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THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL BROOD INSPECTOR. 



Mr. McEvoy, Ontario's most efficient Inspector of 

 Apiaries, says it is easier to manage the bees than it is their 

 owners, and I certainly agree with him. It is all right for an 

 inspector to understand foul brood, to be able to recognize it, 

 know how to treat it. and all that, but unless he possesses 

 tact, and is a good student of human nature, he will labor in 

 vain. 



The greatest share of our inspector's troubles come from 

 ignorance on the part of bee-keepers. The man who is largely 

 interested in bees, who reads the journals and books, seldom 

 gives the inspector any trouble. The man who has a few 

 colonies, knows but little of bee-keeping, and cares less, who 

 simply hives swarms and "robs" the bees in the fall, whose 

 colonies, when they die, always perish because of the millers. 

 This is the man who causes the inspector no end of trouble. 

 I visited one such man four times before I succeeded in rid- 

 ding his apiary of disease. Possibly I might have accom- 

 plished the same result with a less number of visits by invok- 

 ing the assistance of the law, but this is a course I have never 

 yet found advisable to follow, although I may some time be 

 driven to this expedient. 



This man had once made considerable money out of his 

 bees, having as many as forty colonies at one time. They had 

 died out and dwindled away. His idea was they had smoth- 

 ered in the winter, or were destroyed by the millers. Four 

 colonies remained alive. One (a swarm that had that year 

 built its own combs) was free from disease; the other three 

 were "on their last legs" with foul brood. On my first visit 

 he was not at home, but I showed the foul brood to his wife. 

 On the evening of that day, after 8 o'clock, I drove 12 miles 

 to see him and talk with him. He had never heard of foul 

 brood, and didn't believe there was any such thing. Carefully 

 and thoroughly I went over the ground with him, several 

 times, read him the law, etc. He finally admitted that there 

 might be such a thing, but he knew that if it was of the nature 

 given it could never be eradicated. I told him that it was too 

 late in the season to treat diseased colonies ; besides, his were 

 too far gone for treatment; that they would die before 

 spring, and the honey that they left would be a source of con- 

 tagion to all of the bees in the neighborhood; that the only 

 thing to do was to destroy the bees and combs. I told him 

 I would be in that neighborhood in two weeks, when I 

 would call again. 



He was quite glum and stubborn about it — "was very 

 busy, and didn't think he would have time." I left him 

 some literature and went on. When I came again he was 

 very busy picking peaches and couldn't possibly stop. I of- 

 fered to do the work myself, but he wanted to be present 

 and help if it "had got to be done." 



Next time he had threshers and could not stop. I said 

 to him: "My friend, I have been patient with you, but I 

 can't keep coming here every two weeks. The next time I 



