ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



167 



Ontario than the one he corresponded 

 with Mr. Byers about? 



Dr. Phillips — That is the only one. 



Ml". Holterman — I think our Ontario 

 Government is making a mistake. This 

 disease was only in one or two apia- 

 lies and now it covers ten miles square 

 or less. I think between the Provin- 

 cial and Dominion Government they 

 should at once stamp out every single 

 apiary where this disease is found. ; 



Mr. McEvoy — Do you treat it at all, 

 Mr. Wright? 



Mr. Wright — I have cured it. 



Mr. McEvoy — ^Without burning? 



Mr. Wright — Yes. 



Mr. McEvoy — That is all right. 

 Now, Mr. Byers, you are mistaken. 



Mr. Pressler — Mr. Wright has stated 

 that the dread of American foul brood 

 is not as great as it was years ago if 

 we know how to handle it. The peo- 

 ple of New York State, especially Mr. 

 Wright, have had considerable experi- 

 ence with black, or European brood. 

 Do you dread it as much to-day as you 

 did three years ago? 



Mr. Wright — Both diseases are bad 

 enough, but Mr. Byers need not dread 

 even European foul brood. 



Mr. Holterman — We are now touch- 

 ing upon a subject which is, I think, 

 of very great importance to the bee- 

 keeping industry, and I believe we 

 should be thoroughly afraid of foul 

 brood, whether American or Euro- 

 pean. I know underneath the surface 

 I have been blamed for spreading foul 

 brood. There have been two cases 

 where, in a mistake years ago, I sold 

 foul brood to other parties and then 

 made it right as I best knew how. I 

 am .afraid of foul brood. I never had 

 a serious attack of it, but I have occa- 

 sionally had cases, and from what I 

 know of it from my own experience, 

 and from what I have seen a great 

 deal more in others, I would say what 

 every bee-keeper and bee journal 

 wants to do is to make every person 

 thoroughly afraid of it. 



Dr. White has said that there are 

 cases where we cannot control the 

 causes, as it were. That is, if my 

 neighbor has foul brood the stronger 

 my bees the more likely I am to have 

 the disease. I have somewhere like 

 four hundred colonies, and I have said 

 time and again that if the disease 

 should break out to any extent in my 

 apiary I would simply throw up the 



job; it would cost me thousands of 

 dollars to cure that disease, and there- 

 fore I have very good reason to be 

 thoroughly afraid of it. With all due 

 respect to these gentlemen who have 

 spoken, and whom I agree with in 

 many things, I do not agree with the 

 sentiment of not being afraid of the 

 disease known as foul brood. 



Mr. McEvoy — On this question of 

 treating the disease, if you have got 

 a lot of nice white comb over diseased 

 colonies, and these have wire founda- 

 tion, they are very valuable, and you 

 do not want to destroy them if you 

 can help it. If you have been afraid 

 of foul brood, turn the cloth back and 

 let the bees clean those combs out 

 clean and dry, and they , will be per- 

 fectly safe, and the greater amount of 

 combs of that kind that can be saved 

 the greater quantity you will get; but 

 where an old comb has had a cell of 

 foul matter in it, it will stay there as 

 long as the comb lasts. 



Mr. Pressler — Does this apply to 

 both American and European foul 

 brood? 



Mr. McEvoy — Yes. 



The President — Perhaps we can 

 save some discussion by taking the 

 tiext paper and then taking up the 

 discussion of this whole matter. The 

 next paper is "Getting Rid of Foul 

 Brood with the Least Financial Loss," 

 by the Hon. R. L. Taylor of Lapeer, 

 Mich., Inspector of Apiaries for Mich- 

 igan. 



Mr. Taylor — The subject has been 

 talked about so much that I had got 

 rather tired of it and I presumed most 

 of you had. My topic is how to get 

 rid of foul brood with the least finan- 

 cial loss. I think the first thing 

 everybody ought to attend to, who has 

 foul brood or fears he may have it, is 

 to get thoroughly acquainted with it 

 and with the description of it. I have 

 been surprised at men coming to me 

 and wanting to know about something 

 that had happened in the combs of 

 their bees. Some had dead brood and 

 wanted to know whether it was foul 

 brood or not. They had read all about 

 foul brood, the descriptions of it, but 

 they couldn't t;ell whether the dead 

 brood was afflicted with the disease 

 or not. The descriptions are plain 

 enough. There are 1,000 of them, and 

 they are every one plain enough so 

 that anybody with any intelligence 

 can understand when they see a case 

 of foul brood. The trouble is that bee- 



