Page 26                  WISCONSIN BEEKEEPING                       Anril.
19~2 
 
 
tbe'bees being able to bring in but little 
nectar consequently were very cross 
and at times difficult to handle with- 
out having robbing set in. 
    One thing was certain, based on our 
 experience in 19 18, and that was that 
 a year such as 1931, no treatment 
 could have been employed without do- 
 ing untold damage to other colonies in 
 the immediate neighborhood even if 
 a satisfactory method of treatment were 
 known.    At this point we wish to 
 warn our beekeepers not to be misled 
 by information being broa'dcast by'one 
 of our tneighboring states which has, 
 been copied by some of our bee jour- 
 nals supposing that the method had 
 some application in the field.  In the 
 first place those who broadcast this 
 information  do not claim    that the 
 method to be 100 per cent effective, 
 but as carried out in the laboratory 
 where the chlorine gas concentration 
 could be carefully checked and other 
 factors responsible for its success or 
 failure controlled, it gave the experi- 
 mentors promising results.   While it 
 might be practical to employ a huge 
 wooden tank that could not be moved 
 on a ton truck for a couple of hives, 
 no. commercial beekeeper would think 
 of putting in elaborate costly equip- 
 ment to disinfect hives at the rate 
 of two at a time taking from 48 to 
 72 hours. We have had experience 
 in handling chlorine gas in medical 
 work in army hospitals and we would 
 not recommend its use to anyone who 
 is- not a chemi'st, or has not had ex- 
 tensive experience in handling it under 
 the direction of a chemist. 
   It is very easy to get into the lime- 
light by claiming a cure for American 
foulbrood these days, but until we 
find something workable let's not print 
it. The cost of such a treatment would 
be as much as new equipment would 
cost at the present time and why keep 
a little infection around in   a yard 
when we know burning is effective. 
   We are asked time and time again, 
 
 
whether in our opinion it will be pos- 
sible to eradicate completely American 
  foulbrood and whether anything has 
  ever been  entirely  eradicated.  My 
  answer is yes. I do believe it is pos- 
  sible but I do not think it is probable 
  that American   foulbrood   will ever 
  be entirely eradicated from the State 
  of Wisconsin, at least for many years. 
  We are reminded that this same ques- 
  tion was raised when the cattle tick 
  made cattle raising impossible in the 
  south, and we find that -the eradica- 
  tion of this pest Was undertaken on 
an area clean-up basis- in 1906 and 
that now more than 750, or the orig, 
inal 785 counties known to be in- 
fested' have been released from quar- 
antine and ýthat 653 of these counties 
are entirely free from  the tick.  The 
Mediterranean fruit fly and the citrous 
canker are other illustrations of what 
can be accomplished when sufficient 
force is placed behind a clean-up. 
    Here in Wisconsin we have been 
 trying to impress our beekeepers and 
 county boards, who are securing ap- 
 propriations for area clean-up work, 
 that we can only hope with' present 
 expenditures of funds to keep Ameri- 
 can foulbrood sufficiently under con- 
 trol to make the production of honey 
 possible and profitable. To do more 
 would require many times as large an 
 appropriation now being expended in, 
 any of our counties. To follow up 
 the methods used successfully in erad- 
 ication work, would require the in- 
 spection of every colony of bees in 
 the county every year over a period 
 of several years and a thorough search 
 of every property in the area for old 
 equipment long forgotten    or equip- 
 ment that is being stored or used for 
 purposes other than for keeping bees, 
 which the owners do not realize is a 
 source of infection. Many people do 
 not understand that the spore stage 
 of the bacillus causing American foul- 
 brood may remain dormant over a 
 period of many years only to become 
 
 
Page 26 
 
 
WISCONSIN BEEKEEPING 
 
 
April. 1932