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28 



NINTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



Committee on Appropriations, until 

 nearly the close of the Legislature, 

 and they all were anxious and wanted 

 to get home. I came up here several 

 times and saw Mr. Hay about it, and 

 he said: "We will let you know 

 whenever it passes," and >«j finally it 

 passed, and Mr. Stone and 1 came up 

 here and we went before the Com- 

 mittee on Appropriations. Both Bills 

 — the Appropriation Bill and the Foul 

 Brood Bill — were given to this Com- 

 mittee on Appropriations, when it 

 should have been given to the Com- 

 mittee on Legislation, and the Chair- 

 man of that committee, as anybody 

 could see, was opposed to it. He came 

 right out, the first time we came up 

 here, and just told us: "We will pass 

 j'our Bill on Appropriation all right — 

 you can go home; and the other you 

 won't get." But when we went up 

 again, he finally gave us a few minutes, 

 and we had not talked more than five 

 minutes, until he called us down and 

 he did not even give us the courtesy 

 enough to vote on the Bill. 



We had a great many friends in that 

 committee, we had at least eight or ten 

 friends for the Foul Brood Bill there, 

 but you know, in a legislative body, if 

 the chairman is against you, you might 

 just as well stick your papers in the 

 pigeon-hole, then and there; that is 

 tftie end of it. We wanted to go 

 home, and I told Mr. Stone "they are 

 not going to bring up that Bill at all." 

 Mr. iStone said, "I will see that they 

 will." He went to some party, and 

 he finally brought it up, and they took 

 a vote on it. He told us in the first 

 place the Appropriation Bill would be 

 passed. A petition was drawn up by 

 some parties opposed to the Foul 

 Brood Bill. He did not want it to pass. 

 There is this much about it — we went 

 away from that committee, at least I 

 did, disgusted. I did not care to go 

 back there any more, and I said then 

 that until the bee-keepers wanted the 

 Foul Brood Bill, that there was no use 

 in agitating the question any more. 



We surely want a Foul Brood Law. 

 There is more foul brood in the State 

 of Illinois now than there has been in 

 years, and probably, by next year, 

 there will be a great deal more. There 

 will always be some men opposed to 

 it, always. There is no measure that 

 you can bring up but what has its 

 enemies, who will be opposed to it. I 

 think we will just have to keep con- 

 tinually agitating this question and 



bring it up from time to time, and 

 probably we can learn something, by 

 the experience we have passed through, 

 and we will finally succeed in having a 

 Bill passed. We must have it, after 

 all the work that is being done, and 

 that we have done, in trying to stamp 

 out Foul Brood. So far it has not 

 amounted to anything. It helps a few 

 individuals, but their neighbors let 

 things go, and they have it right back 

 again. They tell you, "what is the 

 use of me cleaning up? This man, 

 and that man's bees have it, and mine 

 will have it again, anyhow; I might 

 just as well let them go." 



I think next time we would better 

 not bring this matter before the Com- 

 mittee on Appropriations, but before 

 some other committee. We will prob- 

 ably have better success next time, if 

 we work hard and in earnest before 

 hand; the old saying is: "If you don't 

 at first succeed, try, try again," and 

 may be, if we do this, we will finally 

 succeed. 



Mr. York — I don't know whether this 

 is the place to discuss Foul Brood 

 legislation — perhaps not — but I think 

 it might be well for us to know the 

 names of those who signed that peti- 

 tion. We might be able to tell the 

 next Legislative Committee who they 

 are. I imagine there are some on that 

 petition who do not have more than 

 one or two colonies of bees, and if we 

 just know who they are, we will be 

 able to tell the committee next time — 

 and we can get one hundred names of 

 large bee-keepers who are interested 

 in the business; let the legislature 

 know who they are — who are opposed 

 to it, and who not. 



Mr. Stone — I could name two or 

 three — the ones that I remember, but I 

 would hate to do it, because those men 

 have a little ground for feeling hard, 

 and I will tell you why. I never told 

 it before at a Bee-Keepers' conven- 

 tion; I think I told Mr. Smith, and 

 perhaps Mr. York. 



In the outset of our foul brood busi- 

 ness, the foul brood inspector appoint- 

 ed^on one occasion sent an assistant 

 inspector, and this inspector came to 

 the house of a certain man (who told 

 me of this incident) from an apiary 

 where he had heen handling foul brood. 

 He said it was about 11 a. m., and he 

 was very certain that that inspector 

 had not washed his hands, coming 

 direct to him from where he had been 

 handling foul brood. He was de- 



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