AMERICAN FOUL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC 0OA8T. 59 



any treatment whatever. Mr, B. Dickens, one of the most intelligent 

 .nit I obsen ing apiarists, had marked a colony for treatment. Not being 

 able to attend to it for several weeks, he was surprised when he did 

 open it to find every trace of the disease gone. I had the -nine expe 

 rience this season. The most amazing case of this character, however, 

 was 1 1 u i experience of Mr. \Y. J. Oates (now my business partner) in 

 L903. He purchased an apiary of 30 colonies, nearly every colony 

 being badly affected with fou] brood. The former owner. Mr. J. II. 

 McGee, desired to get rid of the colonies, not caring to go to the 

 trouble of shaking them. Mr. Oates (rented the whole apiary by 

 the shaking treatment. A.-- soon as there was sealed brood in the 

 hives, it was seen that disease had developed in about three-fourths 

 of them. I examined these colonies myself, and if they did not 

 have the disease after the shaking, then I never saw a case of Amer- 

 ican foid brood. Mr. Oates did nothing more to them. and. becoming 

 disgusted with the proposition, he sold out to Mr. F. S. Moon-head 

 and went to Nevada. The year L904 was a poor season here, and 

 honey was extracted from these hives once, I think. Nothing was 

 done for the disease. In L905 I inspected these bees, expecting to 

 find them reeking with disease, but to my surprise I could not find 

 a single case of foul brood; it had completely disappeared. Mr. 

 Oates was surprised when informed of this, but he managed this 

 apiary that season on the shares, and no disease developed. I had 

 occasion to look through this apiary just Last week, and not one case 

 of disease exists there to-day. That is a case I can not understand, 

 unless it is that by the shaking the bees were relieved of all diseased 

 honey, and. being shaken in the fall, the queens ceased laying 

 entirely later, and the bees cleaned out all infection. Hut I am 

 unable to account for the wholesale reappearance of the disease, 

 nide— the treatment was carried out in a careless manner. I am 

 certain that the circumstances occurred just as related. The Simmins 

 plan is not a drug plan, and I intend to lot it next season, if I find 

 any American foul brood. 



Sometime- disease spreads quite rapidly ln'ic infecting one-half 

 or more of the colonic- in two seasons. Then I know of some apiaries 

 where a few cases have existed for years without any perceptible 

 increase. I know of one instance where an apiary was entirely 

 destroyed by the disease in one season. Whether our climatic con- 

 dition- have anything to do with the matter I do not know, but it 

 is a fact that foul brood as it exists here is of ;i ver\ erratic nature. 

 Furthermore, it is dangerous, and a relentless war should be waged 

 against it nut il it is exterminated. 



A paper entitled "The appointment of inspectors," by Fred A. 

 Parker, of California, was then read, in which the writer showed 



