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70 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



Dr. Miller — I didn't know there was one. 



Mr. Smith — I don't believe all foul brood will ever be 

 exterminated any more than smallpox. 



Dr. Miller — 1 would like to have a minute and a half of 

 private conversation with Mr. Wheeler. If you had no foul 

 brood in your own apiary, and there was a case that you 

 knew of within a half-mile of you, a man who had one 

 colony, and that colony was rotten with foul brood and you 

 knew it, would you, or wouldn't you, want to oblige that man 

 to burn up that colony or treat it in some way? Wouldn't 

 you want the chance to say that he must do that? You know 

 you would. I want to tell you that if it comes to that, yot 

 won't stop to ask how many have been helped by it. You 

 would say, I want that law right here now to help me. 



Mr. Wheeler — I couldn't answer that. It would take 

 too long. I rather think I would treat that with moderation. 



Dr. Miller — You would want to force them. 



Mr. Wheeler — You are not the man I took you for. I 

 have other reasons. 



Mr. Abbott — This is a matter in which I have been try- 

 ing to get certain facts before the public. I understand there 

 is a reporter taking this, so we want to be careful what we 

 say. There is no use of Dr. Miller talking to Mr. Wheeler, 

 and Mr. Wheeler talking to him. It is a fact that no man 

 can get around, that legislative committees are influenced by 

 facts, and not influenced solely by the facts that are presented 

 by the official. If the official, when he gets there and makes 

 his statement, cannot have it backed up by the individuals 

 who have been helped by these actions, that report of that 

 official will not be worth very much before the legislative 

 committee down in Missouri. What I was after was to get 

 such facts from the people who had been helped as would 

 make a tremendous leverage under the legislature of Missouri 

 so as, if possible, to boost them up and give us a law. What 

 we want is combined influence. Co-operation. How? If 

 these bee-keepers have been benefited in Illinois, and they 

 have been benefited in Wisconsin, and they have been bene- 

 fited somewhat in Michigan, is it not possible to use this 

 as an accumulative force to use in other States? That is 

 what Mr. Wheeler is trying to get at. I expect to be before 

 the Missouri legislature to talk on this subject, and I want 

 something to talk about. I don't want to have to say the 

 commissioners report so and so, but I want to be able to say 

 that the people who have the bees say so and so, and we are 

 interested. 



Pres. York — There are hardly enough here who have 

 been helped. In Illinois we haven't had the inspector long 

 enough. There are only a few bee-keepers here fro'm Wis- 

 consin, and only two or three from Michigan. 



Mr. Johnson — It seems to me as if the question to be 

 discussed is as to whether it would be important for us to 

 have this compulsory clause in this law. The law we have 

 is good for Illifiois. If I get foul brood among my bees I 

 can send for Mr. Smith, and he would come and rid me of 



