stringent 

 law to control this matter of foul 

 brood. The question of what sort of 

 a law we will have might be consid- 

 ered at Springfield, it seems to me, 

 before the committee, and not here. 

 •We cannot thrash that question out 

 here if we stayed here until Dooms- 

 day. 



Mr. Wheeler: It seems to me that 

 we ought to know what we are favor- 

 ing. All we can tell about what sort 

 of a law we are favoring is by what 

 they have done before. We know what 

 they have tried to get through in 

 Springfield for six years. We know 

 what has been done, and we don't 

 favor any such manipulation .of the 

 industry of ibee-keeping in Illinois. I, 

 for one, am opposed to it. I believe 

 the bee-keepers themselves are the 

 ones that can take care of their own 

 business, and they will do it. Tlhey 

 read and know. There may 'be a few 

 people that need instruction. Now, 

 there has been a law on the statutes; 

 there has been money appropriated for 

 that purpose, and Mr. Smith has been 

 acting as the inspector. He has had 

 the right, and got his pay for going 

 around and instructing people what to 

 do with tiheir bees. It is a good thing 

 where they need help. I have money 



invested, and I don't propose to have 

 a man come into my yard and tell 

 me what I shall do, and I defy any 

 man to come in there and find a 

 thing wrong witji those bees. What I 

 am aiming for lis the best interests of 

 the bee-keepers. I have no ax to 

 grind; nothing whatever. If a good, 

 honest man comes into my yard at 

 any time, ihe is perfectly free to do 

 anything he pleases. At the same 

 time, the bee-keeping industry is in 

 great danger. The State law that we 

 had before is plenty ample. Every in- 

 dustry and every bee-keeper has to 

 take care 'Of it himself. I was talking 

 with Mr. Taylor about the inspection 

 in Michigan. What does it amount to? 

 Just as bad as it ever was. He can- 

 not inspect, because he has not the 

 money appropriated to do it. If he 

 had lots of money appropriated, he 

 could not do the business. If 

 he was :hankering for a job, he 

 could do it, but Ihe has his own busi- 

 ness to do. After you have summed it 

 all up, you cannot exterminate the 

 disease, and I know it. There are 

 imen in this room who know it. You 

 can make a bluff at it, and after it 

 breaks out again in a year or two, 

 you can say, some neighbor has it. 

 There is no such thing as exterminating 

 it; it will break out every two or 

 three years. The only way to do is 

 to keep your .premises clean and keep 

 the disease out, and every man can 

 do it himself better than another man 

 can come along and say, you do this 

 and that. We don't want a man to 

 go around with authority and step 

 into our business and knock us around 

 by making some silly report, and say- 

 ing we have foul brood, and some 

 competitor pick it up and knock us 

 out of business. That is not right. 

 We have got to take care of our af- 

 fairs. Bee-keepers are American cit- 

 izens, and know what to do, and what 

 not to do. 



Mr. .Whitney: We want the privi- 

 lege of attending to our own business, 

 and we know how to run our bee- 

 keeping, and we don't want to be in- 

 terfered with by any officers? How 

 about the people who own the herds 

 that are afflicted now with tuberculo- 

 sis and 'Other diseases in the moun- 

 tains? How about tlhat class of men 

 who have thousands of dollars in- 

 vested? Only a few days ago several 

 herds in New York State were abso- 

 lutely destroyed. And so it is with all 

 of these contagious diseases among 



