TREATMENT FOB BEE DISEASES. 71 



shaking bees being a very expensive operation, but you do not need 

 ;in\ brood during the honey How. and the time makes n great 

 difference. 



Mr. York. There is one thing to be taken Into consideration. Bee 

 are worth less per colony in Texas and California than in the Bast. 

 When you talk to ;> man here about burning 30 colonic-, it does not 

 take all his bees. 



Dr. Phillips. I do not know about Texas, but 1 do know that 

 farther west an eradication of 50 colonies to many of the bee keepers 

 of tic West is not a serious proposition. The western bee keeper's 

 normal increase is more than his loss, so it is uot like the loss to a 

 small bee keeper. 



Mr. A.TCHLEY. In Texas we hardly ever find an apiary in which 

 every colony has the disease; therefore, when we burn the affected 

 colonic- we have enough left to rebuild the apiary. 



Mr. Rankin. In considering this matter of bee disease and lice 

 inspection one sometimes wonders if the ideal inspector exists. Ii 

 would seem that bee inspectors are horn, not made. The fact that a 

 man know- bee disease and its treatment does not indicate that he is 

 necessarily a good inspector. The most successful inspectors of 

 whom I know are men who not only know bee disease thoroughly, 

 lait also have the ability to handle the bee keeper whose bees they 

 are inspecting. The successful bee inspector, then, must first of all 

 be able to diagnose the disease and know it under all it- varying 

 conditions. Next, he must know it> treatment and management 

 under every condition which may arise: he must know every con- 

 dition on which the success of the treatment depend-. Then, la-t. 

 but al-o of vital importance, he must be able to use tact in the hand- 

 ling of the men whom he i> appointed to help. He must know from 

 the appearance of a man and from the first word- exchanged just how 

 to proceed with that particular individual to secure the best results. 



Let me add a word in defense of the inspectors. 1 know 14 of 

 those in California personally, and among them are some very ex- 

 ceptional men. They are not all equally successful, although I believe 

 they all know bee diseases thoroughly, but among the entire number 

 I do not know a single man who i- serving as bee inspector merely 

 for the money he receives for the work'. Let us give credit to whom 

 credit i- due. These men are doing good work, and it i- through 

 these men that the bee keepers must look for the suppression of bee 

 diseases under the present system. Give them your support and en- 

 couragement, but uever under any consideration criticize them in 

 public in a way which would interfere with the work on bee disease. 

 The law- provide for the removal of an incompetent man. and if a 

 man i- not competent to serve a- an inspector let him be removed and 



