August, ’20] 
CRANDALL: BEE CULTURE DEMONSTRATIONS 
359 
Comparatively few beekeepers in the United States are conversant 
with the advance work being done for them by the research specialists 
at Washington and elsewhere. This information must be carried to 
the great majority of the beekeepers, and its value demonstrated, or 
they will never know that anything is being done for them. This kind 
of work has especial value to the commercial honey producer, and this 
is often the only kind of service which the extension worker can give 
such men. 
Most commercial honey producers are alive to the best interests of 
their business in respect to increased production. They are ready to 
adopt improved methods of apiary management when they can be 
shown that such improvements are to their advantage. They have 
considerable money invested in equipment, and it is often expensive to 
make the necessary changes incident to the adoption of better equip¬ 
ment or to any radical departure in the apiary management. It is 
necessary, therefore, that the extension worker should be careful not to 
try to introduce new methods or new equipment until they have been 
thoroughly tried out and proven to be practical. 
Swarming and its control are always interesting subjects for bee¬ 
keepers everywhere. They are ready at all times to adopt new meth¬ 
ods which promise a solution of this old problem. Much valuable 
work can be done along this line by field demonstrations. 
One of the most, if not the most, important uses of the field demon¬ 
stration is in diagnosing brood diseases. No amount of printed mat¬ 
ter, even with good engravings, can make clear the difference between 
brood diseases. A good demonstrator can show his audience samples 
of each kind of disease and point out the peculiarities of each. For 
cases of these diseases where there are no complications, this method 
works very well, but in cases complicated by the presence of other 
organisms, only a microscopic examination will prove effective. The 
demonstrator of brood diseases should have a good microscope as his 
most important tool. At the same time the demonstrator can and 
should give the beekeepers an outline of the value of apiary inspec¬ 
tion work in the control of brood diseases. It would be well in most 
cases if the demonstrator would also point out the fact that the inspec¬ 
tor is the friend of the beekeeper, and that he is willing and anxious to 
help the beekeeper to clean up his diseased colonies and show him the 
best way of keeping clear of infection in the future. 
The demonstrator can also make it plain why inspection work must 
be thoroughly done to be of any value, and why the inspector must 
thoroughly disinfect himself and his tools before going to another 
apiary. This last point is one which should have more attention from 
the person having state inspection work in charge. 
