232 DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES 
equipped hive is worthless, as it will cost more to transfer the 
bees, as a rule, than a diseased colony is worth. 
The man who is fully informed concerning up-to-date 
methods of bee-keeping will be able to handle disease in his 
own apiary if he can be protected from further infection. The 
problem then becomes one of making every man who keeps bees 
an up-to-date bee-man. In localities where disease gets well 
established it will be impossible to eradicate it entirely until 
every bee-keeper becomes expert. Disease has the effect of 
making expert bee-keepers anyway, for those who do not become 
proficient are likely to lose all their bees within a short time. 
The bee inspector is usually regarded as the official repre- 
sentative of the industry and should be able to represent it 
creditably under any circumstances. It is not enough to be 
informed concerning detection and treatment of disease, but 
he must be able to deal with problems relating to any branch 
of bee-keeping. Bee-keepers whom he visits will give him their 
hardest problems to solve and people in other walks of life will 
turn to him with any question relating to the business. He will 
be called upon to give expert testimony in case of litigation in- 
volving bee-keepers and to settle various disputes between per- 
sons where the rights of one or the other are in question. 
Opportunity.—The various State agricultural colleges are 
rapidly taking up bee culture, and it bids fair to take its legiti- 
mate place in the college curriculum. Within a few years the 
inspection work, instead of being under direction of a separate 
State department, as now in many States, will be organized in 
connection with extension work in bee-keeping. As the business 
of bee-keeping is taking on new life the demand for properly 
equipped men will probably exceed the supply for several years 
tocome. That this condition has not developed sooner is because 
the bee-keepers have been slow to recognize the great advantage 
that would come to the industry as a result and to demand the 
same recognition given other lines of agricultural activity. A 
few who have not caught the spirit of the times are loud in their 
