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NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



bees for pastime and for what 

 littlie I can learn, and for what I possi- 

 bly might be able to teach others. 

 Foul brood struck my apiary two 

 years ago, and I have had a stubborn 

 ifight with it. The man who thinks he 

 has got a walk over and can get rid 

 of it easily when foul brood gets into 

 his apiary is mistaken. I have read 

 everything upon the subject I could 

 find, and have been vigilant, and, as 

 Dr. Phillips has said, we know so lit- 

 tle about it that I have not got to the 

 bottom of that treatment by any 

 means. Legislation on this line is 

 imperfect. None of our laws are per- 

 fect. The law should give the In- 

 spector perfect and complete control, 

 and not have to undertake to bluff any- 

 body as I had to do in the County I 

 live in. I drew up the first Bill, and it 

 became a law, almost as drawn up, 

 in our State. It provides for a 

 County Inspector, arid I think our 

 County was one of the first to get an 

 inspector appointed. We had foul 

 brood there, and they wanted me to 

 take the position, and I told them I 

 didn't want to do it, I didn't feel 

 physically able. We had a man ap- 

 pointed. The first man we tackled 

 was a man handling bee supplies, and 

 he declared he had no foul brood on 

 his premises, and I knew he had. He 

 said, you have injured me very great- 

 ly, and if you don't stop' it I will 

 prosecute you. I invited him to com- 

 mence immediately, and I said, if you 

 don't I will commence on you. I said. 

 Here is the County Inspector, if you 

 will allow him to go into your apiary 

 he will show you you have got foul 

 brood. In establishing the law the 

 trouble was he didn't have authority to 

 go there without calling on the County 

 Sheriff or something of that kind. I 

 believe a State Inspector should be 

 clothed with authority similar to a 

 Sheriff. 



Now, as to the manner of diagnosing 

 this disease, Mr. France has in part 

 outlined it and given a pretty fair de- 

 scription. This thing of sticking a 

 tooth pick into a cell and drawing it 

 out tells something, but if there are 

 many: cells in a hive you will get an 

 odor ;Vou will never forget; compared 

 to the glue-pot scent it will beat that 

 all hollow. In my case there were 

 seven out of every ten cells in the 

 hive that were infected, and it was a 

 terrible odor that struck my nostrils. 



I say that after having been a medical 

 student and having gone through the 

 dissecting rooms and done a gofed 

 many things that were not as easy to 

 do as they might have been; and it 

 took about three days before I -could 

 eat a square meal after it. Then was 

 when I said I would not have it in 

 my little apiary for $500; but a young 

 man named Frank, who never had 

 seen a case of foul bfood, took some 

 shares in that self same firm that 

 kept a few bee supplies and sold col- 

 onies all over that country, and spread 

 it all through his own apiary and mine. 

 This thing of treating foul brood in 

 the apiary where you find it I don't 

 believe to be practical, or at least it 

 is not as successful as if you took and 

 closed the hive at night and took it off 

 a mile or two and treated it. I treat- 

 ed one colony. Here were two col- 

 onies, and there were about six feet 

 between the colonies on either side. 

 I determined not to excite that col- 

 ony, and I set them to filling them- 

 selves with honey. I opened the hive 

 as quietly as possible, and slid it down 

 off its own stand, after having pre- 

 pared a hive with strips of foundation; 

 I just took the top bar off some 

 frames and fastened some strips on an 

 inch wide. I made a brush of catnip, 

 and with that I brushed the bees off, 

 having a board there for them to run 

 up on. I didn't want them to go to 

 the other hives. If the disease was 

 in the honey I knew the more honey 

 they had the more they would carry 

 with them. I brushed them off the 

 combs as quickly as possible and put 

 every comb of brood beyond the possi- 

 ble reach the bees, and took the 

 hive off also. I closed the hive off in 

 48 hours, I took those strips of founda- 

 tion away and gave them full sheets 

 of comb, and went to feeding them a 

 syrup composed of two parts of sugar 

 and one of water. I fed them that 

 way for probably two weeks. Just 

 then the honey was not coming in 

 rapidly. In about three weeks I ex- 

 amined the hive on the left to see 

 whether any of the bees had crawled 

 from that hive into any of the hives 

 on either side. I knew those hives 

 were free from it w^hen I treated this 

 one, but here I found it showing up 

 in that locality. There is danger now 

 of treating it in your apiary. I would 

 advise every man if possible to close 

 up his colony at night and take it. 



