■rj'.-^-.-" ;:•;:< ^trW^-^'^^-pr-,'-'-^''-^-'' ''^.■y}m'ff';^^^^^fW^- 



34 



NINTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



— but a very few, I think, that know 

 anything at all worthy of mention 

 concerning the disease of be«si and 

 their management — that foul brood is 

 not curable. I am satisfied that it is 

 a mistake. You, here in the State of 

 Illinois, your legislation is not perfect 

 — it is very miuch at fault, like our own 

 in Kansas. We have a law there, but 

 not by any means a perfect one. We 

 have been trying for a number of years 

 to get a bill that will cover the ground, 

 and I ^believe we are a little better 

 fixed than you are. The law is not 

 operative in some counties, while it 

 is effectual in others. It requires a 

 commissioner to be appointed in any 

 county, upon the petition of twenty- 

 five bee-keepers. We have a good 

 many counties that have not twenty- 

 five bee-keepers in it, and the law is 

 not operative there; they can't get a 

 commissioner. Last winter I tried to 

 get the law changed, so as to give the 

 nearest county inspector the right to 

 inspect in counties where they only 

 had, say, ten bee-keepers; not as many 

 as twenty-five. It passed the House, 

 ibut persons who are familiar with a 

 good deal of this legerdemain that is 

 practiced in this matter of legislation, 

 kmow that some times Bills are lost 

 through very trifling occurrences. The 

 Bill passed the House and went to the 

 Senate, and would have passed there, 

 but Senators arid members of the 

 House all have their pet measures. 

 For instance: I would say to Mr. 

 York, "I am a bee-keeper. I have a 

 Foul Brood Bill I am interested in. I 

 want it to go through." But, for some 

 cause, I can't see my way clear to sup- 

 port his measures, and for that reason 

 he gets my Bill killed. That is the 

 way our Bill was killed. I have heard 

 a gentleman named today (I under- 

 stand he is an honest man) of Chicago, 

 who takes the stand that foul brood 

 is not curable. In order to prove to 

 him that it is, we have got to demon- 

 strate the matter in some way or 

 other. 



What does foul brood consist of? 

 Primarily it seems to be a germ, and 

 I have no right to question this. Both 

 Dr. White and Dr. Phillips have testi- 

 fied to that fact so emphatically as to 

 ■make it almost beyond question — 

 that it is a germ disease, and, if we 

 can destroy that germ, that must be 

 an end of it. 



Now, as to the remote or primary 

 cause of what ushers that germ into 

 existence, we know nothing. Dr. 

 White and Dr. Phillips have said that 

 publicly, before our conventions, and 

 I am satisfied it is a fact;- but it is 

 the primary, exciting cause we have 

 to deal with, and for that purpose we 

 want legislation to keep it out of our 

 apiariesi. 



We have three different methods of 

 treatment. The first that ever I heard 

 was by Mr. Rood, of Michigan, in In- 

 dianapolis, in 1871. Foul (brood got into 

 his apiary, and the bee-keepers 

 wanted to know his experience, how 

 to diagnose the disease. He gave it 

 so clearly that the first case I saw, 

 two or three years ago, I knew the 

 very moment I got scent of it. If you 

 ever once get scent of it, you will 

 never forget it. And the method of 

 treatment tliat he recommended was 

 something like this: 



He said he had tried a good many 

 different plans; he gave one he re- 

 garded as effectual. He says: "I 

 would advise that you dig a hole in 

 the ground; put hay or straw in it; 

 sprinkle coal oil all over the hay or 

 straw, and in the dead of the night, 

 close up the hive and set it carefully 

 over that straw; then put more straw 

 on top of it, and more coal oil on, and 

 set fire to it." 



I understand that one large Illinois 

 bee-keeper took the position that cer- 

 tain men who were furnishing bee- 

 supplies throughout the Country 

 wanted to get a foul brood law passed, 

 in order to get bee-keepers to destroy 

 their property, that they might sell 

 them miore. They may get some leg- 

 islators to believe that, and no doubt 

 have, but when you come to analyze 

 it, and look into the depths of it, there - 

 is nothing to it. The like has never 

 been known, and it becomes the duty 

 of your Legislative Committee, and 

 every bee-keeper in the State, to say 

 to his Senator that such a thing never 

 was known, not since we got out of 

 the stage that Mr. Rood, of Michigan, 

 spoke of; they don't do that; that is 

 folly. He made that up out of whole 

 cloth; he manufactured such a story 

 as that. 



W^e, then, will take it for granted 

 that that is not true, and you want to 

 show that up before your Legislative 

 Assembly; and if I lived here in the 





