198 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



prohibiting this thing of keeping dis- 

 eased bees in any parts of the terri- 

 tories would be a good thing, and I 

 don't know but this Body might be 

 able to select a Legislative Commit- 

 tee that would be able to do some- 

 thing. But, whether they can or not, 

 I believe it would be a good policy to 

 have every State in the Union try to 

 have a Legislative Committee, and 

 try to get every bee-keeper to consider 

 himself a committee of one, and con- 

 sider it his duty to see his representa- 

 tive both in the House and Senate, 

 and let that Legislative Committee 

 agree as to what is important and al- 

 most indispensable in every State. By 

 that means they will find out what 

 you want. Having been a member 

 twice of our State Legislature, I have 

 learned something about the commod- 

 ity of legislative bodies; if they know 

 what you want and it is at all within 

 reason, you are likely to get it. The 

 matter of bee-keeping is less under- 

 stood than any other by our Legisla- 

 tors. In Illinois they are having trou- 

 ble, I don't know why or how it is; 

 I know they have got one man there, 

 a very contrary kind of man. I don't 

 know what kind of halter you want 

 to break him or handle him; but in 

 Illinois you have got a lot of bee- 

 keepers there, and you want to have 

 a good, strong law. They are mov- 

 ing out of that State into other States 

 where they don't know it, and they 

 will take bees with them that nave 

 the disease. There is a pretty heavy 

 penalty for taking the disease into the 

 State of Kansas, but, innocently, not 

 knowing what they are doing, it may 

 be done. We are all alike interested 

 in it, and want an effective law in 

 every State. Let us So to work and 

 labor for it. 



Mr. Brown — There is a question I 

 wanted to ask Dr. Phillips. Will nap- 

 thole beta kill the disease; and where 

 it is fed to the bees at their watering 

 place, a small amount put in the water, 

 would it in any way control the spread 

 of the disease? 



Dr. Phillips — Personally, as far as 

 we have gone in the matter of feeding 

 antiseptics, I am not inclined to at- 

 tribute any value whatever to any of 

 those things. Napthole beta, salicylic 

 acid, carbolic acid, and all those things 

 as I mentioned in my paper, have been 

 recommended as antiseptics; but not 

 only has the experience of American 



bee-keepers ihown the absolute use- 

 lessness offthose things, but a more 

 thorough and scientific investigation 

 would indicate largely the same thing, 

 that there is practically nothing to be 

 hoped for in that way. 



Mr. Ramer — I believe Dr. Phillips 

 made the statement that we knew the 

 origin of American foul brood, but 

 he didn't define; I have a little curi- 

 osity to know how lit originates. 



Dr. Phillips — American foul brood 

 is caused by a bacillus, bacillus larvae; 

 the way that has been demonstrated 

 is that the scale of American foul 

 brood contains millions of spores. 

 These spores have been taken and 

 grown in pure cultures and leu oack 

 to the bees, and the disease has been 

 produced in that way, so that by the 

 organisms fed to it and in this dis- 

 eased material we again find the same 

 organism. That is the course followed 

 in determining the cause of American 

 foul brood. That sounds, perhaps, 

 easy enough, but it took Dr. ■ White 

 years to get anything on which this 

 bacillus larvae would grow, and it was 

 a long, tedious line of operation. We 

 now know the organism that causes 

 it, because we can produce it any time 

 we care to artificially, by feeding these 

 cultures. He is still at it, to try to 

 find out what will kill it, and we an- 

 nounced some of these results at the 

 Detroit meeting. The spores of this 

 bacillus are very tenacious; a five per 

 cent carbolic solution will not kill 

 them for weeks, and it takes at least 

 fifteen minutes of boiling to kill them. 

 In various other ways, it is a very 

 tenacious organism, and there is still 

 a very great deal to learn. In regard 

 to European foul brood, the cause has 

 never been determined. We find a 

 number of organisms present in this 

 disease, and have good reason to think 

 that one of them is the cause of it, 

 but which one is the cause has never 

 yet been determined. 



Dr. Bohrer — What disposition do you 

 find people making of the honey they 

 extract from foul brood? 



Dr. Phillips — They are putting it on 

 the American market. I think it is 

 safe to say 99 per cent are putting 

 their honey on the market regardless 

 of the law and public sentiment in the 

 matter. I haVe seen it time and time 

 again, where a man would have a 

 goodly number of diseased colonies in 

 his yard, and he would go and extract 

 everything and put it all into cans, and 



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