448 A Modern Bee-Farm 
nevertheless an absolute fact that they will not go under 
should they become affected, but will readily. respond to 
treatment, and during the active season will often throw off 
the malady without assistance. It should be realized that 
bees of this quality are more profitable, also carrying more 
populous colonies, notwithstanding any temporary trouble. 
No Rapid and Spontaneous Infection.— There is usually 
no such thing as wholesale or immediate successive infection 
of the colonies of an entire apiary with the I.0.W. disease 
as regards local conditions. Stocks may become infected 
one after the other, at more or less lengthened periods, by 
actual contact only (see page 158) through carelessness 
on the part of the owner, or because his neighbors may leave 
weak or worn out lots to be robbed. 
Where stocks appear to be affected one after the other in 
rapid succession, it is not a case of infection from neighbor- 
ing hives, but is only a proof that such stocks had already 
contracted the complaint from some source in common 
at a much earlier date. 
An Exception.—Where stocks are in very similar hives 
placed too close together, and working in the same line of 
flight, bees enter the hives indiscriminately, and thus affected 
workers may start the trouble as sometimes found to be the 
case at the moors. 
No Mysterious Infection.—If the owner of bees will 
only realize, and take comfort from the fact that the I1.O.W. 
disease is only spread by some form of actual contact 
(pages 157, 158), then he may keep his mind free from 
panic, and will see the folly of beginning to destroy good 
material, where he might otherwise have renewed vitality 
and greater profits. 
Salt versus Slugs.—Salt spread over the ground in front 
of affected (or other) hives, will effectually dispose of slugs, 
