ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



39 



dollars of an appropriation. Our Leg- 

 islature said to us: "It is a good 

 graft, to appoint a man to look for 

 bugs; we talked to the Governor, and 

 he would not approve the Bill. He 

 said: 'Why should we palm this ofE 

 on the people?' " 



The only objection that the county 

 commissioner urged against, after they 

 really understood it, was, that the 

 bees are not taxable in the State of 

 Kansas. They are, if you instruct your 

 assessor to assess them. It is not so 

 with us, but it is with you. "I am 

 willing .that we should have our bees 

 taxed," I said to him, "if you will only 

 protect us, and not allow the disease 

 to run rampant all over the country 

 and destroy them." A commissioner 

 of the law might be a good thing to 

 start on, if you can't get something 

 better. 



If you can get $2,000 appropriation, 

 and have deputies appointed to go 

 over the State, that probably would be 

 the most effectual. Competency is the 

 thing you want to look after — you 

 want to have a competent man. 



President Kildow — It seems to me 

 that we might have a report, or sug- 

 gestions from any one else who iias 

 anything to offer. 



Mr. Moore — I found, in doing in- 

 spection work among bee-keepers, that 

 some of the big bee-keepers are not 

 altogether in favor of a compulsory 

 law, because the small fellows — the 

 farmers that have a few colonies of 

 bees infected with foul brood — say: 

 "We can keep ours under control." 

 And the large bee-keepers say: "Let 

 them go; by a year or so, when they 

 are wiped out, and we all have a bet- 

 ter market for our honey." 



A Whiteside county man has 450 

 'colonies of bees; all around him is 

 foul brood; ihe has a little, but keeps 

 it under control. There have been, 

 dTiring the last two or three or four 

 years — ^I expect there have been sev- 

 eral hundred colonies of bees in that 

 county that have died from foul ferood. 

 He says: "I don't care whether they 

 clean it up or not; it will only be a 

 short time -when those small fello'^s 

 will be wiped out; then they won't 

 have any bees left." 



I think, as Dr. Bohrer says, if we go 

 before the Legislature and have a 

 Committee on Laws instead of an Ap- 



propriation Committee, and, by per- 

 sonal work with our Representatives 

 and Senators, we will accomplish 

 something. 



The great majority of those men 

 know nothing about the bee-business, 

 the honey-business, or foul brood. If 

 we go to them personally, the men we 

 are acquainted with, and explain this 

 matter to them, show them the amount 

 of money invested in bees and bee- 

 appliances in the State of Illinois; tell 

 them of the honey crop; the yalue of 

 it, compared with other lines of farm 

 produce, they will recognize the im- 

 portance of such an industry and the 

 necessity of giving us the protection 

 we ask, and what we should have. I 

 think, if we keep hammering along 

 this line, we will get it. If we can 

 bring some pressure to bear on these 

 fellows that are opposed to it, and get 

 tiiem to change their minds, we can 

 swing them our way. 



In regard to the foul brood that Dr. 

 Miller has: It seems to me that is 

 ■more dangerous, if anything, than 

 American foul tbrood. The bees clean 

 that dead brood out of the cells; carry 

 it outside, and the winds scatter it all 

 through the apiary. If the bees can 

 remove it and carry it out — it is bound 

 to stick on their feet — they carr>- it to 

 the flowers or drinking place, and an- 

 other bee comes along and gets it. It 

 ought to take .more radical means of 

 treatment than American foul brood; 

 it seems to me there is more danger 

 oif infection than that of the American 

 foul brood. 



Mr. York — ^I understand there have 

 been others in this State who have 

 been deputy foul brood inspectors; we 

 might hear from all of them. 



Mr. Stone — ^I want to say one word 

 In recommending — or whatever you 

 want to call it — Dr. Bohrer's address. 

 When we go before the Legislature, 

 and take a copy of this report (we will 

 have it in print), and ask each of the 

 Representatives to read it. That ad- 

 dress of Dr. Bohrer's before this con- 

 vention, I believe, will weigh more 

 than anything we have ever put be- 

 fore them. I think that is a fine talk 

 for this occasion. 



Dr. Bohrer — Let me make this sug- 

 gestion: If you do that, summarize it; 

 get it condensed; get the points, and 

 show the amount of sales — you can, 

 from statistics — amount of capital 



