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IIHiVERSITf OnUltDlS UfiRAHy

Fifteenth Annual REPoiAf'^ -^^ ^^^^

OF THE-

ILLINOIS

State Bee-Keepers' Association

e^^ «5^ w^

Organized February 26, 1891, at
Springfield, Illinois

t^* t5^ t^^

COMPII,ED By

JAMES A. STONE, Secretary,
R. R. 4, Springfield, 111,

f^' 9^^ 9£r^

Springfield, III.:

Illinois State Register Print

1916

Letter of Transmittal

Office of the Secretary,
R, R. 4, Springfiei,d, Ii,l., March 1, 1916.

7o His Excellency Edward F. Dunne, Governor of the State
of Illinois :

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the Fifteenth
Annual Report of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association.

Respectfully submitted,

James A. Stone, 5«?£^r^^arj/.

z*^ -^ 1 1 ^ R

FATHER LANGSTROTH,
Inventor of the Movable Frame Hive.

OFFICERS

—OF THE—

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association

FOR 1916

EMIL J. BAXTER, - - - President

Nsuvoo, III.

A. L. KILDOW, - - - - Putnam

State Foul Brood Inspector.

Vice-Presidents.

1st— AARON COPPIN, - - - - - ... - Wenona

2d— DR. A. C. BAXTER, - ... - - . Springfield

3d— A. L. KILDOW, -.-.-.... Putnam
4th— J. W. BOWEN, - - - .... . . Jacksonville

5th— KENNITH HAWKINS, Plainfield

JAMES A. STONE, Secretary

CHAS. BECKER, ' - Treasurer

Pleasant Plains.

List of members will appear in back of Report. Also Statistical Report.

-k-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

Formation of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association.

Springfield. 111., Feb. 26, 1891.

The Capitol Bee-Keepers' Associa-
tion was called to order by President
P. J. England.

Previous notice 'having been given
that an effort would be made to form
a State Association, and there being
present bee-keepers from different
parts of the State, by motion, a recess
was taken in order to form such an
Association.

P. J. England was chosen temporary
chairman and C. E. Yocum temporary
secretary. On motion, the Chair ap-
pointed Thos. G. Newman, C. P. Da-
dant and Hon. J. M. Hambaugh a com-
mittee on .constitution.

Col. Chas. F. Mills addressed the
meeting on the needs of a State As-
sociation, and stated that It was his
opinion that the bee-keepers should
have a liberal appropriation for a State
Apiarian Exhibit at the World's Col-
umbian Exposition.

A motion to adjourn till 1:30 p. m.
prevailed.

AFTERiN'dON SESSION.

The Committee on Constitution re-
ported a form for same, which, on
motion, was read by the Secretary, by
sections serially.

Geo. F. Robbins moved to substitute
the word "shall" for "may" in the last
clause of Section 1, Article III. This
led to a very animated discussion, and
the motion was lost.

J. A. Stone moved to amend the
above-named section "by striking out
the word "ladies" and all that followed
of the same section, which motion led
to further discussion, and motion
finally prevailed.

Section 2, Article II., relating to a
quorum, was, on motion, entirely
stricken out.

Mr. Robbins moved to amend Article
V. by adding the words "Thirty days'
notice having been given to each mem-
ber." Prevailed.

Thos. G. Newman moved to adopt
the Constitution, so amended, as a
whole. Which motion prevailed.

See Constitution.

J. A. Stone moved that the Chair
appoint a nominating committee of
three on permanent organization. Pre-
vailed.

Chair appointed as such committee.
Col. Ohas. F. Mills, Hon. J. M. Ham-
baugh, and C. P. Dadant.

Committee retired and in a few min-
utes returned, submitting the follow-
ing named persons as candidates for
their respective offices:

For President — P. J. England, Fancy
Prairie.

For Vice Presidents — Mrs. L. Harri-
son, Peoria; C. P. Dadant, Hamilton;
W. T. F. Petty, Pittsfield; Hon. J. M.
Hambaugh, Spring; Dr. C. C. Miller,
Marengo.

Secretary — Jas. A. Stone, Bradford-
ton.

Treasurer — A. N. Draper, Upper Al-
ton.

Mr. Black moved the adoption of the
report of the committee on nomina-
tions. The motion prevailed, and the
officers as named by the committee
were declared elected for the ensuing
year.

Hon. J. M. Hambaugh moved that
Mr. Thos. G. Newman, editor Ameri-
can Bee Journal, of Chicago, be made
the first honorary member of the As-
sociation. Prevailed.

At this point Col. Chas. F. Mills
said: "Mr. Chairman, I want to be the
first one to pay my dollar for member-
ship," at the same time suiting his
action to his words, and others fol-
lowed his example, as follows:

CHARTER MEMBERS.

Col. Chas. F. Mills, Springfield.

Hon. J. M. Hambaugh, Spring. ■

Hon. J. S. Lyman, Farmingdale.

C. P. Dadant, Hamilton.

Chas. Dadant. Hamilton.

A. N. Draper. Upper Alton.

S. N. Black, Clayton.

Aaron Coppin, Wenona.

Geo. F. Robbins, Mechanicsburg. ;

J. W. Yocum, Williamsville.

Thos. S. Wallace, Clayton.

A. J. England, Fancy Prairie.

P. J. England, Fancy Prairie.

C. E. Yocom, Sherman.

Jas. A. Stone, Bradfordton.

FIRST HONORARY MEMBER.

Thos. G. Newman, editor American
Bee Journal, Chicago.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

State of Illinois— Department of State

ISAAC N. PEARSON, Secretary of State.

lo all to whom these Presents shall come — Greeting:

Whereas, A certificate duly signed
and acknowledged having been filed in
the office of the Secretary of State on
the 27th day of February, A. D. 1891,
for the organization of the Illinois State
Bee-keepers' Association, under and in
accordance with the provisions of "An
Act Concerning Corporations," ap-
proved April 18, 1872, and in force
July 1, 1872, and all acts amendatory
thereof, a copy of which certificate is
hereunto attached.

Now, Therefore, I, Isaac N. Pearson,
Secretary of State, of the State of Illi-
nois, by virtue of the powers and du-
ties vested In me by law, do hereby
certify that the said. The Illinois State
Bee-Keepers' Association, is a legally
organized corporation under the laws
of the State.

In Testimony Whereof, I hereunto
set my hand and cause to be affixed
the great seal of State.

Done at the City of Springfield, this
27th day of February, in the
[Seal] year of our Lord one thou-
sand eight hundred and nine-
ty one, and the Independence
of the United States the one
hundred and fifteenth.

L N. PEARSON,
Secretary of State.

STATE OF ILLINOIS, / ^^
County of Sangamon. f

To Isaac N. Pearson, Secretary of
State:

We, the undersigned, Perry J. Eng-
land, Jas. A. Stone and Albert N. Dra-
per, citizens of the United States,
propose to form a corporation under an
act of the General Assembly of the
State of Illinois, entitled "An Act Con-
cerning Corporations," approved April

18, 1872, and all _ acts amendatory
thereof; and for the purposes of such
organizations, we hereby state as fol-
lows, to- wit:

1. The name of such corporation is.
The Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Asso-
ciation. ~-

2. The object for which it is formed
is, to promote the general interests of
the pursuit of bee-culture. ^

3. The management of the afore-
said Association shall be vested in a
board of three Directors, who are to
be elected annually.

4. The following persons are hereby
selected as the Directors, to control
and manage said corporation for the-
flrst year of its corporate existence,
viz.: Perry J. England, Jas. A.. Stone,
and Albert N. Draper.

5. The location is in Springfield, in
the County of Sangamon, State of Illi-
nois. (Signed.)

Perry J. England,
Jas. A. Stone,
Albert N. Draper.

STATE OF ILLINOIS, )
Sangamon County. f ^^'

I, S. Mendenhall, a notary public in
and for the County and State afore-
said, do 'hereby certify that on this
.26th day of February, A. D. 1891, per-
sonally appeared before me. Perry J.
England, James A. Stone and Albert
N. Draper, to me personally known to
be the same persons who executed the
foregoing certificate, and severally ac-
knowledged that they had executed the
same for the purposes therein set forth.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and seal the day and year
above written.

S. Mendenhall,

[Seal] Notary Public.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS

-OF THE-

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association

CONSTITUTION

Adopted Feb. 26, ISSl.

ARTICLE I. — Name.

This organization shall be known as
The Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Asso-
ciation, and its principal place of busi-
ness shall be at Spring-field, 111.

ARTICLE II.— Object.

Its object shall be to promote the
general interests of the pursuit of bee-
culture.

ARTICLE III. — Membership.

Section 1. Any person interested in
Apiculture may become a member up-
on the payment to the Secretary of an
annual fee of one dollar ($1.00).
(Amendment adopted at annual meet-
ing, November, 1905): And any affili-
ating Association, as a body, may be-
come members on the payment of an
aggregate fee of fifty cents (50c) per
member, as amended Nov., 1910.

Sec. 2. Any persons may become hon-

orary members by receiving a ma-
jority vote at any regular meeting.

ARTICLE IV.— Officers.

Section 1. The officers of this Asso-
ciation shall be, President, Vice-Presi-
dent, Secretary and Treasurer. Their
terms of office shall be for one year,
or until their successors are elected
and qualified.

Sec. 2. The President, Secretary and
Treasurer shall constitute the Execu-
tive Committee.

Sec. 3. Vacancies in office — by
death, resignation and otherwise —
shall be filled by the Executive Com-
mittee until the next annual meeting.

ARTICLE V. — Amendments.
This Constitution shall be amended
at any annual meeting by a two-thirds
vote of all the members present — '■
thirty days' notice having been ^ven
to each member of the Association.

BY-LA W^S

ARTICLE I.

The officers of the Association shall
be elected by ballot and by a majority
vote.

ARTICLE n.

It shall be the duty of the Pi^ident
to call and preserve order at all nreet-
ings of this Association; to call for all
reports of officers and committees; to

r

put to vote all motions regularly sec-
onded; to count the vote' at all elec-
tions, and declare the results; to de-
cide upon all questions of order, and
to deliver an address at each annuaJ
meeting.

ARTICLE ni.
The Vice-Presidents shall be num- ^
bared, respectively. First, Second,
Third. Fourth and Fifth, and it shall be

r\

10

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

the duty of one of them, in his re-
spective order, to preside in the ab-
sence of the President.

ARTICLE IV.

Section 1. It shall be the duty of the
Secretary to report all proceedings of
the Association, and to record the
same, when approved, in the Secre-
tary's book; to conduct all correspond-
ence of the Association, and to file
and preserve all papers belonging to
the same; to receive the annual dues
and pay them over to the Treasurer,
taking his receipt for the same; to
take and record the name and address
of every member of the Association;
to cause the Constitution and By-Laws
to be printed in appropriate form, and
in such quantities as may be directed
by the Executive Committee from time
to time, and see that each member is
provided witli a copy thereof; to make
out and publish annually, as far as
practicable, statistical table showing
the number of colonies owned in the
spring and fall, and the amount of
honey and wax produced by each mem-
ber, together with such other informa-
tion as may be deemed important, or
be directed by the Executive Commit-
tee; and to give notice of all meetings
of tbe Association in the leading pa-
pers of the State, and in the bee jour-
nals at least four weeks prior to the
time of such meeting.

Sec. 2. The Secretary shall be al-
lowed a reasonable compensation for
his services, and to appoint an as-
sistant Secretary If deemed necessary.

ARTICLE V.
It shall be the duty of the Treasurer

to take charge of all funds of the As-
sociation, ana to pay them out upotk
the order of the Executive Committee,
taking a receipt for the_ same; and to
render a report of all receipts and
expenditures at each annual meeting.

ARTICLE VI.

It shall be the duty of the Executive
Committee to select subjects for dis-
cussion and appoint members to de-
liver addresses or read essays, and to
transact all interim business,

» ARTICLE VIL

The meeting of the Association
shall be, as far as practicable, gov-
erned by the following order of busi-
ness:

Call to order.

Reading minutes of last meeting.
President's address.
Secretary's report.
Treasurer's report.
Reports of committees.
Unfinished business.
Reception of members and collection.
Miscellaneous business.
Election and installation of officers.
Discussion. !

Adjournment. /

ARTICLE VIII

These By-Laws may be amended
by a two- thirds vote of all Che mem-
bers present at any annual meeting.

C. B. Yocom,
Aaron Coppin,
Geo. F, Robblna

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

11

Following is a copy of the law passed by the Illinois Legislature May 19th,
and signed by the Governor June 7th, 1911, to take effect July 1st, 1911:

State Foul Brood Law

State Inspector of Apiaries

preamble.

§ 1. State Inspector of Apiaries — appoint-
ment — term — assistants — per diem.
§ 2. Foul Brood, Etc. — what declared nuis-

ances — ^^inspection — notice to owner
or occupant — treatment — abatement
of nuisance— appeal.

5 3. Annual Report.

§ 4. Penalties.

HOUSE BILL No. 670.

(Approved June 7, 1911.)

An Act to prevent the introduction and spread in Illinois of foul brood among
bees, providing for the appointment of a State Inspector of Apiaries and
prescribing his powers and duties.

Whereas, the disease known as foul
brood exists to a very considerable ex-
tent in various portions of this State,
which, if left to itself, will soon ex-
terminate the honey-bees; and

Whereas, the work done by an in-
dividual bee-keepeer or by a State in-
spector is useless so long as the official
is not given authority to inspect and,
if need be, to destroy the disease when
found; and

Whereas, there is a great loss to the
bee-keepers and fruit growers of the
State each year by the devastating
ravages of foul brood;

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Peo-
ple of the State of Illinois, represented
in the General Assembly: That the
Governor shall appoint a State inspec-
tor of Apiaries, who shall hold his
office for the term of two years, and
until his successor is appointed and
qualified, and who may appoint one or .
more assistants, as needed, to carry on
the inspection under his supervision.
The Inspector of Apiaries shall receive
for each day actually and necessarily
spent in the performance of his duties
the sum of Four Dollars to be paid up-
on bills of particulars certified to as
correct by the said State Inspector of
Apiaries, and approved by the Gov-
ernor.

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of every
person maintaining or keeping any
colony or colonies of bees to keep the
same free from the disease known as
foul brood and from every contagious
and infectious disease among bees. All
bee-hives, bee-fixtures or appurten-
ances where foul brood or other con-
tagious or infectious diseases among
bees exists, are hereby declared to be
nuisances to be abated as hereinafter
prescribed. If the inspector of apiaries
shall have reason to believe that any
apiary is infected by foul brood or
other contagious disease, he shall have
power to inspect, or cause to be in-
spected, from time to time, such apiary,
and for the purpose of such inspection
he, or his assistants, are authorized
during reasonable business hours to
enter into or upon any farm or prem-
ises, or other building or place used for
the purpose of propagating or nurtur-
ing bees. If said inspector of apiaries,,
or his assistants, shall find by inspec-
tion that any person, firm or corpora-
tion is maintaining a nuisance as de-
scribed in this section, he shall notify
in writing the owner or occupant of the
premises containing the nuisance so
disclosed of the fact that such nuisance
exists. He shall include in such notice
a statement of the conditions consti-
tuting such nuisance, and order that

JM

12

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

the same be abated within a specified
time and a direction, written or printed,
pointing out the methods which shall
be taken to abate the same. Such
notice and order may be served per-
sonally or by depositing the same in
the post office properly stamped, ad-
dressed to the owner or occupant of
the land or premises upon which such
nuisance exists, and the direction for
treatment may consist of a printed
circular, bulletin or report of the In-
spector of Apiaries, or an extract from
same.

If the person so notified shall refuse
or fail to abate said nuisance in the
manner and in the time prescribed in

said notice, the Inspector of Apiaries
m.ay cause such nuisance to be abated,
and he shall certify to Aie- owner or
person in charge of the premises the
cost of the abatement and if not paid
to him within sixty days thereafter the
same may be recovered, together with
the costs of action, before any court in
the State having competent jurisdic-
tion.

In case notice and order served as
aforesaid shall direct that any bees,
hives, bee-fixtures or appurtenances
shall be destroyed and the owner of
such bees, hives, bee-fixtures or appur-
tenances shall consider himself ag-
grieved by said order, he shall have
the privilege of appealing within three
days of the receipt of the notice to
the county court of the county in
which such property is situated. The

appeal shall be made in like manner as
appeals are taken to the county court
from judgments of justices of the
peace. Written notice of said appeal
served by mail upon the Inspector of
Apiaries shall operate to stay all pro-
ceedings until the decision of the
county court, which may, after investi-
gating the matter, reverse, modify or
affirm the order of the Inspector of
Apiaries. Such decision shall then be-
come the order of the Inspector of
Apiaries, who shall serve the same as
hereinbefore set forth and shall fix a
time within which such decision must
be carried out.
Sec. 3. The Inspector of Apiaries

shall, on or before the second Monday
in December of each calendar year,
make a report to the Governor and also
to the Illinois State Bee Keepers' As-
sociation, stating the number of
apiaries visited, the number of those
diseased and treated, the number of
colonies of bees destroyed and the ex-
pense incurred in the performance of
his duties.

Sec. 4. Any owner of a diseased
apiary or appliances taken therefrom,
who shall sell, barter or give away any
such apiary, appliance, queens or bees
from such apiary, expose other bees to
the danger of contracting such disease,
or refuse to allow the Inspector of
Apiaries to inspect such apiary, or
appliances, shall be fined not less than
$50.00 nor more than $100.00.

ApprovedcJune 7, 1911.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

13

(Bill passed in the 49th General Assembly.)

Bee-Keepers^ Association*

§ 1, Appropriates $1,000 per annum— pro- § 2. How drawn.

viso. § 3. Annual Repoort.

An Act making an appropriation for the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association.

Whereas, The members of the Illi-
nois State Bee-Keepers' Association
have for years given much time and
labor without compensation in the en-
deavor to promote the interests of the
bee-keepers of the State; and.

Whereas, The importance of the in-
dustry to the farmers and fruit-grow-
ers of the State warrants the expendi-
ture of a reasonable sum for the
holding of annual meetings, the publi-
cation of reports and papers containing
practical information concerning bee-
keeping, therefore, to sustain the same
and enable this organization to defray
the expenses of annual meetings, pub-
lishing reports, suppressing foul brood
among bees in the State, and promote
the industry in Illinois;

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Peo-
ple of the State of Illinois represented
in the General Assembly: That there
be and is hereby appropriated for the
use of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers'
Association the sum of one thousand
dollars ($1,000) per annum for the
years 1915 and 1916. For the purpose
of advancing the growth and develop-
ing the interests of the bee-keepers of
Illinois, said sum to be expended un-
der the direction of the Illinois State

Bee-Keepers' Association for the pur-
pose of paying the expenses of holding
annual meetings, publishing the pro-
ceedings of said metings, suppressing
foul (brood among bees in Illinois, etc.

Provided, however. That no oflacer
or officers of .the Illinois State Bee-
Keepers' Association shall be entitled
to receive any money compensation
whatever for any services rendered for
the same, out of this fund.

Sec. 2. That on the order of the
President, countersigned by the Secre-
tary of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers'
Association, and approved by the Gov-
ernor, the Auditor of Public Accounts
shall draw his warrant oh the Treas-
urer of the StP'.e of Illinois in favor
of the treasurer of the Illinois State
Bee-Keepers' Association for the sum
herein appropriated.

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the
treasurer of the Illinois State Bee-
Keepers' Association to pay out of said
appropriation, on itemized and re-
ceipted vouchers, such sums as may be
authorized by vote of said organiza-
tion on the order of the president,
countersigned by the secretary, and
make annual report to the Governor of
all such expenditures, as provided by
law.

14

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

€ode of Rules and Standards for Grading Apiarian Exhibits at Fair
as Adopted by Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association. '

COMB HONEY.

Rule 1. Comb honey shall be marked
on a scale of 100, as follows:

Quantity 40

Quality 40

Style of display...: 20

Rule 2. Points of quality should be:

Variety 5

Clearness of capping 10

Completeness of capping 5

Completeness of filling 6

Straightness of comb 5

Uniformity 5

Style of section 5

Remarks: 1. By variety is meant
different kinds, with regard to the
sources from which the honey is gath-
ered, which adds much interest to an
exhibit.

2. By clearness ei^ capping is meant
freedom from travel stain and a wat^r
soaked appearance. This point is
marked a little high, because it is a
most important one. There is no bet-
ter test of the quality of comb honey
than the appearance of the cappings.
If honey is taken off at the proper
time, and cared for as it should be, so
as to preserve its original clear color,
body ard flavor will take care of them-
selves, for excellence in the last two
points always accompanies excellence
in the first. Clover and basswood
honey shoud be white; heartsease, a
dull white tinged with yellow; and
Spanish needle, a bright yellow.

3. By uniformity is meant closeness
of resemblance in the sections compos-
ing the exhibit.

4. By style is meant neatness of the
sections, freedom^ from propolis, etc.

5. Honey so arranged as to show
every section Should score the highest
in style of display, and everything that
may add to the tastiness and attract-
ivness of an exhibit should be con-
sidered.

EXTRACTED HONST.

Rule 1. Extracted honey should be
marked on a scale of 100, as follows:

Quantity 40

Quality 45

Style of display 15

Rule 2. The points of quality s'hould
be:

Variety 10

Clearness of color 5

Body 5

Flavor 5

Style of package 10

Variety of package 5

Finish 5

Remarks: 1. Light clover honey
pouring out of a vessel is a very light
straw color; Spanish needle, a golden
hue, and dark clover honey, a dull am-
ber.

2. Style of package is rated a little
high, not only because in that consists
the principal beauty of an exhibit of
extracted honey, but also because it
involves the best package for market-
ing. We want to show honey in the
best shape for the retail trade, and
that, in this case, means the most at-
tractive style for exhibition. Glass
packages should b" given the prefer-
ence over tin; flint glass over green,
and smaller vessels over larger, pro-
vided the latter run over one or two
pounds.

3. By variety of package Is meant
chiefly different sizes; but small pails
for retailing, and, in addition, cans or
kegs (not too large) for wholesaling,
may be considered. In the former case,
pails painted in assorted colors, and
lettered "Pure Honey," should be
given the preference.

4. By finish Is meant capping, label-
ing, etc.

5. Less depends upon the manner of
arranging an exhibit of extracted than
of comb honey, and for that reason,
as well as to give a higher number of
points to style of package, a smaller
scale is allowed" for style of display.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

15

SAMPLES OP COMB AND EX-
TRACTED HONEY.

Rule 1. Single cases of comb honey,
entered as such for separate pre-
miums, should be judged by substan-
tially the same rules as those given
for a display of comb ihoney, and sam-
ples of extracted, by those governing
displays of extracted honey.

Rule 2. Samples of comb or ex-
tracted honey, as above, may be con-
sidered as part of the general display
In their respective departments.

GRANULATED HONEY.

Rule 1. Candied or granulated honey
should be judged by the rules for ex-
tracted honey, except as below.

Rule 2. The points of quality should
be:

Variety 10

Fineness of grain 5

Color 5

Flavor 5

Style of package 10

Variety of package 5

Finish 5

Rule 3. An exhibit of granulated
honey may be entered or considered
as part of a display of extracted
honey.

NUCLEI OF BEES.

Rule. Bees in observation hives
should be maked on a scale of 100, as
follows:

Color and markings 30

Size of bees 30

Brood 10

Queen 10

Quietness 5

Style of comb 5

Style of hive 10

Remarks: 1. Bees should be exhib-
ited only in the form of single frame
nuclei, in hives or cages with glass
sides.

2. Italian bees should show three
or more bands, ranging from leather
color to golden or light yellow.

3. The markings of other races
should be those claimed for those races
in their purity.

4. A nucleus from which the

queen Is omitted should score zero on
that point.

5. The largest quantity of brood in
all stages or nearest to that slhould
score the highest in that respect.

6. The stralghtest, smoothest and
most complete comb, with the most
honey consisteat with the most brood,
should score the highest in that re-
spect.

7. That hive which is neatest and
best made and rhows the bees, etc., to
the best advantage should score the
highest.

QUEEN BEES.

Rule. Queen bees in cages should
be marked on a scale of 100, as fol-
lows:

Quantity 40

Quality and variety 40

Style of caging and display.... 20
■ Remarks: 1. The best in quality
consistent with variety should score
the highest. A preponderence of Ital-
ian queens should overweigh a pre-
ponderance of black ones, or, perhaps,
of any other race or strain; but sam-
ple queens of any or all varieties should
be duly considered. Under the head
of quality should also be considered
the attendant bees. There should be
about a dozen with each queen.

2. Neatness and finish of cages
should receive due consideration, but
the principal points in style are to
make and arrange the cages so as to
show the inmates to the best advan-
tage.

BEESWAX.

Rule. Beeswax should be marked
on a scale of 100, as follows:

Quantity 40

Quality 40

Style of display 20

Remarks: 1. Pale, clear, yellow
specimens should score the highest,
and the darker grades should come
next in order.

2. By style is meant chiefly the
forms in which the wax is molded and
put up for exhibition. Thin cakes or
small pieces are more desirable in the
retail trade than larger ones. Some
attention may be given to novelty and
variety.

16

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Foul Brood and Other Diseases of Bees.

Foul brood — ibacillus alvei — is a fatal
and contagious disease among bees,
dreaded most of all by bee-keepers.
The germs of disease are either given
to the young: larval bee in its food
when it hatches from the egg of the
queen-bee, or it may be contagion
from a diseased colony, or if the queen
deposits eggs, or the workier-bees store
honey or pollen in such combs. If in
any one of the above cases, the dis-
ease will soon appear, and the germs
increase with great rapidity, going
from one little cell to another, colony
to colony of bees, and then to all the
neighboring apiaries, thus soon leav-
ing whole apiaries with only diseased
combs to inoculate others. The Island
of Syria in three years lost all of its
great apiaries from foul brood. Dzier-
zon, in 1868, lost his entire apiary of
500 colonies. Cowan, the editor of the
British Bee Journal, recently wrote:
"The only visible hindrance to the rap-
id expansion of the bee industry is the
prevalence of foul brood, which is so
rapidly spreading over the country as
to make bee-keeping a hazardous occu-
pation."

Canada's foul brood inspector, in
1890 to 1892, reported 2,395 cases, and
in a later report for 1893 to 1898, that
40 per cent of the colonies inspected
were diseased. Cuba is one of the
greatest honey-producing countries,
•nd was lately reported to me by a
Wisconsin bee-keeper who has been
there, and will soon return to Wiscon-
sin: "So plentiful is foul brood in
Cuba that I have known whole apiaries
to dwindle out of existence from its
ravages, and hundreds more are on
the same road to sure and certain
death. I. myself, took, in 90 days in
Cuba, 24,000 pounds of fine honey from
100 colonies, but where is that apiary
and my other 150 -colony apiary? Dead
from foul brood." Cuba, in 1901, ex-
ported 4,795,600 pounds of honey, and
1,022,897 pounds of beeswax.

Cuba at present has laws to sup-

press foul brood, and her inspector is
doing all possible to stamp the same
from the island.

Even in Wisconsin I know of several
quite large piles of empty hives, where
also many other apiaries where said
disease had gotten a strong foothold.

By the kindness of the Wisconsin
bee-keepers, and, in most cases, by their
willing assistance, I have, during the
last five years, gotten several counties
free of the disease, and at the present
writing, March 12, 1902, have what
there is in Wisconsin under control
and quarantined. This dreadful dis-
ease is often imported into our State
from other States and countries, so we
may expect some new cases to develop
until all the States shall enact such
laws as will prevent further spread
of the same. Arizona, New York
(1899), California (1891), Nebraska
(1895), Utah (1892), Colorado (1897),
have county inspectors, and Wisconsin
(1897), and Michigan (1901), have
State inspectors. The present Wis-
consin law, after five years of testing
and rapid decrease of the disease. Is
considered the best, and many other
States are riow making efforts to se-
cure a like^law.

There are several experimental api-
aries in Canada, under control of the
Ontario Agricultural College; also a
few in the United States, especially in
Colorado, that have done great work
.for the bee-keeping industry, and their
various published bulletins on the
same are very valuable. The Wiscon-
sin State Bee-Keepers' Association haa
asked that an experimental apiary
might be had on the Wisconsin Ex-
perimental Farm, but at present there
are so many departments asking for
aid that I fear it may be some time be-
fore bee-culture will be taken up.
Causes of Foul Brood.

1. Many writers claim foul brood
originates from chilled or dead brood.
Dr. Howard, of Texas, one of the best

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

17

practical modern scientific experi-
menters, a man of authority, has proven
beyond a doubt that chilled or common
dead brood does not produce foul
brood. I have, in the last five years,
also proven his statement to be true
in Wisconsin, but I do believe such
conditions of dead brood are the most
favorable places for lodgment and
rapid growth of disease. Also, I do
not believe foul brood germs are float-
ing in the air, for, if they were, why
would not every brood-comb cell of
an infected hive become diseased? I
believe that this disease spreads only
as the adult bees come in contact with
it, which is often through robber-bees.
Brood-combs should not be removed
from any colony on cold or windy
days, nor should they be left for a
moment in the direct rays of sun-
shine on hot days.

2. The foul brood may be caused by
the need of proper food and tempera-
ture. Generally this disease does not
appear to be serious during a honey-
flow, but at the close of the honey sea-
son, or at time of scarcity, it is quite
serious, and as the bees at such times
will rob anywhere they can find stores,
whether from healthy or diseased
combs, it is the duty of every bee-
keeper to keep everything carefully
protected. Hive-entrances contracted,
no old combs or any article with a drop
of honey in where the bees can get to
it. "While honey is coming in from
the various flowers, quite a portion is
used ddrect as food for the larval bee,
and with such no disease would be
fed to the bees. Such fed bees, even
in a diseased hive, will hatch, as is
often the case. I never knew a case
where a bee hatched from a brood cell
that had ever had foul brood in. If
the germs of disease are there in the
dried scale attached to the lower side
walls, bees will store honey therein;
the queen will deposit eggs, or the cell
may be filled with pollen, or beebread,
as some call it. Said honey, or pollen,
when it comes in contact with those
germs of disease, or the food given to
the young bee, if in the proper temper-
ature, said germs of disease will grow
and develop rapidly.

Causes of Contagion.

I fully believe that if the history of
foul brood in Wisconsin were known,
nearly every case could be traced to
contagion from diseased combs, honey,
or from home diseased queen-breed-

ers' cages. There are some instances
where I have traced the history of con-
tagion in Wisconsin:

1. Diseased apiaries, also single col-
onies, sold either at auction or private
sale. Several law suits have resulted
in the settlement of some of the cases.

2. Brood-combs and various imple-
ments from diseased hives, used by
other bee-keepers, and borrowed ar-
ticles.

3. All the bees in an apiary dead
from foul brood, and the hives having
an abundance of honey in the brood-
combs, said combs placed out by the
side of hives, so that neighbor's bees
might get the honey. From those
combs I lined robber bees to seven
other apiaries, and each time became
diseased and were treated.

4. Robber bees working on empty
honey packages in the back yards of
grocery stores and baking factories.
Said honey came from diseased api-
aries, some located in far distant
states, even Cuba.

5. Loaning of hives, combs, extrac-
tors, and even empty honey- packages.

6. Buying honey from strangers, or
not knowing where it was produced,
and feeding it to bees without boiling
the honey.

7. Too common a practice of using
old brood-combs from some apiary
where the owner's bees have died from
"bad luck," as he calls it.

8. Queen -bee — by buying queen
bees from strangers and introducing
them in the cages they came in. I have
traced several new outbreaks of the
disease to the hives where such queens
were introduced, and the queens came
from distant states. To be safe, on ar-
rival of queen, put her carefully alone
in a new and clean cage with good
food in it. Keep her in there, warm
and comfortable, for a few hours be-
fore introducing. The shipping cage
and every bee that came with the
queen should be put in the stove and
burned. I do not think there is any
danger from the queen so treated,
even from diseased hives, but I do
know of many cases where disease
soon appear in the hives, where the
shipping cage and bees were put in
with the colony. The great danger is
in the food in said cage being made
from diseased honey. I was called to
attend a State bee-keepers' meeting
in another State, and I asked If any
there had had experience with foul

18

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

brood. There was a goodly number
of raised hands. Then I asked: "Do
any of you think you got the disease
by buying queen-bees?" Again sev-
eral hands were raised. Even bee-
keepers there had traced the disease in
their apiaries to the buying of queens,
and all from the same breeder. If you
get queens from abroad, I hope you
will do with them as I have described
above. Better be on the safe side.

Experiments.

1. A prominent "Wisconsin bee-
keeper some years ago had foul brood
among his bees so bad that he lost
200 colonies before the disease was
checked. Having a . honey-extractor
and comb-foundation machine, he first
boiled the hives in a large sorghum
pan, then in a kettle all combs were
melted after the honey was extracted;
the honye was boiled and also the
extractor and implements used. The
bees were returned to their hives on
comb-foundation he made from the
wax made from the melted combs,
then fed the boiled honey. Several
years have passed, and there has been
no sign of disease in his apiary since.

2. Foul-brood germs are not always
killed when exposed to a temperature
of 212 deg. F. (boiling point) for 45
minutes. uBt in every case where the
combs are boiled in boiling water, and
same were well stirred while boiling,
no germs were ali">'e.

3. Foul brood in brood-combs is not
destroyed when exposed to the temper-
ature of Wisconsin winters of 20 deg.
below zero, and in one case I developed
foul brood from combs that had been
exposed to 28 deg. below zero.

4. Honey, if stored in diseased
combs, acts as a preserving medium,
and in such cases the germs of disease
will remain so long as the £0inh is
undisturbed. Four years at least." " <

5. Honey or beeswax, or the refuse
from a solar or sunheat extractor, is
not heated enough to kill foul-brood
germs. Several cases of contagion
where robber bees worked on solar ex-
tractor refuse or honey.

6. Comb-foundation made by sup-
ply manufacturers is free from live
germs of disease and perfectly safe to
use. To prove this experiment be-
yond a doubt, I took a quantity of
badly diseased brood-combs from sev-
eral apiaries and render each batch
of combs into wax myself on the farm

where found. Then on my own foun-
dation mill I made some brood-foun-
dation. I also took quite a quantity
more of said wax, went to two whole-
sale comb -foundation manufacturers,
and both parties willingly made my ex-
perim.ental wax into comb-foundation,
just the same as they do every batch
of wax, I then divided the various
makes of foundation, and selected 20
of the best bee-yards in Wisconsin,
where no disease has ever been known;
had the same placed in 62 of their best
colonies, and in every case no signs
of disease have appeared. Those same
colonies tontinue to be the best in the'
various apiaries.

Symptoms of Foul Brood.

1. The infected colony is not liable
to be as industrious. Hive entrance
with few guard bees to protect their
home. Sometimes fine dirt or • little
bits of old comb and dead bees
in and around the hive-entrance, and
often robber bees seeking entrance.

2. Upon opentng the hive, the brood
in the combs is irregular, badly scat-
tered, with many empty cells which
need inspection.

3. The cappings over healthy brood
are oval, smooth, and of a healthy
color peculiar to honey-bee brood, but
if diseased, the cappings are sunken,
a little darker in color, and have
ragged pin holes. The dead larval bee
is fa light color, and, as it is termed,
ropy, so that if a toothpick is inserted
and slowly .withdrawn, this dead larva
will draw out much like spittle or glue.

4. In this ropy stage there is more
or less odor peculiar to the disease;
it smells something like an old, stale
gluepot. A colony may be quite badly
affected and not omit much odor, only
upon opening of the hive or close ex-
amination of the brood. I have treated
a few cases where the foul brood odor
was plainly noticed several rods from
the apiary.

5. Dried Scales. — If the disease has
reached the advanced stages, all the
above described conditions will be
easily seen and the dried scales as well.
This foul matter is so tenacious that
the bees cannot remove it, so it dries
down on the lower side-wall of the
cell, midway from the bottom to front
end of the cell, seldom on the bottom
of the cell. According to its stage of
development, there will be either the
shapeless mass of dark brown matter,

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

19

on the lower side of the cell, often
with a wrinkled skin covering, as if
a fine thread had been inserted in
the skin legthwise and drawn enough
to form rib-like streaks on either side.
Later on it becomes hardened, nearly
black in color, and in time dries down
to be as thin as the side walls of the
cell. Often there will be a small dried
bunch at the front end of the cell,
not larger than a part of a common
pin head. To see it plainly, take the
comb by the top bar and hold it so
that a good light falls into the cell at
an angle of 75 degrees from the tip
of the comb, while your sight falls
upon the cell at an angle of about
45 degrees. The scales. If present,
will easily be seen as above described.
This stage of disease in combs is easily
seen, and i^ always a sure guide or
proof of foul brood. Such combs can
never be used safely by the bees, and
must be either burned or carefully
melted. Be sure not to mistake such
marked combs in the spring for those
soiled with bee dysentery. The latter
have a somewhat similar appearance,
but are more or less surface soiled,
and will also be spotted or have
streaked appearance by the dark
brown sticky excrements from the
adult bees.

Treatment.

"A bee-keeper who does not discover
foul brood, before his nostrils remind
him that there is something wrong
with his bees, is not the proper person
to treat the case." Dr. Howard, in
his valuable book on foul brood,
states: "I regard the use of all drugs
In the treatment of foul brood as a
useless waste of time and material,
wholly ineffectual, inviting ruin and
total loss of bees. Any method which
has not for its object the entire re-
moval of all infectious material beyond
the reach of both bees and brood, will
prove detrimental and destructive, and
surely encourage the recurrence of the
disease." In "Wisconsin, I have tried
many methods of treatment, and cured
some cases with each method; but the
one that never fails, if carefully fol-
lowed, and that commends itself, is
the McEvory treatment. Canada's foul
brood inspector has cured foul brood
by the wholesale — thousands of cases.

McEvoy Treatment.

"In the honey season, when the bees
are gathering honey freely, remove

the combs in the evening and shake
the bees into their own hives; give
them frames with comb -foundation
starters, and let them build comb for
four days. The bees will make the
starters into comb during the four
days, and store the diseased honey in
them, which they took with them from
the old comb. Then, in the evening of
the fourth day, take out the new
combs and give them comb -foundation
(full sheets) to work out, and then the
cure will be complete. By this method
of treatment all the diseased honey is
removed from the bees before the full
sheets of foundation are worked out.
All the old foul-brood combs must be
burned or carefully made into wax,
after they are removed from the hives,
and all the new combs made out of the
starters during the four days must be
burned or made into wax, on account
of the diseased honey that would be
stored in them. All the curing or
treating of diseased colonies should
be done in the evening, so as not to
have any robbing done, or cause any
of the bees from the diseased colonies
to mix and go with the bees of healthy
colonies. By doing all the work in the
evening, it gives the bees a chance to
settle down nicely before morning, and
then there is no confusion or trouble.
This same method of curing" colonies-
of foul brood can be carried on at
any time from May to October, when
the bees are not getting any honey, by
feeding plenty of sugar syrup in the
evenings to take" the place of the
honey flow. It will start the bees rob-
bing and spread the disease, to "^ork
v/ith foul brood colonies in warm days
when the bees are not gathering honey,
and for that reason all work must be
done in the evenings when no bees
are flying.

"When the diseased colonies are
v/eak in bees, put the bees, two, three,
or four colonies together, so as to get
a good sized colony to start the cure
with, as it does not pay to spend time
fussing with little, weak colonies.
When the bees are not gathering
honey, any apiary can be cured of foul
brood by removing the diseased combs
in the evening and giving the bees
frames with comb -foundation starters
on. Then, also, in the vening feed
the bees plenty of sugar syrup, and
they will draw out the foundation and
sore the diseased honey which they
took with them from the old combs;
on the fourth evening remove the new

20^

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF^ THE,

combs made out of the starters, and
give the bees full sheets of comb-foun-
dation, and feed plenty of sugar syrup
each evening, until every colony is in
first class order. Make the syrup out
of granulated sugar, putting one pound
of water to every pound of sugar, and
bring it to a boil. As previously stated,
all the old comb must be burned, or
made into wax, and so must all new
combs made during the four days. No
colony is cured of foul brood by the
use of any drug.

A. I. Root, of Medina, Ohio, says:
"The starvation plan, in connection
with burning the combs and frames
and building the hives, has worked the
best in treating foul brood. It never
appeared after each treatment, though
it did in some cases where the hives
were honey-stained and not boiled,
thus comflrming the theory or fact of
\ spores.'"

All the difference from the McEvory
treatment that I practice is this: I
dig a deep pit on level ground near
the diseased apiary, and after getting
a fire in the pit, such diseased combs,
frames, etc., as are to be burned are
burned in this pit in the evening, and
then the fresh earth from the pit re-
turned to cover all from sight. Often
I use some kerosene oil, a little at a
time being poured on old broodcombs,
or those having much honey in, as they
are hard to burn. If diseased combs
with honey in are burned on the sur-
face of. the soil, there is great danger;
the honey, when heated a little, will
run like water on the soil, and in the
morning the robber bees will be busy
taking home the diseased honey that
was not heated enough to kill germs
of foul brood.

I also cage the queen while the bees
are on the five or six strips of founda-
tion. It helps to keep the colony from
deserting the hive and going to other
colonies.

R. L. Taylor, Michigan University
Experimental Apiary, reports: "The
plan that the colony be shaken out
into another hive after being allowed
to build comb for four days, I have
proven, in 100 cases, to be unneces-
sary."

In Wisconsin I, too, have cured sev-
eral cases by the one transferring,
when honey was not coming in very
freely, but it is better, and a great
saving of time to both bees and owner,
to exchange in three or four days.

those foundation starters, for full
sheets of foundation. Diseased brood-
combs and those with honey in, if
melted in a sun or solar extractor, the
wax, honey or residue is not hot
enough to kill germs of foul brood.
This I have proven by several experi-
ments. It must be boiled and well
stirred while boiling, to be safe.

I do not believe in, or practice, burn-
ing any property, such as hives, bees,
beeswax or honey, that can be safely
treated and saved. Many times it is
poor economy to save all, and so many
bee-keepers are not^so situated as to
keep all diseased material from rob-
ber bees while taking care of it; the
best and oly safe way is to burn the
diseased combs and frames.

i Utah.

Utah has county inspectors, and
from one who has remarkable success
I copy the report of his method of
treatment:

"Wherever found it should be dealt
with earnestly and with dispatch. If the
colony is weak, I recommend something
to kill the bees, and, in order to
do this without letting a bee escape,
take a tablespoonful of sulphur and
place it in the hive entrance of the
hives; if there is any breeze, turn the
hive so it will blow in the entrance.
Then fire the sulphur and it will soon
kill the bees. This should be done
early in the morning, before any of the
bees are flying, as one bee escaping
fro mthe hive might carry the disease
to any colony with which it may take
up its abode. If the colony is a strong
one, I would keep the entrance partly
closed, so as to prevent any other bees
from getting in. Then as soon as fruit
blossoms come out so the bees can
obtain honey, I treat them. I procure
an empty box of any kind, so it is
clean, then find the queen, put her in
a screen wire cage, which is easily
made. Take a small piece of screen
roll it up and tie a string arond either
end; cork up one end, then place the
queen and a few workers, for company,
in the cage, and place in the other end
cork. Put same In this box, and shake
all the bees out of their hive into this
box. This must be done in the even-
ing, when no bees are flying. Keep the
queen in this box for 24 to 48 hours,
allowing the bees to fly in and out as
they please. Next take a clean hive,
with good, healthy combs or founda-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

21

tion, and shake bees into it, letting the
queen go, and they will be free from
disease. The old combs are melted
into wax, bringing same to a good
boil. Often washing with boiling
water any hives or implements that
might contain disease. Whenever
strictly followed, this has affected a
cure." — C. Wilcox, Emery Co., Utah.

Pickled Brood.

Some seasons pickled brood is quite
bad among bees, and in a few cases
I have known it to reduce large colo-
nies, even large apiaries, to doubtful
hopes, but those samie colonies, after
I gave them treatment, were in a
month free from disease. Some-
times it takes as careful handling as if
foul brood. I do not believe it is con-
tagious, for all I have seen 60 colonies
in one apiary badly reduced by it. As
an experiment, one of my out-apiaries
had 50 colonies at one time with
pickled brood. I treated them, and all
were soon free from dead brood. At
the same time I took ten of the worst
brood-combs, where at least two-
thirds of the brood were dead, and
placed these combs in other strong,
healthy colonies. They at once cleaned
out the dead brood, and reared as nice
brook as one could ask for.

Symptoms.

The larval bees (in last of May and
through June) show light brown spots;
a Mttle later the cappings have small
holes in — the cappings are not shrunk-
en or dark colored, as in foul brood.
The dead bee will be first swollen, with
a black head dried to a hard bunch,
and often turned up — Chinaman-shoe-
like. The skin of the dead bee is quite
tough, and, if punctured, the thin,
watery fluid of the body will flow as
freely as water, often a little yellow or
brownish colored from the dissolved
pollen from the abdomen of the bee.
It has very little or no smell; does not
at any time stick to the walls of the
comla; is easily pulled out of the cell;
is never ropy or sticky, and, if the
colony is properly cared for, the bees
will take care of themselves. Plenty
of liquid, unsealed honey and pollen
near the brood, and hives so protected
as to keep the bees and brood com-
fortable on cold days and nights.

Never put bees on old black brood-
combs, or those with dead broods in;
better make wax of the conabs, and

give the bees full sheets of broodcomb
foundation. -.

Treatment.

Keep all colonies strong, with plenty
of unsealed honey near the brood, and
if hives are properly sheltered, so as to
be warm on cold days and nights, there
will be little or no pickled brood. If
the queen is old, shows signs of weak-
ness by putting several eggs in one
brood-cell and nursing several others,
so that the brood is patchy, I would
kill sufch a queen, feed the bees a little,
and, when queen-cells are started, re-
move them all and give them a queen
andi bees, between two of her own
brood-combs from' a hive where she
has lived. I do not think pickled
brood is often the fault of the queen,
but rather a lack of proper food and
heat in the hive. In most cases, a
shortage of liquid honey, or moldy
pollen, even in hives with plenty of
sealed honey in the outer combs.
There is a time in spring in Wisconsin,
between dandelions and white clover
bloom, when there is no honey coming
in from flowers, and often cold days
and nights, so that the live bees con-
sume the liquid, unsealed honey first,
and cluster in a compact body to keep
warm; the result often is the larval
bee, just changed from the egg to a
tender little grub, is either starved,
half-fed or chilled, so that it grows
slowly, and too often it dies, and then
it is we first notice this about the time
white clover honey begins to come in.
In other parts of the state, where
pickled brood appeared, it was from the
same cause, and at other dates, which
was due to a difference of time of
honey bloom.

Wherever I fed daily some honey, or
even sugar syrup, and kept the hive
warm, all dead brood soon disappeared
while in the same apiaries other colo-
nies affected and not so treated, con-
tinued for some time, but got rid of
it as soon as treated.

Strong colonies of bees in the fall,
with a young laying queen, and an
abundance of good honey, sealed or
capped by the bees, if properly cared
for during winter, whether in the cel-
lar or In chaff hives, wintered out of
doors in sheltered location, seldom
have pickled brood, chilled or other
dead brood, or dysentery, and are the
colonies that give their owner profit.

22

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Black Brood.
Black) brood is another fatal and
contagious disease among . bees, af-
fecting the old bees as well as the
brood. In 1898, 1899 and 1900, it de-
stroyed severaJl apiaries in New York.
Last year I found one case of it in
Wisconsin, which was quickly disposed
of. Dr. Howard made more than a
thousand microscopic examinations,
and found it to be a distinct form of
bacteria. It is most active in sealed
brood. The bees affected continue to
grow until they reach the pupa stage,
then turn black and die. At this
stage there is a sour smell. No de-
composition from putrefactive germs
In pickled brood. In black brood the
dark and rotten mass in time breaks
down and settles to lower side-walls
of the cell; is of a watery, granulated,
syrupy fluid, jelly-like; is not ropy or
sticky, as in full brood, and has a pe-
culiar smell, resembling sour, rotten
apples. Not even a house fly will set
a foot upon it.

Treatment.

Best time is during a honey-flow,
and the modified McEvoy plan, much
as I have treated foul brood, by
caging the queen Ave days, remove the
foundation starters and giving full
sheets, keeping que n caged five days
longer. As great care should be taken
of diseased hives, combs, honey, etc.,
as in foul brood.

Dysentery.

Dysentery among bees in Wisconsin
in the spring of the year is often quite,
serious. Many colonies die with it.
Dysentery is the excrements of the old
Jjeesi- it is of brownish color, quite
sticky, and very disagreeable smelling,
and is sometimes mistaken for foul
brood.

Causes.

1. Bees confined too long in the
hives, so that they can no longer with-
hold their excrements, and are com-
pelled to void the same on the other
bees and combs.

2. Poor winter stores, gathered in
the fall from honey-dew, cider mills,
sorghum mills, rotten fruit; also some
kinds of fall flowers.

3. Old and especially moldy pollen
or bee-bread.

4. Hives too cold or damp. If mois-
ture from the breath of the bees Is

not carried out of the hive by some
means, such as through a deep cushion
of some kind over the bees that will
absorb moisture and at the same time
retain the heat, or by some means of
ventilation, so that all is dry and com-
fortable. If mold forms on the combs
or cellar is so damp as to form mold,
there is great danger the bees will
have dysentery and die.

Treatment.

1. First of all, have an abundance
of combs of sealed clover or basswood
honey in brood-frames carefully saved,
and see that each colony is wintered
on such food. Three or four such
combs will winter a fair colony safely,
if confined on those combs late in the
fall, and the hive contracted to fit the
same. This is one of the most im-
portant conditions for success in win-
tering.

2. If in the fall the bees have gath-
ered this unwholesome honey from the
above named sources, it should all be
extracted and either exchanged fov
those honey-combs, or feed the bees
good honey or sug^r ssonip until win-
ter stores are secured. This should
be done .before cold vveather in the
fall.

3. Hives contracted and made com-
fortable, whether in cellar or out-
doors.

4. If wintered in chaff hives out-
doors, with feed as above directed, and
there come one or two warm spells
during winter, so that the bees can
have a cleansing flight, they will not
have dysentery or dead brood, and will
be much stronger when clover opens.

If wintered in the cellar, the bees
will not need so mucli honey, and if the
winters are generally long, with doubt-
ful warm spells, the cellar will be best.
But to keep the bees from dysentery,
so often fatal to cellar-wintered bees,
they should have such winter stores as
above spoken of, then the cellar kept
at a medium temperature, about 32
deg. F., ventilated so the air is fresh,
and no mold will form in the cellar.
Fresh air- slaked lime on the bottom
of the cellar may help, if it is damp
or has poor air.

5. Dysentery will not appear if bees
are kept on sugar syrup, or best grade
white clover or basswood honey, and
are in a dry place, either sheltered by
cellar or chaff-hive.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

23

E. J. BAXTER, President.
And a Director of the National.

24

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

JAMES A. STONE, Secretary.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

25

PROCEEDINGS

—OF THE—

Tv^enty-Fifth Annual Session

—OF THE—

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association

November 29 and 30, 1915,

AT THE CIXY HALL.

The 25th Annual Meeting of the Illi-
nois State Bee -Keepers' Association
was held in the City Hall at Spring-
field, Illinois, November 29th and SOth,
1915.

The meeting was called to order by
the President, Mr. Emil J. Baxter, at
10 a. m., November 29th.
~ President Baxter — The invocation
will be the first in order this morn-
ing.

Mr. Stone — Mr. President, Ladies
and Gentlemen: If there is any one
in the world who depends on Divine
Providence for the good things he gets
— it is the bee-keeper. The Lord
gives the rain and the sunshine. We
would not have a pound of honey nor
any of the other good things produced
were it not for our Hjeavenly Father,
and we want to acknowledge the Su-
preme Being in all our deeds and our
acts. Reverend Mr. Gunter is here,
and he will open the meeting this
morning with prayer.

Prayer by Rev. George T. Gunter.

Our Father in Heaven, we come this
morning first of all, before we shall
address each other and before we shall
take up the program of this hour and
of these days, to address Thee. We
come because we recognize the pecu-
liar fitness of coming before God be-
fore we shall ever come before men;
and we come this morning recogniii-
ing the unusual propriety of thanking
Thee for the good things of life. We
thank Thee because we have down
deep in our hearts, whether we have
made public confession or acknowledg-

ment or not, that conviction that Thou
art God and above all things else Thou
art supreme and the giver of all that
blesses, beautifies and sanctifies the
children of men; and as we come this
morning, Oh, God, we recognize that
that little insect which this morning
shall be the theme of discussion, so
little that the average man seldom
stops to think of it, and so apparently
insignificant that not one man in ten
thousand turns to thank God for the
bee, and yet as we come to think about
it this morning, Thou hast planted
deeply within the very constitution of
this little bee the very fundamentals
of human life. We thank Thee for the
lessons which we may learn; the les-
sons of industry, and Oh, God, how
much we need to learn the lesson of
industry in this society, of ours. How
many drones there are, and how many
men and women there are in these
days, that live like parasites upon the
industry and labors of other men and
other women; and we need this morn-
ing to sit beside the little bee and
learn something of the beautiful co-
operative plan of human life. We
thank Thee that in this world of bee-
dom we have the wax maker, the comb
maker, the honey maker; that each
works in beautiful harmony and co-
operation with the other so that the
fine product which comes out to
gladden the hearts of humanity is the
result of harmony and co-operation;
— so that through the sessions of this
conference we beseech Thee that these
men, who have come together to study
and to confer and to exchange ideafe

26

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

and plans, shall not altogether com-
mercialize the bee, but that they shall
recognize today, and as they go back
to work midst the bees, that there is
that in them .that should teach men
something of a better and higher life.
Let Thy richest benediction rest upon
this conference; bless us in our rela-
tionships and help us to know that
Thou hast planted great, deep lessons
all about us if we will but open our
hearts and minds to their reception,
and we will not go through life blind-
ly but will have our souls stirred and
thrilled within us because of the mar-
velous manifestations of the goodness
of God. Bless every man and woman
here, and God grant that, by reason
of their association with this mighty
worker, this splendid type of all that
is co-operative in the world, they may
be better citizens by reason of this
association; sanctify, we pray Thee,
every theme that is discussed, and we
pray Thee that from these days to-
gether these men shall go out to live
closer to Thee as they shall devote
themselves to the business to which
they have given themselves.

We ask it in the name of Jesus
Christ who while he was upon earth
looked around and saw in the flower
the evidence of God and the manifes-
tation of his goodness.

Mr. Baxter — The next thing in order
will be the welcome address.

Mr. Stone — Mr. President, when we
began to look around for a place of
meeting, a place to hold our Conven-
tion this year, we did not .like to go
anywhere but the Senate Chamber
where we were last year, but we saw
that the Legislature was going to be
called again. It worried us some to
know where we would go. We went
to the Secretary of State and he sug-
gested the Comrriercial Association,
and we got on the right track at once,
and through the kindness of the Com-
mercial Association, of which our
friend, Mr. Conkling, is the Secretary,
we have received this nice room, and
we will all have every accommodation
they can give us, and they give it to
us willingly and gladly.

We now have the pleasure of intro-
ducing Mr. Conkling, who will give us
the welcome address.

ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

Mr. President and Members of the

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Associa-
tion:

Springfield is always glad of the op-
portunity to welcome its visitors. While
your Convention is not as large as
probably many Conventions that meet
here, yet I want to assure you that
the welcome that we extend to you is
as hearty as any we could extend to
the largest Convention that meets here.
It has been said that a hive of bees
numbers many thousands; that 97 per
cent of them are workers; 3 per cent
of them are drones. That being the
case, it seems to me that the bee in-
dustry should be in the front ranks of
the industrial workers of the world.
The bee and its occupation is also a
by-word for the business man. If you
meet the business man on the street
and you ask him relative to his busi-
ness, if his business is good he will in-
variably say that "We are as busy as
a bee," thus showing that the industry
of the bee is used as a very high mark.

We are glad that you have selected
Springfield before as your meeting
place. We are very glad that you are
here today; and I assure you that we
extend to you a hearty welcome and a
cordial invitation to come again next
year.

Our Commercial Association is lo-
cated upon the third fioor (City Hall
Building) where we have a nice rest
room of moderate size, and we have
accommodations for you in the way of
stationery which you may have for
your own use, and, if j-ou do not feel
like writing your own letters, the ste-
nographers will' do it for you.

We have nothing there except the
good old ice water so if you have an
appetite for anything stronger than
that you will have to bring your grape
juice along with you.

We 3ffer you the services of our
officers and members of the Commer-
cial Association, and they join with m&
in extending to you oiir hearty welcome
today and the earnest desire that you
may come back next year and we will
be glad to see you.

Mr. Stone — It now comes our turn to
introduce the President. The next on
our program is the President's Address
and the response to the welcome ad-
dress. — Mr. Baxter.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

21

RESPONSE AND PRESIDENT'S AD-
DRESS.

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle-
men:

On behalf of the State Bee-Keepers'
Association of Illinois I wish to thank
the Springfield Commercial Association
for the most hearty welcome they have
given us to their city. Our Association
has been meeting in Springfield ever
since its birth some twenty-flve years
ago, and our members have always had
the glad hand of fellowship extended
to them while here, and have always
had a most enjoyable time. I hope and
trust this may ever continue.

Springfield, as the capital of the state,
is a most interesting city aside from
being the orice-while-home of our mar-
tyred president, the incomparable Lin-
coln.

The state capitol is the creation and
handiwork of a citizen of my home
town. Much of the stone in its walls
was dug from the quarries where I
used to wander when a boy while on
my geologizing tours, so that seeing
this most magnificent structure recalls
memories of my boyhood days.

Springfield has many other places of
attraction, too many, in fact, to mention
all of them. Let us hope, then, that
Springfield, the Queen City of the Prai-
ries, may continue to grow and pros-
per for time without end.

Today at the opening of our annual
session it is fitting that we take stock
of the past season, analyzing the condi-
tions that have prevailed, to see, if
possible, wherein we have been remiss
in taking advantage of the conditions
that were favorable, or of improving
those that were bad, or of mitigating
their effects. The season of 1915, in
the much greater part of Illinois,
opened up with many forebodings to
the bee-keeper. The terrible drought
of the preceding year-^ ought to have
said of several years — still continued.
White and alsike clovers were all dead.
Sweet clover, in most places, did not
seem to be in much better condition,
and it did seem as though there would
be no bloom from which a orop of
honey could be expected. . All colonies
of bees in the lower four-fifths of the
state had gone into winter quarters
light in stores and generally weak in
bees, being especially deficient in young
bees, owing to the very adverse wea-
ther conditions that had prevailed dur-

ing all of the year, and especially dur-
ing the fall. The result was that the
loss of colonies in wintering was very
great and most of those that did sur-
vive came out of winter quarters so
weak that it took months to build
them up again, even when they sur- ,
vived at all. Thanks to the very
favorable weather during April, other-
wise the mortality would have been ap-
palling. About the middle of May a
great and unexpected — and I might add
a sudden — change in the weather con-
ditions took place. It began to rain,
and it continued to rain, rain, rain all
through the remainder of May, all of
June and July, until the ground was so
thoroughly saturated that the farmer
could not cultivate his crops at all, the
result being that all corn fields, and
small grain stubble, grew the largest
and finest crop of heart's ease that I
have ever seen. The bees up to the
middle of August had hardly held their
own, and in many cases had to be liber-
ally fed to keep up brood rearing, but,
after the middle of August, honey be-
gan to come in so fas that it was diffi-
cult to keep the bees supplied with -ftie
necessary supers in which to store their
honey. The crop in some instances
was almost marvelous ' for the large
amount of honey stored in so short a
time. I know in one case, where a bee-
keeper with 600 colonies averaged 100
pounds per colony, nearly all of which
was gathered in the space of about two
weeks.

The indications are, from reports re-
ceived, that fi'om a fair to a good crop
of fall honey was gathered over the
greater portion of the state. The bees,
in nearly all instances, have stored an
abundance of the best of honey to carry
them over until the first of next May
or longer, and have gone into winter
quarters quite strong, especially in
young bees, so we may look for them
to winter well where properly packed.

Foul brood has received more atten-
tion from the Inspectors than usual,
and much good work has been done to
clean It up. And yet, we must not re-
lax our energies and vigilance in fight-
ing it. I am not yet satisfied with
what we have accomplished in subdu-
ing this dreaded disease, and I recom-
mend thd.t, this coming year, which
promises to be a favorable one for
fighting this disease, we make still
greater efforts to clean it up.

28

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Your President was authorized, at
the last annual meeting, to institute
and conduct not to exceed four bee-
field meets in such parts of the state
as he thought most favorable for good
results. Owing to the unfavorable
weather conditions only two such
meetings were held — one "dlt Hamilton,
which was a grand success — and one
at Rockford, which your President was
unable to attend. I would recommend
that your incoming President be auth-
orized to again hold not to exceed four
such meetings during the coming sea-
son.

In the matter of continuing our affili-
ation with the National Bee-Keepers'
Association, I hardly know what to
recommend, but I believe that we have
nothing to gain by such affiliation and
therefore might just as well save the
expense and use the money we are pay-
ing that Association for a better pur-
pose.

President Baxter — The next thing in
order will be the reading of the
Minutes of our last annual meeting.

Mr. Stone — Mr. President, I will
have to make a little apology for not
having that. It is in our last report
and all the bee-keepers have read it
there, and I did not have the time.
After I left the hospital (some of you
know that I was there), in just the
four weeks and a half that I spent in
gaining strength enough to do it I ex-
tracted 900 lbs. of honey and got my
bees fixed in winter quarters, packed
and all that, and I didn't have any
time to get those Minutes ready, and
I thought they had often been dis-
pensed with by motion and I would let
them go and try to get enough time
to put 'in my report; but I want to
say a word. The weather is such that
we are sorry that hardly any of our
bee-keepers from the immediate
neighborhood are here. All of our
members near by Springfield are not
here.

President Baxter — What is your
pleasure in regard to the Minutes?

Dr. Baxter — I move that the reading
of the Minutes of the meeting be dis-
pensed with.

President Baxter — It is so ordered.
We wijl now listen to Mr. Stone's re-
port.
SECRETARY'S REPORT FOR 1915.

Judging from the past, we are in-

clined to look forward to a larger
membership the coming year than we
have had the past year. We have ob-
served in the years gone by that the
large honey crops were followed by an
increased membership, while small
crops were followed by a decreased
membership. On account of the poor
honey crop last year the result was,
for this year, a diminished member-
ship list by 49 members (185 this year,
including all the affiliated societies,
and last year — 234).

We notice that during the year ten
members have sent in their dollars,
who did not waait to join the National.
It seems that a $2 fee frightens them;
even though they get a membership in
the National and the Review as well.
Last year we received an enclosure of
$1.50 — when that was the amount of
fees for the two Associations — and the
writer said — if this is enough for
membership, in the State Association
"all right, for I do not want the Re-
view." Gave him what . he asked for,
and returned him 50 cents.

It is our opinion that the Secretary
— in getting out the needed letter
heads, and the applications for mem-
bers — should first state that $1 makes
them a member of the State Associa-
tion, and then make it known what
they will get for $2. This will make
it plain that if they wish to join only
the State Association they can do so.

The early prospect for honey this
year was so poor that we knew one
bee-keeper who talked of feeding a
part of his bees through the famine
and let the rest of them starve as
there was no prospect of any clover
honey. I have not found out what he
did, but I wonder what he thought
when the fall flow came in. It is a
very flattering promise of white clover
that we now have for next year; but
we will not say further as to this, but
leave it for the question box.

It was a great disappointment that
your Secretary met with, in not being
able to attend the tri-state meeting
at Hamilton on the 7th of August, in
order among things that he might have
something nice to relate. But our
President and some of our members
who were there will be able to tell of
the good meeting they had. We will
also want to hear from our President
as to any further field meetings that
may have been held.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

29

It is a remarkable fact that the
American people are prone to think
that what they know others know
also; and so we as bee-keepers sup-
pose that, because we are familiar with
the things pertaining to our industry,
the public generally are as well in-
formed. But we wish to repeat — what
you all know — that there is no indus-
try in the country anywhere that the
people generally know so little about.
To illustrate: A lady bee-keeper in
Chicago, wishing to become a member
of the nearest Association to her home,
wrote to "Gleanings" asking for infor-
mation. Gleanings gave her the ad-
dress of the Secretary of the Illinois
State and she wrote a letter to him
that he forwarded to the Secretary of
the Chicago -Northwestern, E. H.
Bruner, 3836 N. 44th Avenue, Chicago.

At our state fair this fall, we were
asked a number of times: Would you
advise every farmer to keep a stand
or two of bees? Our answer was:
No, except you expect to take care of
them. Why? Because the average
farmer, not being informed along the
line, might lose his bees with some
infectious disease, and his empty hives
would be a danger to others' bees.
This thought may provoke discussion,
for we have heard it argued otherwise.

The State Board of Agriculture, in
their last fall premium list, saw fit
to cut out the premium given for
handling bees in a cage. This will be
a subject for our premium list com-
mittee to report. In conference with
bee-keepers at the fair, the idea was
that our Association should ask for
space to be given for the exhibit of
apiarian supplies, as nothing would be
of more interest to bee-keepers, or
more educational to the general public.

We are being asked each year for
libraries of different states to be
placed on our mailing list, for our an-
nual report; from California, west, to
Massachusetts, east.

Finally, Mr. President, with the ap-
proval of this Convention, it is our
mind that our annual report should be
gotten out earlier in the year, and, if
the National cannot furnish its report
by an earlier date than it has been
doing, then let it be left out. What
say you?

President Baxter — You have heard
the report of the Secretary, what will
you do with it?

A member — I move the report be ap-
proved.

President Baxter — The next thing in
order will be our Treasurer's Report.

CHAS. BECKER, Treasurer.

TREASURER'S REPORT.

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association.

Charles Becker, Treasurer.

DISBURSEMENTS.

From November 5th, 1914, to Novem-
ber 27th, 1915.

Date No.

1914 To Whom Paid Voucher Amount

Nov. 19— Prof. J. G. Mosier 65 $ 4.60

Nov. 19 — C. Becker 66 .96

Nov. 19 — Burke Vancll 67 10.00

Nov. 19 — Rev. MacLeod... 68 5.00

Nov. ^0 — C. Becker 69 25 00

Nov. 20— Supt. State House 70 5 00

Nov. 20 — L. M. Stewart 71 10.00

Nov. 25 — Mrs. A. L. Kildow 72 5.00
Nov. uo — Mrs. Harry L.

King 73 4.00

Nov. 25 — Lewis Werner... 74 3.00
1915

Jan. 4 — E. H. Bruner 75 17 74

Feb. 24— L. M. Stewart... 76 62.50

Mar. 10 — L. M. Stewart 77 85 00

Mar. 30— B. J. Baxter 78 6150

May 14 — Illinois State Regi-
ster, printing re-
port 79 436.07

May 14— James A. Stone... 80 50.00

May 22— E. J. Baxter 81 11.62

Nov. 9 — Lewis Werner... 82 24.20

Nov. 9 — J.A.Stone 83 58.57

Total Paid $ 879.76

30 FIFTEENTH ANNUAI^ REPORT OF THE

' -ik

Bal. on hand in State Fund $1,336.21 President Baxter — We will hear from

Received on Ass'n Fund 286.94 ^^e Legislative Committee, I believe Dr.

Total Receipts $2,502.91 Baxter was the Chairman.

ASSOCIATION FUND. Dr. Baxter — You were the Chairman,

On hand Nov. 18. 1914 .$ 197.44 Mr. President.

^171915^ . !!°"! ^: .^: .^*.°"^ . .^'°''' 89 so president Baxter— Well, ladies and

! gentlemen, I don't know just what to

'i'otal $ 2S6.94 report. I know that we secured our

Credit paid J. A. Stone lOO-OO $1,000 for the Association and I believe

Balance on hand $ 186.94 we secured the $2,000 for the Inspector,

Credit Nov. 9, 1915, J. A. Stone... 89.50 but I believe some part of it was ap-

Balance on hand Nov. 18, 1914.... 197.44 p^opriated in an illegal manner, so it

Total $ 286.94 was cut out by the Supreme Court.

Bal. on hand in Association Fund $ 186.94 ivr,. -crii/^^-nr «cnn ^<' ,■ +

Paia J. A. Stone 100.00 Mr. Kildow— $600 of it.

Paid into State Fund 879.76 President Baxter — What was that

Balance on ..and in State Fund.. 1,336.21 fo^., the paying of deputies, was it not?

Total $2,502.91 Mr. Kildow— No, the Inspector's per

Respectfully diem; that was all that was held up.
CHARLES BECKER,

Treasurer. President Baxter — I think we will get

President Baxter — You have heard that; we are all right, we have gotten

the report of the Treasurer, what will what we expected to get and we will

you do with it? ^® ^1' right for the next two years;

Mr. Kildow — I move that the Treas- an<3. if there is no meeting of the legis-

urer's Report be received and turned lature this coming winter, we will not

over to the Auditing Committee. have to worry about that.

Motion seconded and carried. President Baxter — Are there any

President Baxter — I will appoint on other committees, Mr. Secretary?

that Committee Mr. C. P. Dadant and Dr. Baxter— In regard to that Legis-

Dr. Baxter. tive Committee; you know the legisla-

President Baxter— I believe the $61 ture is in session now and the $614 that

I received was the expense of your is coming to Mr. Kildow will have to

delegate to Denver. be looked after by the Legislative Com-

What is your further pleasure? mittee. In fact the whole appropriation

Mr. Stone-^In itemizing the account, is slightly in jeopardy for the Inspec-

I wish the Treasurer would state what tor; I think it will be well while we

it is for. The item of $58.57 paid to are here to see the members of the

James A. Stone is for items as fol- Appropriation Committee. •

lows: (Paid for supplies during the President Baxter-Well, we will do

year) : ^j^^^^

1914. ®*^** ^""'^ *° ''^^- ^- ®*°"^- Mr. Kildow-If the legislature does

Nov. 14 — Express on badges $ .26 not re-make that appropriation we are

Nov. 14-One rubber date stamp... .25 out, as I understand it.

Nov. 14 — One bottle ink 6.t

Nov. 17— Telegram from B. N. Gates .60 Dr. Baxter — We will be out the $614.

Nov. 20 — Kessberger, for photograph •., t--ij t* t, t

of group .... 2 00 Mr. Kildow — If you have no Inspec-

1915. tor he cannot appoint any deputies, so
Jan. 7—1,000 stamped envelopes you are out; we have to look after the

and printing 13.00 , , ... c ^-u »o nnn *i

Jan. 7—1.000 envelopes and print- ^^'^ole appropriation of the $2,000, the

ing 2.50 way it looks to me, while just now the

Jan. 7— Printing POOO circular injunction holds out that part that goes

letters, $8.75; postage, 3u ^ .i, t j. „ j- t

cents .... ..... ... 9 05 ^'^ ^^e Inspector, per diem. I was up

Jan. 12 — Stationery and postage 31 to see about it this morning, they have

Jan. 16— One fee in stamps ._ .50 paid the expenses up to date but they

Jan. 19 — Gummed paper, 2.-) cents: , -r. -u j- .^ <-. .. i,

one rubber stamp, 50 cents .75 have, held my per diem for September

Apr. 20 — 2.^0 large Manila envelopes. 2.70 and-iQc'tober. They have it tangled up

May 6—100 fi cent stamps for send- ■ gohiewhere; I had to make a schedule

mg out Report 6.00 ... ^ x- r. ^ x .i. j ^■

May 6—200 5 cent stamps for send- out, stating what I pay the deputies

ing out Report 10.00 per diem, etc; the $614 was to pay

Nov. 4—50 badges for Convention. . 10.00 ^ne per diem; that is the only part the

Total $58.57 injunction has held up, but if they don't

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

31

iix the rest of the appropriation it looks
like we would be in the soup. It would
be well enough to have this Legisla-
tive Committee look after that.

Mr. Hawkins — Why would it not be
a good idea, as long as the legislature
is in session and that question has been
brought up, for everybody, every mem-
ber of this Association who is here, to
write the members of that Board, or
the Chairman of that Board, as good a
letter as we can, and mail it to the
Board, favoring the re-appropriation of
that money? We might as well do a
little lobbying as well as all the other
associations in the State are doing. It
seems to me that a number of letters
<;oming in like that would make a good
impression.

Mr. Dadant — I think it is important
for the Association to pass a resolution
and pass it unanimously if possible,
after the report of the Inspector, stat-
ing to the legislature that we insist
on this appropriation as necessary to
the success of bee culture in Illinois. I
believe, if we do that, it ought to do
more good than private letters, but of
course the private letters could be sent
also.

President Baxter — That point is well
taken. Mr. Dadant, will you get up one
of those resolutions to present to the
Association this afternoon?

Mr. Dadant — I think we should have
the report of the Inspector.

Mr. Hawkins — I believe that a letter
would be even better than to person-
ally see those men. When they come
down here quite often it is a fact they
are very busy, and at a time when it
might be convenient for us to see them
it might be exceedingly inconvenient
for them to take the time; but a letter
would get to them when they are not
over crowded with business and their
minds would be a little more receptive
to meeting our demands.

Dr. Baxter — With regard to letter
writing: I have been on three com-
mittees this last legislature. The aver-
age man pays no attention to a letter;
he has a great deal of mail from hun-
dreds of other people; and, if you
really want to get anything, the way
is to buttonhole your man and get his
promise; nail him right down and stay
with him; Avhile a letter might reach
a few men, it will not reach a great
majority of them.

President Baxter — That has been my ',
experience; six years ago when we
first got this apropriation, if we had
not seen to it personally and nailed
our men right down, we would never
have gotten it.

Mr. Stone — There is one matter that
I believe ought to be settled before
we go into the Question Box, and that
is in regard to our union with the Na-
tional; and that is a question of pretty
broad foundation. Our members want
to pay their fee, and we do not know
what to charge them until we settle
this matter of the National; we can
tell them $1 makes them a member of
the State Association and let them pay
that, but maybe they want to join the
National and get the Review.

President Baxter — I would not be in
favor of settling that question now.
I want to thrash this out thoroughly
before we do anything, and I would
not want to do that before tomorrow
morning. Let them pay their $1 to
the State and if we decide to remain
affiliated and they want to pay their
S.50 they can and- if they want the ,
Review they can pay their dollar; they
do not have to pay $2 to become a
member of the National and State So-
ciety, because it was unanimously de-
cided at the Convention at Denver that
$.50 would make one a member of the
National without the Review and $1 ,
for a member of the National with the
Review.

Mr. Stone — Is it so stated in their
report?

President Baxter — I don't care what
their report says ; I know better than
the Secretary does what occurred; the
Minutes have been made up to suit
their own fancy. We will not have to
go by those Minutes. I have copies of
the report I took myself and I know
what should be in there and what
should not.

I met with Mr. Williams and with
the Secretary, or the Assistant to the
Secretary, I forget his name, and with
Mr. Foster, in the hotel just previous
to leaving, after we had adjourned isine
die, and thQ;- Minutes were in such a
mess we could not make head nor tail
to them, but I had a copy of what had
passed, and we agreed on taking those,
and they were submitted to Mr. PeH^tt
and Mr. Phillips and several others who
took a verj' decidedly active part in the
proceedings, for verification, and they

32

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

verified them, and I know these M^rtj^
utes that are printed in this book are
not what they should be.

Mr. Pyles — In order that the Minutes
become law, they must be adopted
either at the close of the meeting or
at the next annual meeting before they
become a fixed law, and if they have
not been adopted they can be changed,
and they cannot if they have been
adopted, unless by another act.

I myself would be opposed to going
on and undertaking to settle this mat-
ter at this time because there will be
some questions along this line and I
think it should be thrashed out thor-
oughly before any action Is taken. Per-
haps some one here is interested in
having us remain affiliated with the
National. I myself, of course, am in
favor of standing upon our own found-
ation but I do not believe in taking un-
fair advantage of the man who may
believe the other way; and I think we
should take action on this tomorrow
morning.

Mr. Stone — If a man wants to be a
member of the State Association and
the National and get the Review he
pays $2; the State Association gets
50 cents.

President Baxter — My understanding
is not that way.

Mr. Stone — That is the way I have
been instructed.

President Baxter — I know that it was
decided out there that it was not ob-
ligatory on any person joining the Na-
tional, to take the Review; the Review
is no part nor parcel of the -National;
strictly independent of it.

Mr. Stone — $2 pays the whole bill;
for the Bee-Keepers' Review $1, and
50 cents goes to the National to pay
their expense, 50 cents going to the
State.

Mr. Hawkins — I think that is one
grand bluff. If they can get $1 for the
Bee-Keepers' Review they will be $1
ahead because I do not value the Bee-
Keepers' Review very highly. I think
somebody has tried to get by with that
$1 proposition for the Review. It has
been done as a great many other things
are done; they fix things over to suit
themselves, and the last one fixes it to
suit himself. I feel confident our Presi-
dent, having been on the ground, Avould
know what kind of Act was passed by
the National Bee-Keepers' Association

and if he says it was $1 for the Na-
tTtonal and the Review I believe the
President understood it that way, re-
gardless. Some of the people who have
been doing work for the National Bee-
Keepers' Association, it looks as though
their work has been more or less
crooked from the start. I think the in-
tention was to wreck the National from
the start.

Mr. Seibold — Does not the National
Bee-Keepers' Association own the Re-
view?

President Baxter — No, they don't.
They did until the last meeting; they
sold it.

Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, •! want
to say that, in this matter of the Na-
tional and the Review, there has been
considerable misunderstanding, but I
think one thing stands out very promi-
nently, that the present editor of the
Review is as honest and straight a man
as you can find anywhere, and he has
been laboring under great difficulties,
and managing that paper at a loss. I
think we should give him credit for
doing his best.

Mr. Pyles — I have a question here
along this same line, that it might be
well to read before we get to thrashing
it out.

Question — Has the National Associa-
tion benefited the average bee-keeper
in the last year, and if so to what ex-
tent?

President Baxter — We might just as
well answer that question, if there is
any one here "who can answer that;
then we can talk further upon the ad-
visability of remaining with the Na-
tional or not remaining with it. Does
any one want to volunteer this inform-
ation?

Mr. Diebold — I have not been bene-
fited, except by reading their report of
the National Bee-Keepers' Association
at Denver; that is the only benefit I
received.

President Baxter — Thej' published a
partial report in the Review, nothing
very definite, and probably not exactly
as it took place there. I can say that,
because w^e had some pretty tough
times there. A committee was ap-
pointed for the purpose of incorporat-
ing the National at the St. Louis meet-
ing a year ago last February; our
President, Mr. Gates, was on that Com-
mittee; Mr. Gates was with us here

; ^- V.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

S3

last winter. He in connection with
Mr. Stone, our Secretary, undertook to
incorporate tiie National. Mr. Stone
had a friend here, a prominent lawyer,
and got up papers of incorporation, also
a set of By-Laws and a Constitution,
and they incorporated here in Illinois.
Knowing what they had done at the
Convention in St. Louis the year be-
fore, I, as the delegate from this So-
ciety to Denver, took precautions so
they would not get ahead of us at Den-
ver; I wrote to Mr. Stone for a copy
of the incorporation papers and the
By-Laws and Constitution; so I went
to Denver prepared.

The meeting was called to order;
Mr. "Williams was the Secretary; and
things proceeded on pretty smoothly
until the question of incorporation
came up; then Mr. Williams objected
to incorporating the Society at all; he
said that "they had no right to incor-
porate; that the old Constitution would
still exist, even though they did incor-
porate.

t

But there was a set of delegates
there, consisting of Mr. Gates, Mr. Pel-
lett, Mr. Yaeger of Minnesota, myself,
and a few others whom I cannot re-
member, who were determined to see
this Association incorporated, and to
see that none of the members of the
National were to be held legally re-
sponsible for any of their debts, espec-
ially as they persisted in going into
the supply business.

Well, I made a motion that the pa-
pers of incorporation as filed here in
Illinois be accepted as the papers of
incorporation for the Association, and
that -the new Association absorb the
membership of the old Association, and
it was objected to by Mr. Williams, but
in spite of that it carried.

Then the next thing on the program
was to adopt the Constitution of the
new Association.

Mr. Williams had a copy of the Con-
stitution. I believe Mr. Stone sent one
to Mr. Townsend, and Mr. Williams got
his copy; Mr. Williams took the copy
and locked it up in his valise, and
locked the Minutes up and was about
to leave the room; he thought in that
way we would have nothing to go by;
and I pulled out my papers of incorpo-
ration and the Constitution; we began
to work and Mr. Williams came back,
and I said to him: "Mr. Williams, if

you don't unlock your satchel and give
us the Minutes of this meeting so far,
and last year, I will get out a writ of
replevin against you and have those
papers here and that will be the last
of you." He studied a few minutes and
opened up his valise and he got the pa-
pers and went to work, and that is
the kind of feeling and the fuss we had -
all through the meeting; one man tried
to block the whole thing, and that one
man was undoubtedly retained by Mr.
Townsend; so you may imagine all the
benefit a Society like that can do to
the bee-keepers at large throughout the
United States, when that feeling exists.

After incorporating, and adopting
our Constitution and By-Laws, the By-
Laws and Constitution provide for no
publication of the Review nor for the
engaging in the sale of supplies.

The Executive Committee was auth-
orized to receive bids for the Review,
and Mr. Williams on behalf of Mr.
Townsend made a bid, and Mr. Foster
also made a bid, and Mr. Foster's bid
was thought to be the better of the two,
and the Executive Committee was
authorized to sell the Review to Mr.
Foster, and did so sell it to him.

I don't know whether he ever got |
hold of the paper, or whether it was .]
transferred to him or not. I, as one of
the Directors, have never been in-
formed, but I got a letter from Mr.
Townsend some time ago containing a
contract in which the Review was to
be sold to him for a certain consider-
ation, and he wanted me as one of the
Directors to sign the contract trans-
ferring the Review to him.

I told him the Executive Committee
had not been authorized to sell the
Review to Mr. Foster and until that
Executive Committee had reported to
the National what their actions had
been in the matter it would be folly
for any one else to sell to any one,
that the sale would be illegal: and
that is the way the matter stands.

I could tell you a great deal more
about what took place there but I
don't think it is necessary just now.
I can say that I am on the fence; I
don't know what to do.

I understand that Mr. Tyrrell, who
held a bill against the National for
something like $500 unpaid on the Re-
view, has transferred all of his inter-
est in the Review to Mr. Townsend. ;

—3

34

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

That being the case, I do not see
where the National is liable any more.
I understand that Iowa is going to
.withdraw from affiliation, and, if Iowa
land Illinois withdraw from affiliation
with the National, the National will
be dead because Illinois and Iowa con-
stitute a, great majority of the mem-
bership.

Another thing:

The Board of Directors, while the
Review was made the organ of the
National Bee-Keepers' Association,
were authorized that, whenever the
Review published anything, which in
the opinion of the Board of Directors
was not favorable and in accord with
the ideas of the affiliated societies,
then the Board of Directors should
forthwith discontinue the Review as
an official organ of the National As-
sociation.

Now during the past year the Board
of Directors would have been war-
ranted in taking that step; and the
minute the Directors take that step
the Review is dead, soi there you are;
you can do as you please about it.

Is there anything further on this
question?

Mr. Dadant — I wish to take excep-
tion to one statement you make: That,
if the Illinois and Iowa Associations
withdraw from the National, the Na-
tional will die. Perhaps if you would
put it, the present National organiza-
tion would die, that would be right;
I believe that the National Associa-
tion has gone through so many storms
it is bound to continue I think mis-
takes were made the last few times
in organizing as we did.

The United States are so large it is
almost impossible to get representa-
tion from all the states to be suffi-
cient to carry out the wishes of every
state or the bee-keepers from every
state.

When the National meets in the
east, the western states are absent,
and, when it meets in the west, the
eastern states do not respond; we
rarely get any representation from the
south.

I have attended so many meetings
and I have found that it becomes
localized wherever it goes.

This will not prevent it from con-
tinuing those meetings, but one ques-
tion is, whether in its present form it

can continue to do good to the bee-
keepers of the United States.

Mr. Baxter — I will say that we tried
to reorganize in St. Louis. Mr,
Dadant was there and knows what a
stormy time we had; we sat up until
after midnight writing Constitution
and By-Laws and resolutions and had
them adopted by delegates; and then
they were fixed up afterwards to suit
the purposes of some one; we had the
same thing in Denver; and in view
of that I am satisfied that the Na-
tional will die a natural death; it will
never be reorganized, I believe.

We may organize a new Associa-
tion, and I think that is the only thing
we can do, but this society will never
be reorganized and it is bound to die,
sooner or later,

Mr. Baxter — Mr. Kildow, what have
you to say on the subject?

Mr. Kildow — It is my opinion, wo
had better kill it in the form it now
is; and then, if they want to organ-
ize it and get it in some kind of shape,
all right; under present conditions,
the way it has been running, it looks
like an up-hill proposition; I have
thought so for three years but I was
with the majority; it has done me no
good, so far as I can see; I am will-
ing to let it die a natural death.

Mr. Pyles — I believe a great many
will remember that two years ago I
made a statement over in the State
House, that none of us cared what the
dues of the National Association werte
— $5 or $10, so that we got $5 or $10
or more dollars good of it; nobody
cares about expense, if we are getting
something for our money, but I can-
not see where anyone will get any-
thing out of it; some people may get
something, but I can't see where I
would get any benefit.

Someone said this morning in the
room here that they could buy goods
from the National and they were able
to advertise in the Review — but I be-
lieve Dr. Baxter said he could buy
cheaper through some firm in Illinois
or Wisconsin; I cannot see where the
Review has done any good. I said
two- years ago, that when Mr. Hutch-
inson died the Review died with him,
and we must first raise some one up
in Mr. Hutchinson's place with his
ability, who will place his stamp on
the Review as did Mr. Hutchinson,
in order to make the Review w-orth

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

35

taking. I do not believe we have a
man who is fit to take Mr. Hutchin-
son's place and continue the Review.
I cannot see any benefit in my be-
longing to the National.

President Baxter — We will lay this
question over until tomorrow.

Mr. Stone — I will say in this matter
that, if we have to affiliate with the
National in a body or not get the
benefit of it, I am opposed to it be-
cause I believe a good many members
stay out of our Association because
the fee is so high and they cannot
join one without joining all; by all I
mean, the Review as one, the National
as another, and the Illinois State as
another.

One man sent in $1.50; he said, if
that is enough to join the State As-
sociation, all right, but, if I have got
to take the Review to join the State
Association, you can send me back
my money; I put him down for $1
for joining the State Association and
sent him back $.50.

Pres. Baxter — I think we decided
last year it was not necessary; that
they could join the State Society and
not the National, if they desired.

Mr. Stone— Since they were reor-
ganized I didn't know how it stood.

President Baxter — Our State corpor-
ation compels us to accept the fee of
any one who wants to .join this so-
ciety.

We will defer this matter until to-
morrow.

Mr. Stone — Before we adjourn: The
Secretary of the Commercial Associ-
ation has offered us the room that is
just off from their ofl^ce in which to
meet this afternoon. We will me
there after dinner, on account of the
City Commission needing this room
for an hour or two in the afternoon.

QUESTION BOX.

Question — Queens reared in June —
will they swarm the same season?

Mr. Kildow — Sometimes they will.

Mr. Dadant — I know of an old col-
ony that swarmed twice; and of
course the queen rearing in June it
was the same season.

Mr. Kildow — A little out of the usual
but they will do it.

President Baxter — I have caught as

many as seven or eight queens in one
swarm, the second swarm.

Mr. Pyles — I imagine the Idea was
— A queen reared and mated in June,
in the same colony, w;ill it swarm
again the same year?

President Baxter — That depends
upon circumstances.

Mr. Kildow — After a colony swarms
and rears new queens, they will
swarm again that season and some-
times they will swarm twice after
that; that is unusual.

Mr. Handle — I got a swarm around
about the 24th of June. They swarmed
three times.

Mr. Dadant — I think it would be a
mistake for us to lay down cast iron
rules for bees to follow; I don't be-
lieve they would follow them.

Mr. Pyles — It has been given out by
a great many leading bee-keepers
that Italian queens re-hatched and
mated from the same hive will not
swarm if they have been given room
enough that year. They can be forced
to swarm, I believe, and yet there are
some colonies that will not be forced
to swarm. The first time I was in St.
Anne I went to Mr. Duby's; he had
been trying to force his bees to swarm
but they could not be forced; but in
most cases I believe that, if you give
the bees sufficient room to start with
and then crowd them down on room,
they will swarm.

Mr. Coppin — The way I understand
it, it is the honey flow that causes
them to swarm; if there is no honey
flow, they will not swarm. You may
try to force them, but it is the honey
flow that causes them to swarm; of
course it is different if the bees have
not room to start the honey and there
is a good flow of honey in the field;
but we don't have many such swarms
because we generally look out for
them and see that they have all the
room they want.

President Baxter — I would say, it
all depends upon circumstances and
management by. the bee-keeper. If
you are raising extracted honey, and
you know how to manage your Ijees,
I guess you will not get any swarms.
In my two apiaries this year I did
not get any that I know of; in comb
honey raising it would be different.
I believe you can make conditions so
that you can force them to swarm;

36

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

by feeding them enough and crowding
them they undoubtedly will swarm,
but under natural conditions and
proper management they would very
rarely swarm.

Mr. Diebold — It has been my ex-
perience that conditions of pasture
have much to do with it, whether it
be field or timber. In a timber coun-
try, the pasturage is really good;
under those conditions, regardless of
race or color, the common honey bee
will swarm if they have not the room.
The room they have I think, has
largely to do ^bout swarming; if con-
fined to small hives and given no
supers, they will swarm; that is my
experience.

Mr. Pyles — Not always; I just told
about a case at Mr. Duby's, at St.
Anne; they were down to small
patches of brood in the bottom of the
frame not larger than your hand, and
they didn't swarm. In 1900 as I re-
member it we had a fair crop of white
clover honey that year.

My idea is that if the queen is able
to occupy the entire brood nest, the
entire hive body with brood, and they
start to crowd her down, it can crowd
her down and I don't think there is
a particle of danger; there is no rea-
son why they should swarm.

President Baxter — Those conditions
are unnatural. You never saw an
apiary under normal conditions
crowded with honey gathered the
same year that had gone dowm that
way unless there was something
wrong. What was it?

Mr. Pyles — American foul brood.

Mr. Coppin — Mr. Diebold said that,
regardless of race or color, in good pas-
turage the bees will swarm if they have
not the room. I find, with me, that the
Carniolan bee will always swarm more
than any other. Early in the spring,
, before I am expecting any swarming —
it will be the Carniolan that will do
the first swarming. We always have a
pasturage of fruit bloom; and the Car-
niolans are liable to swarm then; the
others won't.

Question— What can be done to se-
cure a special apiary building at the
Fair?

Mr. Kildow — Leave it with the Com-
mittee to find out; w-e could not dis-

cuss that here; we might discuss as to
whether "or not we need one.

Mr. Dadant — I was the one who put
that question; my reason for it was
that Minnesota has a special building.
I had some correspondence with them
and they told me they had a well-
filled building and that it attracted a
great deal of attention; that they ex-
tracted honey during the whole week,
for six days, the bee-keepers of the
state brought enough honey to keep the
extractor busy.

That is education, both for the bee-
keeper and for the consumer. A great
many consumers do not know what ex-
tracted honey is; a great many people
imagine extracted honey is adulterated
honey. There is nothing better for the
education of the people than running
an extractor for those who are not ac-
quainted with bee culture.

Minnesota has a special building at
the Fair. Why cannot Illinois have
one? We ought to be able to get one
if Minnesota is. Our state is as rich
and our State Fair can certainly afford
as much as the state of Minnesota in
the interest of bee culture.

Mr. Kildow — That is the information
we want to get before this meeting;
just such information as that, and I
think we can get something in the way
of a building, or get the rest of the
space in the building we have been
using.

President Baxter — This is an import-
ant question. I believe we had better
hold this question over and discuss it
more at length and probably appoint
a committee to take any action in the
matter that is necessary; it might be a
good idea for some of us to have a talk
with Mr. Davison and enthuse him a
little and we may help along those
lines.

We Avill stand adjourned until this
afternoon. Adjourned until 1:30 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Meeting convened at 1:30 o'clock No-
vember 29th, 1915.

President Baxter — The address by
Doctor Phillips is the first number on
the program this afternoon. We will
defer that until later and have Mr. Kil-
dow's report as State Foul Brood In-
spector.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

Zl

Fifth Annual Report of Inspector of Apiaries.

Date

p
o

o

ft «

(13
03

^ ^ g;

>? E? d?
•f3 _

• p ■■'?: ►I £.

."5- P=5- ^-5.

1914.
Nov

anri

14

2

46

2

17

Treating A. F. B.

making reports

Xov State Convention at Spring-
field ••

Dec Bulletin and Northwestern

Convention work

1915.

Feb 60 '.

March

April 497 22 4 4

April 143 17 10 7 3 ...

30

88

7

201

20

July -Circular Letters and En-
velopes

Jul-^- 142S 96 33 8 2.5 .. .

Aug.. 782 31 11 10 1 ...

Aug Bulletins and Engravings..

Aug 1435 106 35 22 13 ...

ySept Tri-State Inspectors' Con-
vention and North-
western "Bee-Keepers'

Convention

262 12 6 5 1 ...

143 2

Oct Halftones, Etching and

Retouching

Oct Clasp Envelopes

Oct 72 5 o "

*May 514

*May 934

June 355

*June 2179

July 400

6

26
2

80
9

6
12

'34

7

Sept.
tOct.

o

Total. ..9204 637 230 120 107

26

6

4
18

7
22
221/2

4

51 y2

18

27

18

'38

9

10

5

2
271

■3

U.

(t

Cu

3

a

Ui

3

a

r-^

Remarks

$ 7.16

39.26
49.10

'66!49

14.02
12.78
12.23

12.17 $

7.54

5 . 41 . .
42.82

8.59 ..
48.73
16.94

4.40
59.77
23.60

1.00
1.00

2.35
'i2!67

4.75

"4!i3

14.50

"3!62
62.00

3.00

11.94
5.00

% 8.00 -Inspector
8.00

'20 . 00

24.00

Inspector

16.00

72.00

Inspector

28.00

Deputies

88.00

Inspector

90.00

Deputies

16.00

Inspector

206.00

Deputies

72.00

Inspector

108.00

Deputies

72.00

Inspector

152.00

Deputies

. 36.00

Inspector

40.00

Deputies

20.00

Inspector

8.00

Deputies

$425.01 §125.36 $1,084.00 $1,634.37

* Destroyed with owners' consent,
t Held up by injunction.

Mr. Kildow — The first of August I
sent out circular letters to all bee-
keepers having disease in their apiaries,
asking them to report to me if they had
cleaned up, and what method they had
used. I got reports from 114; 107 of
them stated they had cleaned up as
far as they knew; five of them re-
ported that they had some yet; two
reported they did not know. There
are a number of them of course who
have not reported yet. Those I will
make a special effort to see next year,
and to see what they have done, and if
they have not done anything I will
see that they -get busy.

If it is not gotten rid of by the time
I get around to them next year I will
see that they attend to it. By sending

out this - cijcular letter and getting
these reports, it gave me a very good
idea of what they have done this year.

Mr. Pyles^-Did you figure out what
it cost per colony?

Mr. Kildow — I cannot figure that very
well. A good deal of my time is spent
looking after other things instead of
going into the apiary inspecting, be-
cause there are so many other things
I have to look after besides inspecting.
You can tell what it would cost per
colony from the expense.

Mr. Pyles — I figure it will cost 18
cents per colony.

Mr. Dadant — According to this that
I have before me, which is last year's
report, the number of colonies exam-

u

38

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

A. L. KILDOW,
State Foul Brood Inspector.

ined was 12,869. You are right, the
total is $1,578.06; that is twelve cents
per colony for all colonies examined.

President Baxter — What are your
general conclusions as to the status of
the disease in the state and the terri-
tory that has already been cleaned up,
if any?

Mr. Kildow — I think one of my depu-
ties from the east side will explain
about his state there.

We have been going now for several
years, and we find a vast iinprovement;
in the territory where we have been
only once, they have to learn about it,
but where we have been for two or
three years, going back and forth and
watching them, they are cleaning up
well, and unless they get very negli-
gent again we will soon have that part
of the territory all cleaned up.

President Baxter — It is decreasing.

Mr. Kildow — It is decreasing where
we have been educating the people;
this is not a thing that can be cleaned,
up in one or two years; it takes a per-
iod to do it.

President Baxter — Next year will
probably be a good year to do it; you

\

should have intelligent deputies to do
the work and clean up as much as pos-
sible.

Mr. Kildow— It is hard to get a com-
petent deputy, one who can afford to
take the time, because he has to go out
and neglect his business, that is, his
own business. If the people around the
state will tell where there is a good
man I will appoint him; I can get his
appointment by Civil Service.

President Baxter — They should be
appointed in the immediate vicinity
where the inspection work is to be
done, if possible.

Mr. Kilc[o\^S — A man who is capable
of doing this work, as a rule, has an
apiary of hig own or some other busi-
ness that will pay him a little better
than that, and one who does not know
about it is a poor one to put in the
field.

I would like to have more inspectors
to scatter out over the state. I will
not appoint a man who is not good; it
is only using money and getting no re-
turn.

Mr. Pyles — Do you Tnake volunteer
visits to these apiaries or do you go
by invitation?

Mr. Kildow-^oth. KI have an idea
it is in a locality I go, and, if I get
word from ther^ I send or go myself.
I can go whereveb I see flt in my own
.■judgment. I will answer any questions
I can^and if you want any more light
on anything I will try to explain it.

Mr. Diebold — What time of tne year
is the best time to clean bees to cure
foul brood? I use the McEvoy treat-
ment.

Mr. Kildow — That is a good treat-
ment.

President Baxter — Mr. Diebold asks^
What time of the year is best?

Mr. Diebold — What time of the year,
and month?

Mr. Kildow — The best time to do it
is when you And it.

Mr. Diebold — There must be honey
fl.ow coming in?

Mr. Kildow — Either that or you have
to make an artificial one.

Mr. Diebold — An artificial one I
should not think would be successful,
and it is expensive.

Mr. Kildow — You have to be very
careful about it. If you find your bees

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

39

diseased in the fore part of the season
it is the best time; you have a longer
season before you for them to build up
in, but if it is bad at any other season
you must begin immediately.

Mr. Diebold^The colonies were
strong- Jn the early spring and by the
time the bees commenced to swarm on
heartsease they were dwindled down to
little or nothing; I let them go through
drought without feeding.

Mr. ft^ildow — Most 'bee-keepers didn't
feed the bees and keep them strong
this year.

Mr. Mandle — Is there any certain ter-
ritory the deputy is supposed to cover?

Mr. Kildow — Not exactly; he is sup-
posed to go wherever I send him.

Mr. Mandle — You spoke about the
difficulty of appointing good deputies
because they would not care to take the
time to inspect other apiaries. You
can nearly always find somebody —
some slipshod fellow ■ in the commu-
nity — who has box' -hives who is liable
to have the disease. It seems to me
it would be a good thi% and would
stand the bee-keeper in h&nd who had
a good apiary if he could get somebody
to go in there and clean up these slip-
shod fellows, or if he could be himself
appointed long enough to have the
authority. If I suspect a bee-keeper in
my neighborhood has the disease, if I
had the authority, I would like to go
in and clean it up.

Mr. Kildow — I would like to get a
deputy as near as I can to the place
where the disease is. Here is another
drawback; your neighbor oftentimes
hates to mind his next door neighbor
and a stranger will do much better
than he will.

Mr. Mandle — We had an old fogy
bee-keeper in our town; he said he
had forgotten more than all the bee-
keepers in the country ever knew and
he didn't believe what was written
about it. Just such a fellow as that
is liable to have the disease.

Mr. Klidow — A stranger he will listen
to but he thinks he knows mdre than
his neighbor and hates to have his
-neighbor tell him what to do. Still
others we find have a good deal of com-
mon sense and want you to come.

Mr. Mandle — I understand the law is
that a man who has an apiary of that
kind is compelled to undergo inspection
in case it is necessary.

Mr. Kildow — Yes. I have to send
the names of my deputies in to the
Civil Service and it is up to them
whether they confirm my appointments.
Sometimes I have the privilege of ap-
pointing an emergency deputy, but that
takes a little red tape and I don't like
to do it very often, not more often
than I can help.

Mr. Bennett — How do you inspect
them?

Mr. Kildow — Turn them upside down
and take the comb out.

Mr. Mandle — I think I will give you
an invitation to come down to my
neighborhood next summer.

Mr. Dadant — I had a little experience
in regard to Deputy inspection work, or
rather my oldest son had. Mr. Kildow
appointed him as Deputy Inspector in
our neighborhood and he did very much
as Mr. Kildow has suggested: He
didn't have the time, and when he
found the disease in the neighborhood
he found the time because it was, as
some people say, a ground hog case.
We must destroy it or catch it our-
selves.

We got some ourselves and destroyed
it and it came back because it was in
the neighborhood.

If a man can be appointed Deputy
Inspector in neighborhoods, whose
business is of importance to them,
those men can be depended upon to
hunt it in the neighborhood and to con-
vince people whom they visit who have
the disease of the necessity of de-
stroying it, simply by asking the neigh-
bor to allow you to look at his bees and
calling attention to the rotten brood.
No man who has any sense at all, no
matter whether he knows everything
(and he is sure to find out he didn't
know as much as he thought he did) —
if he finds he has the disease, but what
will be anxious to have it cleaned up,
as anxious as you are, unless they are
fools. As a rule among bee-keepers
we have sensible men.

The men appointed should be men
who are interested in seeing the dis-
ease disappear in their neighborhood.

Mr. Kildow: — W^e have to go at our
neighbors easily, so they will not take
offense.

President Baxter — That depends up-
on circumstances. We had a case, you
will probably remember, in our neigh-

40

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

borhood, a half mile from m? a man
had a half dozen colonies of bees and
I detected foul brood, American, in tha
worst form. I sent for Mr. Kildow;
right away he came there and exam-
ined them and found they were very
bad; he left written instructions ac-
cording to law; told him Avhat to do,
and I didn't rest until I knew it was
done. I went back there in ten days
and found that instead of following in-
structions he had taken all this dead
brood and squeezed it up in a ball and
put it in the fork of a peach tree. I
telegraphed the Foul Brood Inspector
to come at once; he came and we went
in there and destroyed every colony he
had and threatened to put him through.

There is a $50 fine for that, and he
got scared and never repeated it; it is
good to notify them beforehand so as
not to run that risk. Fortunately, foul
brood did not spread from that. If it
Jjad been a season of drought we would
have been up against it. He did this
for spite work.

Mr. Mandle — This man I have in
mind, I believe if he knew he had foul
brood and could spread it and give us
other fellows a good dose of it he would
do it.

Mr. Diebold — Some years ago, I
don't know how long, Mr. Kildow came
up to my place. I had just cleaned up
the best I knew how. He said: "How
about your neighbors?" I said to him
that "my neighbor down here has seven
or eight or nine colonies." Mr. Kildow
dent down there and I asked for the
man; his wife said he was out of town;
I told her the Foul Brood Inspector was
there and would like to look at the
bees; she said her husband objected.

I talked to her and told her we would
like to have Mr. Kildow inspect one
hive, and she finally consented and we
found infection.

Mr. Pyles — I think Mr. Kildow will
bear me in this statement, when I say
that most of the inspection work done
in our immediate vicinity was done
long before we got a dollar for inspec-
tion work; we did that work for our-
selves, and every bee-keeper who is
interested in his community, if he has
influence with his neighbors, will be
able to do as much and more work
without the appointment.

If you send a man in his own locality
to inspect his neighbor's bees and he

goes out showing his teeth, he will
have to show his teeth all the way
through; he does not dare to make
trouble because they can get even with
him, and they will do it. If a man is
a stranger, some one they do not know,
he will be able to go in and get along
peacefully. They can't get even with
him and it is his business to get along
peaceably or he will lose his job. We
cannot get into trouble everywhere we
go or Mr. Kildow would not appoint us.
It is ours and Mr. Kildow's business to
get along. A man working in his com-
munity will do better without having
authority as deputy than he will with
it, among his neighbors.

President Baxter — That point is well
taken in most instances — sometimes
you have got to show your power and
use it.

Mr. Hawkins — We had a good deal
of foul brood up where I live this
spring. The Inspector came up there
and inspected several apiaries and
found the disease, and I personally
helped about a half dozen different
bee-keepers that were close enough to
me, so that my bees could rob, free of
charge, and was glad to do it. I think
every bee-keeper should be willing to
turn out and help his neighbor clean
up foul brood. The fellow who cannot
get out and help a neighbor should not
have any bees.

Those men were glad enough to clean
up as soon as they found out something
was wrong, and they all did it as soon
as they learned how.

It was as much to my advantage to
have them clean up as their own.

It is just as Mr. Kildow says — there
are times when it takes authority to
do anything.

. "We had one man who was ill at the
time the inspection was made; he was
taken down south, to Hot Springs,
Arkansas.

I went to his place two or three dif-
ferent times and tQok care of the dis-
eased colonies, and did all kinds of
work around there. He had been good
to me in the past, and I did not expect
any pay — and now within the last
couple of weeks, since he has returned
home, he has accused me of being in
conspiracy with the Foul Brood In-
spector, to beat him out of his bees and
take lioney off his place.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

41

I think that is a strong point against
a bee-keeper doing inspection work in
his own neighborhood. A stranger can
go in, with authority, and do more
good. He is not without honor except
in his own country.

Mr. Dadant — On this question, I must
remind you that a committee was ap-
pointed this morning to pass resolu-
tions to present to the legislature; I
have a sketch of it which we will have
typewritten if it is adopted:

A resolution passed unanimously by
the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' As-
sociation at the annual meeting of
November 29th, 1915.

To the Honorable, the Senate and
House of Representatives of the State
of Illinois:

Be it Resolved, By the Illinois State
Bee-Keepers' Association, an organ-
ization incorporated February 26, 1891,
under the laws of Illinois, and recog-
nized offlcially by the State of Illi-
nois, that we energetically assert the
indispensable need of a continuance of
the appropriation of Two Thousand
Dollars for the State Inspection of
Apiaries, necessary for the services of
the Inspector.

The above named Association re-
spectfully represents to the Illinois
Legislature that there has been a de-
crease in the diseases of bees in the
past few j^ears, owing to inspection
and the education imparted to the
farmer bee-keeper on this subject. But
this needs to be continued, to entirely
wipe out the contagious diseases,
which would be very fatal to our in-
dustry in the state, if allowed to
spread.

Respectfully submitted,
EMIL J. BAXTER,
JAS. A. STONE,

Secretarj'.

A member — I move the adoption of
this resolution.

Motion seconded.

President Baxter — Are you ready for
the question?

Mr. Kildow — The office is already
created; all we want is the appropria-
tion — continued appropriation".

Mr. Dadant — Then it should say — A
continuance of the appropriation for
the office. We will make that correc-
tion.

President Baxter — You have heard

the motion: Unless I hear any opposi-
tion we will consider it passed unani-
mously. It is so passed. All in favor
of the motion arise.

The response was unanimous.

Mr. Stone— We have forgotten our
badges, Mr. President; we will have
them now.

President Baxter — Dr. Phillips still
not being here, we will take up the
essay — a paper by Mrs. A. L. Kildow,

Mrs. Kildow— My paper has been ;
somewhat discussed in the previous
talks; perhaps there will be something
more you will wish to say when I get
through. My subject:

THOUGHTS RELATIVE TO BEE-
KEEPERS AND INSPECTORS.

The thoughts which I will now pre-
sent may not be applicable to the
members of this Association, for
thoughtless, indifferent bee-keepers are
just as indifferent about attending field
meets and associations as they are
about cleaning up their apiaries.

We have but limited means in help-
ing these, as the bee periodicals have
little attraction for them. But this
paper was prompted by the thought
that we should all understand the con-
ditions as the Inspectors find them.

Hence, from observation and the
reading of the correspondence of bee*
keepers, I concluded that in handling
bees and bee diseases "Knowledge is
Power," and, furthermore, that no bee-
keeper lives to himself. He is either
a help or a hindrance to others.

In regard to foul brood, he is either
a help or a hindrance to retaining it
in his own apiary.

The first thing to be considered in
regard to this disease is the man or
bee-keeper himself; if he is vigilant,
persistent, and painstaking, he cer-
tainly is a hindrance to the spread of
the disease, and will co-operate with
the Inspector, follow out instructions,
in a careful and systematic way.

On the other hand, if the bee-keeper
is a help to spread the disease, he will
be indifferent, /as some of the records
show.

After the Inspector has visited his
yard, mapped out a line of treatment,
cautioned about the scattering of dis-
eased combs, honey, et cetera, he will,
perhaps, destroy the worst colony, but
leave a hive, where the bees have died.

42

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

standing in the yard for other bees to
clean out, but in reality it is left to
sprelid disease. In some cases old
combs have been left scattered around
until the Inspector made another visit
and told him he must be more thorough
and careful in cleaning up.

Then still another visit must be
made to see that it was done. Thus
one bee-keeper is claiming time of the
Inspector for work he himself should
do.

• And these are the ones that are dis-
satisfied about not being rid of the
disease and think the Inspector is at
fault.

I will give you a quotation from a
letter this fall:

"You will remember I said there was
foul brood out in the country at Mr.

M place. Well, I have forgotten

what you advised. You told me how
you would handle them but I didn't
pay attention enough to recall it."

In this case the diseased apiary did
not belong to the writer but from their
writing I would say there are many
bee-keepers in the state just that in-
different concerning their own apiaries.

But in contrast to this we have the
bee-keeper who is ki^ earnest, is fair
to himself and his neighbor bee-keep-
ers, and is on the watch, and when the
Inspector visits his yard he is all at-
tention and ready to follow out instruc-
tions.

A quotation from a letter written the
Inspector by one of the deputies will
sustain this statement:

"I have been inspecting in Vermilion
County, around Westville, Danville,
Georgetown, etc. Your work there two
and three years ago seems to have
borne good fruit. The men yovf had
visited knew about disease, and I
could find no trace of it in their
apiaries."

The work of the Inspector and the
bee-keepers is very closely connected
in eradicating foul brood.

The Inspector should have knowledge
concerning the bees and bee diseases,
as well as be able to study human
nature. For they certainly should
know how to handle men as well as
bees, if they make a success of the
work. Again, they must be honest and
considerate and work for the best in-
terest of the bee industry; should be
willing to give instructions and advice

as to the best methods of treatment
and even show by example how to pro-
ceed in cases of cleaning up diseased
colonies.

In most cases where the bee-keeper
has faithfully co-operated with the In-
spectors in the endeavor to eradicate
the disease, the result has been success.

But from reports from the various
parts of the state and in answer to
questions sent out, we find that, on ac-
count of indifference and lack of knowl-
edge of the bee-keepers, the Inspectors
must keep close watch of affected dis-
tricts.

Now here is where the bee-keeper
should get in his work.

After having the disease pointed out
to him h'e should give attention to it,
follow out instructions in treating; be
careful and painstaking; keep tab of
all colonies affected and be ready to
report to the Inspector what method
of treatment was used and the present
condition of his apiary.

Now, if we give the proper study to
the bee periodicals and co-operate with
the Inspectors and men versed in bee
diseases, we may obtain knowledge so
that every careful and intelligent bee-
keeper may be able to detect and clean
up foul brood himself w'ithout expect-
ing the Inspector to call at his place
every month or six weeks.

If every bee-keeper in the state of
Illinois took the precaution to look
after his own apiary and do thorough
work in it, the disease of foul brood
would soon be a thing of the past.

MRS. A. L. KILDOW.

President Baxter — This paper, or the
thoughts expressed in it, have been
discussed already. Now if there is any
further discussion we would be pleased
to hear it..

Mr. Kildow — It seems to me that
these papers that are read ought to be
discussed, because that is where we get
our knowledge in the bee business;
and, if there is any point that comes up
that it is desired be explained, don't
be afraid to ask about it; it may be
some little thing that some one will
give that will help us, and we ought to
discuss these papers thoroughly.

President Baxter — This paper has al-
ready been discussed under your report,
so I don't think very much more can
be said.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

4S

Mr. Dadant — Is there something Mr.
Kildow would wish to bring out? If
so he might bring it up now. Mr.
President, we have a rport of the
Auditing Committee which can be done
away with very shortly.

President Baxter — Read it.

Mr. Dadant — "The Auditing Com-
mittee of the Illinois State Bee-Keep-
ers' Association have examined the
Secretary and Treasurer's books and
find same correst.

Springfield, 111., Nobember 29, 1915.
(Signed) C. P. DADANT,
A. C. BAXTER."

President Baxter — You have heard
the report of your Committee, what will
you do with it?

A member — I inove that the report
of the Committee be adopted and the
Committee be discharged.

Seconded and carried and so or-
dered.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Meeting convened at 1:30 p. m., No-
vember 29th.

President Baxter — We have a paper,
this afternoon, of Mr. C. F. Bender, of
Newman, 111. Will Mrs. Kildow read
this paper?

The Subject: The Prevention of
Disease Among Bees.

Mrs. Kildow read paper, as follows:

THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE
AMONG BEES.

(By Mr. C. F. Bender, Newman, 111.)
Strictly speaking, all our efforts in
treating diseased bees are directed to-
ward prevention — we do not doctor sick
larvae, but try to keep the trouble from
spreading to those that are well. In
any diseased colony there are many
larvae that are apparently healthy, and
that will mature into healthy bees. So,
in any diseased apiary, there are some
colonies that remain healthy even when
exposed to the worst conditions. This
power of resisting infection is called
immunity, and exists to some extent
in all living creatures. It is not easy
to say of what this immunity consists,
or how it is produced. It helps us
somewhat to know that it may be in-
herited.

This natural immunity, in its various
degrees, is our sheet anchor in the
treatment of foul brood. As it is im-

possible to destroy all the germs of
disease, there must be enough vigor
in the bees to render harmless those
that are left.

. Our efforts toward prevention fall
naturally under two heads: (1) the
breeding of resistant stock, and (2) the
removal of infected material. The sec-
ond may be divided into (a) the re-
moval of diseased matter from the
hives, and (b) the removal of infected
colonies from the apiary. In the long^
run I think that the breeding of hardy
stock will prove to be the most im-
portant. But the process will be a slow
one, and we are naturally more inter-
ested in producing honey for ourselves
than in handing down a germ proof
stock to our grand-children.

So we come to the second factor in
prevention, the removal of diseased ma-
terial. Quarantine, the removal of sick
colonies to a location where there are
no healthy bees, is highly important if
one has many colonies to treat. They
must be removed at night or when no-
bees are flying, and to such a distance
that no bees will return to the old
stand. If one has several apiaries it is
easy to select the one that has fewest
healthy colonies, remove these to other
yards, and start a quarantine hospital.
It is more convenient in handling sick
colonies to have this hospital at the
home yard, as we expect to treat these
colonies by dequeening or shaking on
foundation, or both, but after they have
been removed from the neighborhood of
healthy bees. It has been customary to
consider robbing as the chief factor in
the spread of foul brood; but I 'think
that ninety per cent are started by bees
entering the wrong hives, probably
nurse bees when taking their first
flight. So it is important to have as
much space as possible between hives,
to have several different colors, and to
face them in different directions.

In deciding whether to remove dis-
eased combs from the hives, it is nec-
essary to decide first what disease you
are treating. If you have American
foul brood, you must remove all combs
and burn them; if the case is a bad one,,
you should burn bees and hive as well.
But, with the form which we call Eu-
ropean, the dequeening plan is far bet-
ter, not only because it saves combs
and stores, but because the cure seems?
complete and permanet, which is not
always the case with the shaken swarm.

It is human nature to take chances.

44

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

I advise you not to take a chance in
treating diseased bees, unless your ex-
perience has been a long one. One,
who is perhaps our greatest living bee
man, tells us that he finds ten days
of queenlessness sufficient in treating
European foul brood, or even putting
the diseased combs over an excluder
to hatch out. I say unto you, he has
not European foul brood, as it exists
elsewhere in the state. From the re-
moval of the tiueen until the new queen
begins to lay, nothing less than three
weeks is safe, in bad cases. If the
combs are not clean and sweet at the
end of three weeks it is best to shake
the colony on foundation, requeen, and
feed. Th6 combination of dequeening
and shaking has not been emphasized
enough. If bees are kept queenless ten
or twelve days before shaking, the
chance of a cure is much increased,
even with American foul brood.

The short space of this paper does
not allow a discussion of the details
of treatment, of diagnosis, of mixed
epidemics where the nature of the dis-
ease is doubtful. You can get a free
diagnosis and a pamphlet giving de-
tails of treatment, either from your
state Inspector or from Dr. Phillips at
Washington.-^I have only tried to sup-
plement these by outlining a plan of
management that long experience has
proven to be good.

C. F. BENDER.

President Baxter — The paper is now
open for discussion. Are there any
remarks? This paper is a good one;
there are some good things in it; some
good advice.

Mr. Dadant — Who is the writer of it,
Mr. President?

President Baxter — Mr. C. F. Bender,
of Newman, 111.

President Baxter — The next number
"Will be a paper by Mr. Kennith Hawk-
ins, of Plainfleld, 111.

Mr. Hawkins — In giving this paper,
I expect it to bring out some dis-
cussion. It is rather an original plan
and in coming here and giving it I
don't want you bee-keepers to get the
idea that a young fellow like I am is
trying to put anything over on you.
But it is a fact, as all of you know
who have bought queens— there are
some breeders who are selling queens
who do not do much to give you value
received, and even some who sell
queens who do not give value received

who do not seem anxious to settle the
matter. Some of the bee-keepers in
this country have gone so far in that
direction they have been refused
further advertising in some of the bee
journals; I noticed it to be the case
in Gleanings; don't know whether it
has come to that with Mr. Dadant or
not. ^

A PROPOSITION TO INSURE GOOD
QUEENS TO BUYERS.

Kennith E. Hawkins, Kt^fleld, 111.

Every buyer of queen ' bees has the
right to receive full value to the best
of the ability of the queen breeder,
when he buy^' a queen. ;)This is be-
cause every purchaser has the right
to get value received. Because some
unscrupulous queen ^ breeders have
foisted unfit queens on the buying
public, I submit the following propo-
sition to the 1915 meeting of the Illi-
nois State Bee-Keepers' Association
with the suggestion that it be sub-
mitted to the National Association.

During the past year several queen
breeders in various parts of the coun-
try have been refused the privilege of
advertising in the columns of some of
our bee journals because they have
been found unreliable. They send out
unfit queens, refuse to back up their
guarantee and proceed in so high
handed a manner that they are not
allowed to advertise now. One of the
editors of an American Bee Journal
recently visited the breeding yard of
one of this country's big queen breed-
ers and found this man cutting out
celss from any colony where he found
them, without considering as to the
impulse they had been reared under,
and using them to produce queens in
his mating nuclei, for sale to American
bee-keepers. These two frauds cited
will give you an idea of why you get
fooled on your orders at times and
can get no satisfaction. Also they
give you the reason for the existence
of 'some supervising medium, which
will insure proper methods in rearing
queens for you.

Why not have the National Bee-
Keepers' Association become supervis-
ors of the methods of queen breeders
in America? Each queen breeder
could be asked to submit to such a
board a statement sworn to before a
Notary Public, as to the method he
uses in breeding queens, and also that
he will not use certain methods which

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

45

said supervision body may beforehand
announce as unsatisfactory: for in-
stance, the cutting of cells for mating
purposes wherever found, whether in
the poorest or best colony.

Every breeder of queen bees in
America who would agree to avoid
such unsatisfactory methods as the
supervising board might designate,
and who would, under a sworn state-
ment, submit a satisfactory outline of
the methods used in raising his queens
should be declared by this body a re-
liable breeder.

Every such breeder who will so
comply with the regulations should be
issued a small mark of some kind
which can be used in his advertising
and which will indicate his standing.
Such a mark as I mean is usjpd in
Burpee's seed catalogue to designate
the kind of tomato or cabbage or any
one seed which they recommend as
being the earliest of all seeds of one
sort. This suggestion is merely
exemplary, and any method could be
adopted which would make the indica-
tion plain enough to the buyer who
might see the breeder's advertisement,
that the breeder was declared reliable.
Now, the cost would be only 25
cents for a Notary's work and maybe
a small additional cost to cover the
expense incurred by the National. This
expense would be so small that it
would prohibit no one from receiving
Its benefits. The application for such
supervision could remain optional with
the breeder, and the fact that any
breeder did not elect to apply for and
advertise that he was so inspected by
the National would not necessarily
work against him. But such queen
breeders as did elect to apply for such
National supervision, and who so ad-
vertised, would have the moral bene-
fit of it and it would be an insurance
of methods to the buyer. The fact
that the plans submitted are under
oath would make violation of the oath
perjury, which is punishable. Any one
breeder about whom may complaints
were received, and who had sent in
such a sworn statement, could easily
be inspected by State Inspectors con-
necting with the National, and if found
to be violating his oath could be
punished in a 'manner to insure ad-
herence to the oath by breeders in the
future.

If this plan, which has received the
commendation of at least one bee

editor and which is now before the
National Officers, seems wise to you,
some one may second my motion to
submit the plan to the National with
our recommendations.

Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, I can see
the purpose of the paper but my ex-
perience in queen breeding, which was
in the long ago, does not induce me to
support that. Now I suppose you all
know I made comb foundations for
years — we used to raise queens for sale,
and, when I came to Bee-Keepers' Con-
ventions and met a man who had had
some of our queens, I was- afraid he
would say: "The queen was too small;
too dark; not prolific," or a thousand
other things. Of course we had a
great many people who were satisfied
but we had a great many who were
dissatisfied. I never tried any harder
to make good comb foundation than we
tried to raise good queens.

When I meet a man who has used
our foundation, I expect him to say:
"It is the best in the world," and he al-
. ways says it.

There is the difference, gentlemen,
between making foundation and rais-
ing queens. No matter how hard you
try to raise good queens you are going
to give dissatisfaction to some one;
and, if we have a few bad queens, we
will make enemies, that is all.

There is only one way in which we
can make sure of a good breeder;
simply to try to find what you want
and, when you find a good man, stay
with him, but to have a breeder go be-
fore an Association and make oath;
why the worst men are the ones to
make an oath and swear to a falsity,
and in the meantime we are giving rec-
ommendation to bad men.

Mr. Coppin — I think a number buy
queens and introduce them without
getting the old queen killed or without
introducing them right; the result is,
the queen they introduce is killed and
they simply have the same stock left
on their hands and accuse the queen
breeder of having sold a queen that is
no good. It is a pretty hard matter
to remedy the dissatisfaction all round.

On the other hand: Take the mat-
ter of foul brood. A German who lives
six miles from me came to me telling
me he had gotten bees from some one
in Cincinnati and found they were full
of foul brood. He said he had written

46

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

to him and got no satisfaction. I said,
"If he has done that I will write to Mr.
Muth about it, I have done business
with him." So I wrote to him about
it and .he answered that he was satis-
jfied there was no such thing as any dis-
eased bees sent from this yard. I met
this German and told him the reply I
Tiad received. He said to me: "I saved
it and I will bring it and show it to
you." So, he finally brought the combs
to my house one day when I was not
in. My wife was there. He said: Here
it is, Mrs. Coppin; I have brought those
loul brood combs to show you, those I
got from Cincinnati. She looked at it
and said: "There is no foul brood in
this." He said: "What is it? It is half
full of something." She said:* "It is pol-
len* It is as nice clean brood comb as
I ever saw; you simply have been de-
ceived; it is pollen."

So you see how parties get blamed
for things they are not guilty of. He
had been transferring a lot of bees
. ^imself for years for foul brood and
probably there was not a bit in his
place; at the same time he could be
-finding fault all the time.

Mr. Dadant — What Mr. Coppin has
'^ just said puts me in mind of one of
. the troubles that people have who buy
que^^ns. A great many introduce queens
an d;^ don't look any further; the queen
is killed and another one liaised from
their own bees and they never know
they have not the. queen they bought;
I know it. to be a fact in a great many
'instances. '

One , of the great men of the east
who^'Claims to introduce queens by the
smoke method without failure was said
never to have looked into the hive after
life introduced a. queen and that is why
he; succeeded so well.

Mr. Mandle— What is the difference
between three banded and leather
color? : . '

Mr. Dadant — A leather color must
be three banded. The three banded
may not be le;ather color; it may be
light yello"jv. In the Italian bee the
bandfe may be more transparent.

Mr. Mandle — You see every once in
a while— advertised by a queen raiser
^three banded or leather color; I
Tiave wondered several times what the
<3ifference was.

Mr. Dadant — That is a misnomer.

President Baxter — There may be five

banders. The difference between
leather color and light yellow is this:
In the leather color, the part of the
body between the bands is dark, a
leatherish color, while in the five
banded it is generally a' very bright
yellow; it looks more like gold.

Mr. Mandle — I have noticed in my
bees, every once in a while they have
a queen that shows hardluy any rings
at all.

President Baxter — Be careful about
this — the bright yellow color bees and
the five banders; you take the three
banders and the leather color, nine
times out of ten you will have much
better bees.

Light yellow bees as a rule have
been bred for color, and as a rule they
are very cros«; they have not the
good qualities; the Cyprians are good
workers and prolific but they are hor-
nets otherwise.

Mr. Mandle— I have bees from a
southern breeder that are advertised
Goldens.

President Baxter — You ought to test
them for several years; get one that
will last; one that will do the business
from year to year and give the best
results when there is drought of honey.

I have had some bees that all I
had to do was to look in the front of
the hives to see how they looked, and
I knew whether they had a supply
enough for the winter or not; that is
just the difference there is between
bees.

I have some as yellow as gold I got
this summer and I had some hopes
they would be fine, but this fall they
don't show up; some of them had to

be fed.

I have been dealing with several
queen breeders, some in Texas, some
in Louisiana, and Tennessee, and so
on, and I know the ones I want to
stay with and those that I don't want
to have anything more to do with.

Mr. Diebold — Speaking about queen
breeders; I sent to Mr. J. P. H. Brown,
of Augusta, Ga., for queens — bright
yellow bees, nice looking, but the
crossest I ever saw; Italians are gen-
erally supposed to be the mildest bees
— but those were crosser than the ordi-
nary black bee; whether or not they
were Italians, I don't know, but they
were the crossest bees —

President Baxter — The pure Italian,

V

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

47

■one of the chief characteristics is
.gentleness.

Mr. Handle — My position is the re-
•verse; the yellow stock is the gentlest.

Mr. Hinzel — I have good yellow bees
' and I don't think Mr. Kildow was ever
stung when at my house.

Mr. Hawkins — I am not getting up
here to defend Goldens, because I like
three banded much better, but I have
been fortunate in one or two breeders
of Goldens. When you want to see
, something nice — open them at night
■even — without the use Of smoke, and
never be stung. I don't doubt that
there are a lot of Goldens bred for
color alone but some Goldens in this
-country will compare favorably with
three banded.

Mr. Stone — I have colonies of the
■Golden; I have gone to them when
you could handle the whole hive and
it seemed like not a bee would fly
from the comb and they would let you
examine all you wanted to~Nand would
make you no trouble; at^another time
I have gone to the same hive and they
"would not let me touch' them without
they would be cross.

When you are in a hurry, you had
better stay away from your bees.
When you have plenty of time to go
at them just right and cautiouslj', they
are quite different.

President Baxter — I want a bee I
can handle at all times. Life is too
short to flght with bees, and one of
the first characteristics of bees for me
must be gentleness. I get rid of bees
that are not gentle, as quick as I can.
Gentleness and prolificacy and results
are what count.

Mr. Bennett — If I can get a bee that
p-*v^ill make honey, I will get the honey
I. all right.

Mr. Hawkins — I think Dr. Miller has
the Grossest strain of bees that are in
the United States, and yet he gets as
good a crop of honey as anybody
around here and gets it in poor Rea-
sons, and he has often stated in jour-
nals that he doesn't go after gentle-
ness in bees.

Mr. Dadant — I think there is a great
-deal in that, and I think a good stand-
ard of bees can be made cross by
handling them wrong.

I had a good friend at Keokuk, la.,
living on the BJuff. I told him my
neighbors were complaining that his

bees stung them. He said — "They
never stung me. They are very
gentle."

I went to visit him; he opened his
hives without smoke; he was one of
that kind of men the bees doi^'t sting.
I am not.

He opened the hive without smoke
and the bees paid no attention to him,
but one or two of the bees came from
the hive and for me.

I said to him — "If you will smoke
your b§es you wiU^ not have compiaiHt"-
from your neighbors. The bees do not
sting you while you are handling them
but they will sting your neighbors."

You know there are men w^ho are
practically immune from the way they
go at the bees, but if a neighbor came
around they would sting him at once.

Another instance: W^hen I went to
Italy two years ago, at the first apiary
I visited the man handled his bees
without smoke. W^e went to the
apiary; he had beautiful bees, such
Italians as I like, three banded, not too
bright, although he was seeking for
bright bees to show me because he
knew Americans liked bright bees.

He opened the hives without smoke;
they got angry and did not sting him
but they went for us, and we had to
get a smoker and tame them down.

I traveled for three weeks in Italy
and visited apiary after apiary; we
never had a veil on but we always gave
them a little smoke, and they were as
gentle as could be^ such as the Italian
bees we have here if you handle the
combs right.

In regard to the three banded let it
be well understood: The first band
next to the thorax is one of the three;
then the next two broader bands; but
if you will fill one of those bees with
honey, give it all it can carry, you will
notice other bands below those that
are yellow; the only difference between
those bees and the Golden is that dark
band next to the yellow is narrower or
wider according to breed. "S^he leather
colored is just simply a little less
brighter than the golden yellow; that
is done by breeding.

If you breed orily for color you are
going to have inferior bees. The great
point is to breed for quality — for re-
sults first and secondly for color. If
you have xtwo colonies, one dark and
one light, any they are both equally
good, breed from the light.

^

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

Mr. Bowen — Mr. Dadant says there
are some men whom the bees won't
sting. If I should run across a man of
that kind I think he would be better
calculated for a wooden Indian in front
of a oigar store; I never saw a man
that the bees would not sting.

Now in regard to the sting of bees
and what was stated about going at
theihvin a nervous way and that would
makeythern sting you: I know I had
occapon to go to one of my good yellow
bees/; they did fine work and lots of it.
If I had a friend I wanted to show
something extra nice I would show him
those bees. I went to them at this
time; I wanted to do some work and
was in a hurry and they fought like
tigers; I went back an hour after that
and they never paid any attention to
me. I worked among the same bees.

Mr. Dadant — They were filled with
honey, perhaps. *.

Mr. Bowen — Last summer I ''Under-
took to do a little work for a neighbor.
I drove a team up in front of his house
and took out a few extracting frames of
honey; I smoked them first; I thought
they were very docile; before I got the
second frame out, they came out like
a swarm of hornets. I tried to protect
myself. I hardly ever work with
gloves, but I put on gloves; they not
only droX'eme out of the yard but Went-
after my horses and tore them away
from the fence and followed n^e for
two hundred yards.

That man said he never knew those
bees to get cross.

It makes a difference if you are used
to handling the same bees. There is
something about bees getting ac-
quainted.

My horses pay no attention to the
bees, but a stranger's hor-se going in
there makes a difference.

Mr. Pyles — There have been a great
many things said here and I think some
of them should be corrected. I have
been inspecting this year and only once
have I put on a veil.

I can't work easily or Slowly and I
can't take time to let them fill them-
selves up with honey before I open the
hives, but I do take time to give them
a puff or two of smoke and get them
busy and then I go on with my work;
only once this year did I have, to put
jon-a "veil. A man took me out in his
apiary; I said I did not need a veil, but

I found I did. The bees were very
cross.

They told me that boys had been in
the orchard stealing cherries and ap-
ples and he had kept the bees in the
orchard most of the time.

I think if no one else would come
into the apiary I have never seen a
colony of bees I could not handle with-
out a veil at any season when it is
warm enough to open the hives; that is
when you are not doing damage- to the
hives by opening them. I would not
care to go in the winter time, but I
mean any time of the year when It is
fit to open the hives.

Some one said something about his
bees having sometimes one and two
and sometimes three bands in the
same hive. Maybe they were working
for color.

One sure way of knowing your bees
are full' blood is they must have three
bands; when you find a colony of bees
that has not got three yellow bands,
make up your mind they are hybrids.

I think the best colony of bees I have
seen this year were Golden Italians.

If we want to produce queens that
give good results, you cannot be sure
when you are buying from somewhere
else you are getting any better stock
than in your own apiary.

You must commence with your own
stock and you can have as gentle bees
as you want if you breed that way;
you can have as cross if you breed that
way; you can have just as good work-
ers as any other man if you breed that
way; you can have some of all these
things if you try.

Some one said Dr. Miller's bees were
cross. Dr. Miller is breeding mow, I
understand, from good Italians; his
bees are always good Italian a^es and
not so cross as they "used to be. He
said his bees used to be hornets and
t-hey would follow him forty yards to
get to sting him. '

President Baxter — I agree with the
last statement of Mr. Pyles but not
with the other, i I have, been working
with bees for thjrty-'eight years. I had
. some Cyprian queens that Mr. Dadant
imported from the Isle of Cyprus, and
had experierjpe with them thirty or
more years ago. W^en I went to open
one of those ^^olonies in the morning,
and I am careful in working with bees
-^I know ho^ to work with them' —
those bees would follow me around the
place all day, no matter, how far, I

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

4$

was from the house some of those bees
would follow me and even to the door
of the house. I had just such results
as that lately from some bees from
queens I got from certain parties.

Mr. Pyles says, and I believe this is
so, the best way for a man who has
time to breed his own queens from his
stock if you have something good to
begin with, and always select from pure
Italian stock and breed for results
every time and let color be a second
consideraftion; and you want results in
dollars, ^fou want results in facilitat-
ing the handling of honey also, for that
means money; if you will do that you
will soon have an apiary you can be
proud of. I am sorry I 'have not done
that right along instead of buying bees.

Mr. Hawkins — I would like to say a
word about bees being cross at one
time and gentle 'at others. I never saw
a colony of bees I wanted to work with
without a veil on. Bees never make
any attempt to sting me in working
day after day; but I want a veil on.

The first time I ever saw Mr. Pyles
I thought he was crazy. He had a
little dust cap on inspecting bees. I
waited every minute exgecting him to
get stung; he never got* one. I could
not walk within half a mile of those
bees without getting stung. I would,
not want to try it, anyway.

On the other hand, oftentimes we
havg apiaries away from home and we
do not know what happens to them_,
while we are gone. I have such an
apiary where the bees were mean and
cross a good many times when I worked
with them; I could not see any reason
for it.

Some time after that when some boys
moved away from there I found out
from a boy who worked for a man oc-
casionally during the summer they used
to go out to see the bees and if they,
did not fly enough for them to see they
would knock the hives to see them go
out, yet when I got there I did not know
what had happened and could not tell
why they were so cross.

Mr. Diebold — It has been my experi-
ence that I want a smoker and a veil;
smoker first and then a veil, and then
I feel perfectly safe.

Mr. Coppin— ^I want a smoker, same
as the gentleman here, and I don't
want any veil.

On the other hand, I am not bee-
proof; I get stung.

On the other hand, if I get stung I
generally mark that hive. If I get
stung again several times in a short
period of time, 'my wife often asks me
what hive those bees were in that
stung me; and I tell her, such and
such a hive, and she says: "Let us go
out and kill that queen. It is not worth
keeping." So we generally pick out
the queens of such hives as that and
replace them with something that is
more gentle. I don't like to use a veil
and don't do it; I don't put on a veil
more than once a year.

Mr. Dadant — You all know I was
raised by a man who was better known
in bee-keeping than I; I have seen my
father working bare-headed among the
bees, and when I turned the corner
and looked at them they would come
after me; I didn't get trained until I
was 18. When my father was sick, and
the bees were gathering honey, I got
up my courage and went to work with
the bees and managed to get along. I
got lots of stings, but I can handle
them with or without a veil; I prefer
to have a veil handy; you don't know
what minute you may make a miss-
move and crush a few bees and then
they will get angry.

I am satisfied that there are men who
can handle bees and not be stung,
while those looking on will be.

A gentleman here took exception to
my stating thaf'^ome people the bees
didn't sting; I didn't mean that; bees
sting everybody but there are men that
bees will sting very much less than
others. Of course bees are quieter at
times, and are very much easier to
handle in harvest time.

It is bad to handle them in stormy
time and when the weather is cold,
early in the morning or late at night—
but there is no douht there are differ-
ences in men in handling bees just as
well as in bees. " - .

Mr. Stone — Don't you believe the
bees learn to know when you have a
veil on?

Mr. Dadant — They don't learn very
much.

Mr. Stone — I put a veil in my hat, all
ready to let down. Sometimes I go
out and a number of bees will follow
me; I put a veil on and they will stay
away from me and maybe they will go
and sting somebody out around the
house, but they can't get at me.

Mr. Dadant — The reason j'ou are

—4

'f^j.

5a

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

'safer is because you feel safer; you
are more self assured.

Mr. Stone— My hands, they sting
them every chance they get, when I go
after them with iny_ve.iLready to put
on. Mjr-grana^^^aughter was sitting on
a hive; I kept warning her she had
better get away; she sat th-ere with
her legs bare up to her knee except
stockings; I said: "The bees will get
after you;" pretty soon one tried to
rcravvl in her ear; it stung her pretty
badly.

Mr. Kildow — I am one of those fel-
^-laB:&„tiifi_beeshardly ever sting. . It de-
pends- on~wEo~Ttandles the bees, how
they are handled" and the conditions
around. I dorl't want some one to pre-
pare an apiary for. me to go to because
I will probably get stung.

I foiind^a place in Peoria where I be-
lieve the "bees were flxed for my com-
ing, because I everlastingly got it. I
had a veil off at- first; but the fellow
persuaded me to put it on, and I didn't
tak« -much persuasion.

As a rule, bees hardly ever sting me
if I can have the handling of the
apiafy; it is summed up in this: The
way you handle them and the time, I
think, more than anything else.

President Baxter — We will close this
now- •

Mr. Dadant — I would suggest we take
up the matter of the building at the
State Fair.

President Baxter — We have one
essaS', 'After-Thoughts of the Hamil-
ton and Keokuk Meets," by Mr. Pyles.

AFTER-THOUGHTS OF THE HAM-
ILTON-KEOKUK MEETS.

(By Mr. I. E. Pyles.)
I suppose that some may think this
a. queer subject for a paper to be read
at^ a Convention of this kind, but, be
that' as it may, I think it will bear a
little thought and perhaps cause a
little discussion, and, after all, that is
the desire of the writer.

Of course there has been a writeup
of the meets in the two leading bee
journals but such writeups are usually
done for tfie sole purpose of handing
bouquets to some one. Such need not
be my aim.

I will say that the meet at the
Dadant yard and the home at night
■was conducted in a very creditable
manner, although some of the teach-
ing I don't think will bear the light of
day.

I think, however, the most space
should be given to the Keokuk plan.

It had been my idea that a Con-
vention should study, discuss and
bring out that kind of information
that mefst interests that body of peo-
ple meetifi.^, whether it be a farmers'
institute or\,convention. Then the dts--
cussion is taken up and carried along
lines that interest the farmer, and at
Medical Conventions the study of dis-
ease and the best way to treat the
same is the subject matter for dis-
cussion.

At a Bee-Keepers' Convention the
study of bees, their care, the manipu-
lation of^' hives and fixtures, the prep-
aration for and securing of the crop
of honey and, last but not least, the
marketing of the finished product, are
and should be the one theme.

What, then, shall we say of a meet-
ing of bee .Inspectors? Should they
not be along lines xtf inspection, such
as the proper diagnosis and treatment
of diseage, the knowledge of handling
bees and, last but not least, the hand-
ling of the be€-keeper? Such, how-
ever, was not the case in instance.
I, at least, could only go out the
next day doing work as I had done the
entire summer before, nothing new to
spring upon the unsuspecting public;
it- was not necessary, in my opinion,
to take fully half the time allotted to
the Inspectors .for a lecture on the
honey flow 'of Iowa.

It may have been quite interesting
to a student of botany but to the aver-
age bee-keeper it would be like read-
ing that great narrative written by the
man Webster commonly called the
dictionary.

It would do to while away an idle
moment, but rather dull and badly dis-
connected, taken as a whole.

What I am trying to gfet at is it was
not what the Inspectors needed. It is
not necessary for the average bee-
keeper to know the botanical names of
all the plants that yield a very little
nectar occasionally in his community.

What the man who makes his bread
and butter out of his bees needs to
know is those plants that yield to him
that great harvest that he needs and
is working for; we all know that it
requires a great force of workers to
gather that harvest when it comes
and his main effort should be put forth
to have on the stage of action at the
right time and of the right age a

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

51

force sufRciently large to gather that
surplus.

■ He should be taught that it is not
necessary to. have a great force of con-
sumers all the time to gather that in-
finitesimal drib that does not pay for
the wear and tear on th.e machinery.

They did/teach us that the Inspector
should. ■ "be a walking storehouse of
knowledge, ; but failed .6«|tirely to im-
part anj^ part of that knowledge that

^would fit him for that great struggle
tB»t comes when he 'goes out and fits

. himself agains.t that wise and some-
times contrary bee-keeper and" what
bee-keeper is not wise or contrary, or

l30th.

Some of the teaching was, to my
' mind at least, decidedly rank,, for in-
stance, we were taught that the time
to inspect for European foul brood
■was before the white clover harvest,
as it nearly on quite disappeared after
that time, when the fact is that the
' very next day I found some of the
worst cases of European foul brood I
ever found in jny life, which would be
evidence enough that our teachers
were at fault, an-d it appears to me
■• that I have found as much European
foul brood to the number of colonies
examined the after part of the season
as earlier.

We were also taught that there was
scarcely any odor to European foul
iDrood, when to my mind it is the more
disagreeable of the two and any one
that thinks otherwise should go with
Mr. Kildow or me next summer one
week before the white clover season or
after, either, and I will assure him we
•can take from him that desire to be
continually sampling any and everj'
bit of honey he comes in contact with.
Now, in conclusion, let us avoid the
mistakes pointed out and make this
Convention such that each and every
bee-keeper in attendance will be bene-
fited by having been here.

Fellow bee-keepers, I thank you.

Mr. Pyles— Fellow bee-keepers, I had
intended to have this cause some dis-
cussion.

President Baxter— The next number
on the program will be Dr. Phillips'
paper; he is here with us now.

Dr. Phillips — I thought perhaps there
was not going to be a Convention this
year; at the State House they didn't
know anything about it but I finally
found you at the City Hall.

The subject that has been assigned
to me at this time is: Outdoor Win-
tering. It is perhaps a little late for
anything that I may say to do much
good for this year; at least that is our
opinion of the situation because we
feel that whatever preparation is to be
made for outdoor wintering should be
made early; however, a man at Akron
said perhaps their memories were suf-
ficiently long to last a year.

I should like to read this afternoon,
with certain modifications, parts of a
Bulletin we have recently issued, for
the purpose of driving' some of these
things home.

I do not expect everybody to believe
everything I say but I would like
everybody to understand what we do
believe.

I thought it was best to take ex-
tracts from this Bulletin on this oc-
casion.

OUTDOOR WINTERING.

(By Dr. E. P. Phillips, in Change of Bee

Culture Investigations, Bureau of

Entomology,' Washington, D. C.

There was recently issued by the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture a Bulletin (Farmers' Bulletin No.
695) entitled "Outdoor Wintering of
Bees" by Mr. George S. Demuth and
myself. In presenting this important
subject to this meeting, I can do no
better than to give the material in-
cluded in this Bulletin, especially since
not all present have obtained this pub-
lication. It would have been pleasant
to prepare a special paper for your
Association but, since the essentials of
"the--subject have recently been out-
lined, it would be useless to attempt a
rearrangement simply for the sake of
assuming originality. I shall omit cer-
tain paragraphs of minor importance.

This Bulletin contains a somewhat
unusual classification of the causes of
winter loss and I may say in advance
that I shall be glad ta explain any
points which have not been made
sufficiently clear

Causes of Winter Loss.

The causes of death of individual
bees or of a colony of bees in winter,
barring unusual accidents, are only
two in number: (1) Inadequate stores
and (2) excessive heat production. The
numerous factors usually given in the
literature on the subject as entirely

-f ^■■'

52

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Dr. E. F. Phillips, in. charge Bee Culture Investigations, Washington, D. C.

distinct fail into these two classes, ex-
cept for some that are usually given
which the authors do not believe to be
operative.

Excessive Heat-Generation.

At hive temperatures between about
57° and 69° F., a normal broodless
colony of bees does not form a cluster,
but the bees remain inactive on the
combs. When the temperature of the
air immediately surrounding the bees
(not the temperature of the air outside
the hive) falls to 57° F., or lower, they
form a cluster and those in the center
begin to generate heat by muscular ac-
tivity, while those in the outer portion
serve as insulators by crowding elose
together, usually with their heads
toward the center of the cluster. The
innermost portion, rapidly acquires a
temperature considerably higher than
that of the air about the bees before
clustering was necessary, often going
to 90° F. in normal colonies and higher

in abnormal ones. The number of bees
engaged in heat production increases
as the outer temperature falls and the
insulating zone is consequently de-
creased in thickness but becomes more
compact. The entire cluster becomes
smaller as the outer temperature falls.
If bees can be kept in an environment
such that the temperature of the air
irnmediately surrounding them is 57°
F. or- slightly above, they are saved
mvch unnecessary and unprofitable
labor. To the theoretical objection
that bees need exercise, it is necessary
only to state that the authors have so
wintered bees in a cellar aS" well as out-
doors with wonderfully successful re-
sults. If bees are kept in a cellar under
the best conditions the results are ex-
cellent, but it~is,not proposed to dis-
cuss this more complicated phase of
the subject here. If wintered outside
in a packing case with abundant insu-
lation, any heat generated escapes
slowly and the temperature of the air

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

53

in the hive rarely falls below 55° F.
If inadequately protected, the tempera-
ture of the hive can not be kept so high
and the bees must generate much more
heat. In single- walled hives it is com-
mon for the temperature of the air
around the cluster to fall to freezing or
lower, in which event the bees generate
an excessive amount of heat and per-
haps die w^hen they are no longer
capable of the necessary muscular ac-
tivity. The necessity of packing is thus
made clear, and in any locality in which
the outer temperature often falls to
40° F. or below it is desirable to pro-
tect bees to conserve their vitality. If
the temperature should fall t,o 40°!'y.
only a few times during the wanter,
this would not be serious enough to
make insulation necessary. It is ob-
vious, however that winter protection
is beneficial throughout practically the
entire United States.

Necessity of having Young Bees —

Bees may be compared with minute
drj' batteries, in so far as their vital
energy is concerned. They emerge as
adult bees with a certain amount of
vital energy, and when this is exhaust-
ed they die, not having power to re-
cover lost vitality, as human beings
have. To withstand the hardships of
winter under usual conditions, a colony
must have many young bees, capable
of prolonged muscular work. Obvious-
ly, the better the wintering conditions
the less necessary it becomes to pro-
vide young bees, but even with the
most perfect wintering it is desirable
that there be plenty of young bees in
the fall, so that they will be available
for extensive brood-rearing in the
spring. This calls for prolonged brood-
rearing in late summer. Old bees,
which have been worn out earlier and
are ready to die, soon succumb from
the work of heat-generation.

Danger of weak Colonies — In a strong
colony many bees in the center of the
cluster may be engaged in heat-gen-
eration, and there will still remain
many bees to serve as insulators. A
weak colony, on the other hand, has
less reserves for insulation, and, since
heat is rapidly lost, the bees on the
inside must generate excessive heat in
order that the outermost bees may al-
ways be at a temperature of over 50°
P. Since the surface of a spherical
cluster is proportionate to the square
of the diameter, while the volume is

proportionate to the cube of the diam-
eter, it follows that a large colony
cluster has a relatively smaller sur-
face for radiation of heat than does a
small one. Below about 50° F. individ-
ual bees become numb, and so long as
the cluster remains active the authors
have never found normal bees at a
temperature lower than the critical
temperature, 57° F. In a small colony
the inner temperature is often many
degrees warmer than that of a neigh-
boring strong colony, which doubtless
explains the prolonged brood-rearing
of weak colonies in the fall. Most col-
onies w^hich die of excessive heat-gen-
eration are rushed to their doom by
the temperature being high enough to
start brood-rearing, which is perhaps
one of the most unfortunate circum-
stances w-hich a colony can experience
in wanter. By all means a colony
should be so protected that brood-rear-
ing will not be begun until frequent
flights are possible.

Since weak colonies so frequently
succumb in winter, it is obvious that
a too rapid increase in the number of
colonies in summer is unwise. Bee-
keepers have learned that swarming is
to be avoided because of the resulting
reduction in the honey crop, and the
loss in winter is additional argument
against allowing the bees to exercise
this instinct freely. It is a common
saying among bee-keepers that a rapid
increase is usually followed by a rapid
decrease. It is impossible to get too
strong a colony for winter, the .error
always being in the opposite direction.

Effects of accumulation of Feces —

Heat -generation causes increased con-
sumption of stores; this in turn causes
an accumulation of feces within the
bees, which is more rapid if the stores
contain a high percentage of indigest-
ible materials, and the presence of feces
causes increased activity, often result-
ing in death from excessive heat-gen-
eration. Bee-keepers call this condi-
tion dysentery if the accumulation is
so excessive that the bees are unable
to retain the feces. Dysentery causes
the death of bees in winter, so far as
has been seen, solely by undue activity
and excessive heat-production. This
detrimental effect is reduced by good
stores, but obviously the proper method
is to prevent an unnecessary accumula-
tion of feces by preventing a heavy
consumption of stores, chiefly by pro-

54

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

viding a sufficiently high surrounding
temperature. Honey-dew honey is es-
pecially injurious because ef the ra-
pidity with which feces accumulate.

In mild climates, in which there are
frequent days when bees can fly and
rid themselves of feces, the injurious
effects of poor stores are less notice-
able, because the feces do not accu-
mulate sufficiently to cause abnormal
activity. The accumulation of feces
is to be considered as an irritant, caus-
ing responses similar to disturbance
by jarring or exposure to light.

Influence of the Queen — In discus-
sions of W'intering it is usually stated
that to winter well a colony must have
a good queen. Obviously a good queen
will better prepare a colony for winter
by providing a strong colony of young
bees than will a poor one, while a
colony that is queenless in late sum-
mer and fall has little chance of liv-
ing until spring. A good queen will also
increase brood-rearing rapidly in the
spring, if the colony has good stores
and has been properly protected during
the winter. Aside from the important
influence on the population of the col-
ony, the queen probably plays no part
in wintering.

Spring-dwindling. — If the individual
bees of a colony are reduced in vitality
by excessive heat-production, they may
live until spring, but are unable to do
the heavy work then needed to bring
the colony back to full strength. The
adult bees die more rapidly than they
are replaced by emerging bees, and the
population decreases. This condition,
which can be produced experimentally,
has longj been known among bee-keep-
ers as "spring-dwindling." If this con-
dition is observed, the bees may per-
haps be slightly relieved of further
unnecessary work by packing to con-
serve heat and by giving abundant
stores, but the proper treatment is to
prevent the condition by proper care
in the preceding fall and winter.

Lack of Stores.

A common cause of the death of
colonies in winter is starvation, which
is more certainly due to carelessness
on the part of the bee-keeper than is
unnecessary heat-production. The
greater the necessity for heat-produc-
tion, the more necessary it becomes
for every colony to have an abundapce
of stores of good quality. The amount
required varies with the length of the

winter, and also with the amount of
heat which is generated. It is, of
course, necessary also to provide or
leave stores enough for brood-rearing
in late winter or spring, before suffi-
cient stores come to the hive from
natural sources.

Comparison of the Colony with a
Furnace.

Let us assume that we have a fur-
naca for heating a building, so con-
structed that ashes may be removed
only when the temperature of the
outer air is warm. If the house has
thin walls and many openings, the
furnace can not maintain a high
temperature in extreme cold weather,
the amount of fuel consiii^ed is in-
creased, the ashes accumulate rapidly
and clog the furnace, and in a des-
perate effort to raise the house
temperature we should probably burn
out the furnace. On the other hand,
if the house is well built and heavily
insulated, a low flre will suffice, and
as a result there will be a minimum
amount of ashes. The better the fuel,
the less the amount of ashes in either
case.

It is permissible to compare a colony
of bees, as a unit of heat-production,
with this furnace. If the bees are in
a single-walled hive in a cold climate,
the colony must generate a great
amount of heat, must consume much
more honey, and feces will accumulate
rapidly. As the bees are unable to
discharge their feces until the temper-
■ ature of the outer air is high enough
for flight, the "furnace" is clogged.
The bees are "burned out" by the ex-
cessive heat-production, and, even
worse than in the case of the furnace,
the irritation resulting from the pres-
ence of feces causes still more heat-
production. On the other hand, if
abundantly insulated, the heat gene-
rated is conserved, the consumption of
stores and amount of feces are re-
duced, and the bees can readily retain
the feces until a flight day, in any
place in which bees can be kept. The
better the stores the less the amount
of feces in either ease.

We should not expect much of a
furnace in an open shed, and we have
no more right to expect good results
from a colony wintered in a thin-
walled hive in a cold climate, or even
in a better hive placed in a windy
location.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

55

Conservation of Heat and Reduction of
Expenditure of Energy.

In outside wintering the heat pro-
duced by the bees is conserved by the
insulation of the cluster itself and aisu
by the insulation of the hive and pack-
ing. In the cellar there is less insula-
tion near the cluster, but the cellar it-
self — i^places the packing, and is in
reality simply an insulation. The in-
sulation of the individual hive, of sev-
eral hives packed together, or of bees
in a cellar, serves solely to reduce the
loss of heat generated by the bees.

The amount of packing that should
be used, obviously, varies with the cli-
mate and it is impossible to make def-
inite general statements in a Bulletin
intended for all parts of the United
States. There' is one general state-
ment which can be made with safety:
The majority of bee-keepers do not
give sufficient insulation and no bee-
keeper ever gave a colony too much.
The aim of the bee-keeper should be
to keep the air about the bees at about
57° F., at which temperature there is
no condensation of moisture within the
hive, even on the inside of the cover,
where it first appears. It might be in-
ferred that if double the amount of
packing had been used the temperature
of the air about the bees w^ould have
been too high. This is not the case, for
bees cease heat-generation when the
temperature reaches 57° F., (or even
sooner when the surrounding temper-
ature is rising) and the temperature
will not exceed 57° F. unless that of
the outer air remains higher than that
for a considerable period.

Bees well protected and with good
stores do not fly from the hive because
of the warmth within when the outer
air is too cold for them to do so safely.
If bees fly at low temperatures (45° to
50° F.), it is an indication that they
need a flight because of an accumula-
tion of feces from poor wintering, and
does not at all indicate too high an
inside temperature because of too much
packing. In conclusion, the bee-keeper
can not apply too much insulating ma-
terial to a hive.

It has been found that, even with
abundant insulation, the temperature
within the hive and outside the cluster
is greatly reduced if the packing case
is exposed to wind. During the winter
1914-15 a record was kept of wind ve-
locity directly over a heavily packed

case (with entrances % inch by 8
inches), and it was found that a wind
with a velocity of 20 miles per hour
directly on the case reduces the tem-
perature within the hives practically to
that observed in an unprotected hive.
The beneficial effects of the insulation
were therefore nullified, and the proper
temperature within the hive was not
regained for several days unless the
outer temperature rose considerably.
Bee-keepers have long emphasized the
importance of protection from wind,
but the results observed were much
more pronounced than was anticipated
or than has ever been suspected by
practical bee-keepers. The ideal to-
ward which the bee-keeper should
work is to keep his colonies during cold
weather absolutely protected from
wind, for here again the protection can
not be too great. It is entirelj' erron-
eous to assume, as some have done,
that such protection is not essential in
well -packed hives.

There are several types of hives on
the market in which the insulation is
built in, to be retained throughout the
j'ear. There is no objection to the
packing in the summer, except that
such hives are not convenient for mov-
ing and in some other manipulations.
Insulation in commercial double-walled
hives is by means of air spaces or In-
sulation, such as sawdust, chaff, broken
cork, or shavings. These hives are bet-
ter for outside wintering than single-
walled hives in any part of the United
States, but they do not provide ade-
quate insulation at temperatures below
40° F. Such hives must, of course, be
protected from wind, or they are for
the time being no better than single-
walled hives.

Types of Insulation. — Various mate-
rials are used for insulation. Beside
those named above, paper, dry leaves,
and many other substances are in use.
Most of the common insulating ma-
terials depend on small confined dead-
air spaces for their insulating value,
and, in general, the more finely divided
the air spaces the more efficient the
material. Sawdust is usually con-
demned, because if moisture escapes
from the hive into the packing it is
retained and the insulatins: value is re-
duced. However, if a colony is suffi-
ciently packed, moisture does not con-
dense, except possibly at extremelv low
external temperatures, and this objec-

56

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

tion to sawdust is removed. From ob-
servations so far made, it appears that
the bee-keeper may use the materials
most easily obtained. If dry leaves are
used, they should be packed tight, but
sawdust should simply be poured in
place without being packed tight.

The Entrance. — The weak place in
hive insulation is the entrance. An
opening S inches wide and % inch high
is abundant, it usually being con-
structed as a tunnel through the pack-
ing. In cold weather this might be
still further reduced. The opening
should be shielded from the wind, to
prevent a rapid loss of heat, for if the
wind blows against the entrance the
heat stored up in the packing is lost
bo-th to the outside and the inside. The
only reason for an entrance as large
as the size mentioned above is the dan-
ger that dead bees will drop from the
combs and block a smaller entrance.
Since the number of dead bees is great-
ly reduced in well-insulated hives this
is less important, and, furthermore, if
the air within the hive is warmed to
57° F. the dead bees will be pushed
outside, even in freezing weather.

Methods of Packing. — The exact
method of packing is not especially im-
portant, provided enough insulation is
given on all sides. Colonies may be
packed singly in any sort of box, or
they may be packed in groups of four.
Some bee-keepers arrange colonies in
long rows and apply insulation to the
whole row. The placing of several hives
in contact has the advantage that the
colonies insulate one another. If ar-
ranged in groups of four, two facing
east and two west, they may be left on
the same stand throughout the year
and are readily manipulated during
summer. If in long rows close to-
gether, summer manipulations are im-
peded, unless the hives are moved after
the insulation is removed. Placing col-
onies in long rows is therefore not ad-
visable. "Whatever type of outer case
is used, it should be tight, to prevent
rain and snow from wetting the insula-
ting material.

A rather common practice is to pack
the hive at the sides, top, and rear,
but to leave the front unprotected and
faced to the south, the object being to
utilize the heat of the sun to warm up
the interior of the hive and reduce the
work of the bees. Any place through
which external heat may readily reach

the interior of the hive is also efficient
as an avenue through which heat may
be lost when the sun is not shining.
Since the sun shines less than half the
time in winter, making no allowance
for cloudy days, the weakness of the ar-
gument for this practice is obvious. A
similar practice is to paint the packing
cases a dark color to absorb the sun's
heat. Considerably more detailed work
is needed to determine to what extent
this source of heat is of value to the
colony.

Time for Pactcing. — At the time of the
first killing frost the bee-keeper should
promptly remove supers, if any are on
his hives. If the bees are not ade-
quately supplied with good stores for
winter these should now be given im-
mediately, and, when the feeding is fin-
ished, the winter insulation should be
applied at once. At this time bees are
the quietest of any period of the year.
The disturbance incident to putting on
the insulation does not do them any
harm. After this the bee-keepe^ should
have no occasion to 6pen theuiive until
spring. An outer temperature above
60° F. is desirable at the time of pack-
ing, especially if no brood is present.
Any day w^hen bees are flying is suit-
alble.

If packing is delayed until late it may
do far more damage than to leave the
bees unpacked. A colony of bees that
is generating heat in response to low
temperature is considerably disturbed
by the manipulations during packing
and the temperature of the inside of
the cluster is promptly raised. Fre-
quently, if bees are packed too late
(when it is too cold outside), the clus-
ter temperature is raised^ to brood-
rearing temperature, the queen begins
to lay eggs, and brood-rearing is usu-
ally then continued through the winter,
unless it results in the death of the
colony, as is often the case. Many-
bee-keepers pack their colonies in De-
cember with most harmful results.
There is probably no place inJ:he Unit-
ed States where packing is needed in
which it is safe to wait later than
Thanksgiving Day. Since more bee-
keepers make mistakes here than in
any other phase of outside wintering,
this should be emphasized most
strongly. The authors have succeeded
on several occasions in starting brood-
rearing in December by manipulation,
both in colonies w'intered outside and
in removing bees to a cellar, and it is

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

57

•certain that such winter brood-rearing
is highly injurious to the colony.

Time for Unpacking. — If a colony has
a, good queen and plenty of stores and
is well packed, the bee-keeper rarely
has any reason for opening the hive
until spring is well advanced. If he is
not sure of the condition of the colony,
he may wish to examine it earlier, but
this first examination should be brief
and the packing may be partially re-
moved and replaced afterwards. If
there are any queenless colonies or any
colonies short of stores, these defects
should, of course, be promptly correct-
ed, after which the colony should re-
main undisturbed until, as the season
advances, frequent manipulations are
necessary. It is often best to leave the
insulation on until the colonies need
more room, which will probably be as
late as May 15 in the north. Colonies
which have wintered poorly need their
insulation longest, while colonies that
have been well insulated, either in a
cellar or outside, can, if necessary,
stand considerable exposure without
much damage, although the work of
Tieat-generation thereby reduces the
energy available for building up the
colony rapidly.

The time for removing packing may
be still further delayed by wintering a
colony outside in two -hive bodies, the
upper one being well supplied with
Tioney. Since there is more space to
keep warm, such a hive should be more
thoroughlj- insulated. If this plan is
followed, the bee-keeper is sure that
sufficient stores are available and he
can probably locate any queenless col-
onies by a brief external examination.
Since wintering in two-hive bodies has
not been practiced evtens'vely. it sViould
be tried with caution, but reports of
this method should be available from
all parts of the country and bee-keepers
are urged to try it on an experimental
.scale. The p]$in has much to commend
it.

Providing a Windbreak. — It is well
established \that a windbreak of ever-
greens is superior to a solid wind-
break, such as a house or solid fence.
The bee-keeper can readily determine
whether his bees are located in a place
where the wind rarelv or never blows
more than 5 miles an hour in winter. If
the apiary is not so located, it should be
moved during the summer to a place
in the woods, in a gully, or in some

other sheltered place. Bees should
never be moved in winter. If it is not
practicable to move the apiary, a high
fence, perhaps S feet high, should be
constructed on the exposed sides. The
more compact the apiary, the easier it
is to construct a windbreak, which is
an argument for placing colonies in
groups of four. Evergreens are slow
growing, and a high fence may be used
until the permanent windbreak is suffi-
cient. If the apiary is practically sur-
rounded by buildings, this may be ade-
quate protection, but such a location is
usually not the most convenient for
the apiary. A southern exposure is
usually recommended as best for win-
ter, for it is claimed that the heat of
the sun is beneficial'. SiniSe the sun
shines onlj' a small fraction of the time
in winter in most localities, especially
in the east, where there is TmichT cloudy
weather, this feature should not be un-
duly emphasized.

Providing Adequate Winter Stores.

The amount of honey that a colony
will need from the time it is packed un-
til it is unpacked can not be closely
estimated. The aim of the bee-keeper
in winter should be to save bees rather
than honey, and he can make no more
profitable investment than to give his
bees more than they can possibly use.
Some bee-keepers claim that it is best
to have the old bees die soon, so as to
save stores. The actual consumption in
such badly wintered apiaries is prob-
ably not at all decreased.

If the bees do not have sufficient
stores, they may be given_cornbs_x>f
honey, but these sIToura'^Iwaysbe giv-
en before cold weather, so that a- prop-
er clustering space may be formed by
the moving of honey, since bees always
cluster in empty cells of the comb ad-
jacent to stores.

If honey in combs is not available,
the bees may be fed extracted honey,
but the usual practice is to feed a thick
sugar syrup made, of 2 or 2i/^ parts of
sugar to 1 part *of Avater by volume. To
this syrup 1 ounce of tartaric acid
should be added for each 40 to 60
pounds of sugar while the syrup is be-
ing heated to the boiling point to dis-
solve the sugar crystals. The syrup
should be boiled 15 minutes. The acid
helps to invert the cane sugar, thus
retarding its granulation in the combs.
If there is any question as to the qual-
ity of the stores, it is a good practice

58

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT^ OF THE

to feed about 10 pounds of syrup at
the time of packing, in addition to the
stores provided earlier, this being
stored immediately above the cluster.
It is thus used first, and an accumula-
tion of feces does not occur so long
as the bees use only the sugar syrup.
There is, however, no better food in
winter than a good quality of honey. As
was stated earlier, honey-dew honey
causes a rapid accumulation of feces,
resulting in dysentery. If this is pres-
ent in the fall, it should be removed
and better stores given. Some fall
honeys are similarly injurious, but
their injurious effects may be reduced
by feeding syrup at the time of pack-
ing.

Summary and Conclusions.

Bees need protection from cold and
wind in winter in practically all parts
of the United States. The bee-keeper
should give abundant insulation, since
i* is impossible to -give too much and
since most bee-keepers give too little.
Great care should be exercised to pro-
tect colonies from wind. Every colony
should be strong in the fall, so that
heat may be generated and conserved
economically. To reach the proper
population a good queen is necessary.
■ Many colonies die of starvation in
winter. This can easily be avoided.

The bee-keeper can make no better
investment than to give his colonies
proper care for winter.

If the excessive winter losses are
prevented, commercial bee-keeping will
be greatly benefited. Such a condition
is entirely possible when bee-keepers
come to understand the fundamental
principle of wintering.

Mr. Hawkins — I would like to make
a motion that we extend to Mr. Phil-
lips a vote of thanks for reading this
paper.

Motion seconded and carried.

President Baxter — The paper is now
open for discussion.

Mr. Hawkins — I would like to ask a
question. Doctor Phillips spoke of
feeding a thick sugar syrup; and to
this syrup add one ounce of tartaric
acid for each 40 to 60 pounds of sugar
while the syrup is being heated to the
boiling point to dissolve the sugar cry-
stals. Does it make any difference when
the tartaric acid is added?

Doctor Phillips — The sooner, the bet-
ter; before we put any sugar in at all;

after we get the water boiling put in
the tartaric acid; then put in the sugar.

Mr. Dadant — I found in looking up
the subject that in 20 years Doolittle
had every year recommended exactly
the same thing; I think it was five
pounds of honey to 35 of sugar and
20 pounds of w;ater, for 50 pounds of
material.

Doctor Phillips — If he dissolved the
sugar and added honey as it was cool-
ing and gave it time to act; Heddin
recommended the same thing years ago.

President Baxter — I fed something
like 5,000 pounds of sugar last fall; I
don't boil any of it and don't have any
of it granulate.

Doctor Phillips^How much water?
President Baxter — Half and half.

Doctor Phillips — The bees had an
opportunity to do it for you.

President Baxter — Last year, in.
August, I made a trip out west; went
by auto; we went to Kansas City and
visited a bee-keeper at Independence
who makes a practice of making honey
out of sugar; he showed us the whole
process from beginning to end; I have
some of his honey at home now; sorhe
of the nicest comb honey you ever saw.
He calls it sugar honey; I have some
of that honey that passed the winter
last year outside to see what it would
do; you cannot see any signs of granu-
lation at all; it is very fine.

Doctor Baxter — How about the flavor
of that honey?

President Baxter — It is good; I w'ould
not know it was sugar honey by the
flavor.

Mr. Dadant — I want to call the at-
tention of* the bee-keepers to some-
thing that Doctor Phillips said about
giving abundant insulation.

I think we do not put enough stress
on ■ the fact that very strong colonies
winter best. I remember having a col-
ony once which I tried to pack in De-
cember, and they would not let me be-
cause as soon as we started to disturb
them they came out and started to
sting us; every time I went to that col-
ony, no matter how cold it was, it was
ready to jump on us.

It was exceedingly strong; evidently
the bees themselves were insulating the
colony; and, if we can get our colony
strong enough so that they will keep
the hive warm, there is not so much
need of protection.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

59

Another thing, and perhaps it is
known, that we follow the forest leaf
method of packing our bees. Forest
Ieq,ves are cheap; our bees are next to
timber, and we p£)ticed long .ago that
where leaves are gathered in the forest
wjjece the timber is thick you will find
the ground unfrozen in the coldest
weather. You will find the ground
loose under the leaves, where the leaves
are very thick, indicating that the
leaves are good insulators.

Doctor Phillips — And they keep dry.

President Baxter — I would say that
the leaves absorb the moisture and the
bees are dry.

We have been following the method
now for thirty-five years with great
success. You remember the terrible
winter of 1884-S5; my losses then w-ere
only among those that w-ere not packed
according to my method — the Dadant
method. Out of sixty hives we lost
all but 12, those having the sealed cov-
ers. I did not lose 5 per cent where the
sealed covers were taken off and re-
placed by a mat and capping filled with
leaves.

When you pack bees you want to
have good strong colonies — fairly good
stores; don't tr>' to winter on poor col-
nies, poor stores and a lot of honey-
dew.

I have been using for the past 35
years chaff hives. "The chaff packed
hives always come ©wt in ^;he spring
better and use less honey.

In 1911, I had an apiary six miles
east of town; it had eighty colonies. I
packed the bees with a big load of
leaves and mats for all colonies, but
didn't have enough leaves to pack 12
of the colonies; I was short 11 mats. I
took the cover off of one and put the
mat over that one colony and left with
sealed covers the other 11. Those 11
were dead in the spring. TheNqne wds
alive with the mat on top the frahi6< all
those that were packed with leaves
were alive.

In 1884-5 the bees actually starved
to death because they could not get at
the stores — those that were packed
with leaves were nice and dry and
could get at the stores at any time.

Doctor Phillips — At Ontario, in
speaking of outdoor wintering and
packing, somebody said something
about the Langstroth hive, and one
bee-keeper got up and said that if Mr.
Langstroth could see the thing that

was called the Langstroth hive today
he would turn over in his grave. His
hive was the double- walled hive and
he always advocated hive insulation.

President Baxter— =-1 have found great
objection to the Langstroth hive for
wintering; the shallowness of the
frame; in deeper frames they winter
better with the same kind of packing.

Mr. Stone — I just put cheese cloth
over my brood frames and leaves on
top of that; I find it as good as burlap
and it keeps the leaves from falling
through, which is all that is needed.

Mr. Pyles — I think I have said be-
fore at the Illinois State Bee-Keepers'
Association: There are some things we
don't know.

About the wintering of bees: the
matter of packing; the getting ready or
not getting ready.

, Some four or five year's ago Mr. Kil-
dow and I went down to one of our
neighbors to look at some bees he had.
We had in view the idea of buying.

Ha had every kind of hivet under the
sun except the modern one; one thing
he had was a box about one foot square
and another box about a foot square
to get the surplus honey; the hive was
standing there without any cover with
two feet of snow. That is the kind
of hive they had wintered in and it was
the strongest hive of the bunch, with-
out any protection whatever, w'ith two
feet of snow lying on the ground; those
were fine and in first class condition,
and I would be glad if I could have my
colonies go through the winter in a
modern hive in the condition that old
square box w^as in.

Doctor Phillips — The hive fitted the
cluster, didn't it?

Mr. Pyles — No, the cluster when I
saw it was bigger than the hive. There
was that snow lying on top and when-
ever it melted it must have run down
upon those bees.

I have sectional hives; have a %-
inch bee space in front (the entrance).
I pried up this hive one winter from
the bottom board and put a 2-inch
block under it. I had plenty of leaves
and during the4«)ne-y flow ,in_ the sum-
mer time there was an abundance of
ventilation. I left those hives down
before winter and had this %-
inch entrance in front. Two or three
thicknesses of burlap were placed and a
telescope cover on top of the hive. A

-■:■<--_

60

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

hole was bored in each end of the
cover.

At the time I speak of, in some way!
missed a hive and let it stay up on
that two-inch block. A good many
bees died that winter.

In the spring I went to my apiary
to see how many be^s were dead. I ^
went along and wherever I found the
bees wece dead I shook them out and
shut up the entrance so that nothing
could destroy the combs.

I came to this hive and saw it sit-
ting up on those blocks where I had
neglected to let it down, and I said I
will let this one alone and shut it up,
it is all dead, but when I got near it
I found there was a buzzing sound. I
turned up. the oilcloth and found I had
the strongest colony of bees.

There are some things we understand
and some we do not, and one is that
like conditions do not produce like re-
sults, as in this instance.

Mr. Stone — Mr. President, I will tell
you another exception.

Forty years ago I-had a neighbor who
kept bees and he let them go through
the summer and winter, with his hives
open, and they were very strong. 1 was
at his house in the spring of the year
and his bees were as strong as any-
body's.

Mr. Bowen — I would like to ask Doc-
tor Phillips what temperature would
It be on the outside when the temper-
ature went below 57 on the inside?

Doctor Phillips — It depends entirely
on insulation of the hive; if a single
wall hive, the temperature practically
is the same inside as outside. We had
bees last winter in a packing case with
6 inches of insulation all around and
the temperature very seldom dropped
below 55 until the wind got strong,
then it went down.

Mr. Bowen — Don't you think that
change takes place from the opening?

Doctor Phillips — Cut it down the way
we did and it does not take place very
rapidly.

Mr. Bennett^-Do you pack under the
hive ?

Doctor Phillips — Always; use four
inches underneath.

Mr. Bennett— I like Doctor Phillips'
paper and think a good deal of it, but
I guess mj^ experience with bees has
not gotten used to the modern way of
taking care of them.

The same winter Mr. Stone lost 80
per cent of his bees, I had about the
same number that he had and I lost
scarcely any. My brother here spoke
of finding hives raised up in front.

I was very busy one fall and I
blocked them up one inch or so off the
bottom boards, and was tied up in' the
fall and could "not get to them; so the
winter came on, and I let them alone,
expecting to have severe losses in the
spring,* and I went down there and
found scarcely a loss; no insulation and
in single wall hives. I did not lose
but one out of 100 last year. I used no
insulation; my bees were set up ten
inches off the ground, over a tight box.
On some of my hives last year I set
my extractor bodies back on the hives;
I got busy with fruit and left them un-
til spring and those that were double
wall hives came through best.

I do allow for plenty of supplies, and
where rtiy main apiary is located they
get in their supplies late in the season.
They have a lot of young bees, a lot of
supplies, and probabkr that offsets the
matter of insulation] to some extent.
Last winter I had scarcely any loss.

As a rule I leave only a little space
in the front of the hive. If this mat-
ter of insulation will pay for the extra
expense of it, it ought to be doner

President Baxter — Conditions must
always be known; often it counts for
nothing, where one man loses and an-
other winters successfully. The qnly
way is to' try two apiaries side by side.
Winter colonies in one apiary in one
way and in the other apiary another,
and in this way you get facts. The
winter brother Stone had his heavy
loss he had lots of honey-dew, while
perhaps Mr. Bennett had good stores;
that makes a big difference.

Mr. Stone — I didn't get my .bees
packed well. '

President Baxter — If you have good
stores and strong colonies they will
.get along very well without so much
attention.

Let me give you a rule:

Take the winter of 1884-85; I don't
believe we have seen a colder winter.
I had three apiaries; my home apiary
was packed as I usually pack them;
had good stores, colonies were all
strong. My two out apiaries were, neg-
lected. I was foolish enough to ac-
cept a school that winter and never
packed my bees. At my home apiary

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATjpN

61

the loss was four colonies out of 80;
in the country I had twelve colonies left
out of 65 in one place and 75 in an-
other; and when I examined those bees
there was a sheet of ice on both sides
of the frame; they had plenty of honey
but could not get at it. Now where; this
- moisture could escape and be absorbed
by the leaves, or go out of -the hive
above, the bees wintered well; where
. it could not they all died.

Those are not exceptions; that is the
rule.

I have had that occur since and I am
satibfied that where you have good
honey, where your bees are strong, es-
pecially in young bees, and are proper-
ly packed so that they will keep .dry
and keep up a certain amount of neces-
sary heat required, they will winter
well.

If I have a very strong colony of bees
I will leave ten frames; if weaker,
eight, six, down to five, and have had
five frames go through the winter just
as well as ten. I put in a division
board and the bees are well covered.

Mr. Diebold— In 1884-85 the results

were most disastrous; more disastrous

f than any year I have ever known;

probably the greatest losses up to that

time or since that time.

Mr. Bowen — This spring my bees
came out of winter quarters with too
much honey, if there is such a thing.
The outside combs are always ftill and
I think that probably helps to insulate;
I always leave a chance for this cross-
ventilation over the frames. I keep the
cloth down tight, solid, and keep a
board over that.

President Baxter— Throughout ■Illi-
nois last fall, and probably the whole
of the Mississippi Valley, many colonies
bf bees did not makg^enough to winter
on until half of them had to be fed,
but where they made plenty of stores
to be wintered on they also brought up
a lot of young bees . and were strong
and went into winter quarters in good
shape. There is a big difference'wheth-
er they have to be fed for the winter
> or get natural stores.

Mr. Bowen — I started out by saying
a while ago my bees had plenty of
honey; for that reason I may have got-
■ ten through better than some of those
would have gotten through tliat had
their bees packed. Last year it so
happened that our bees in our out

apiary put up more honey per colony
than any bees iijithe state.

Mr. Hawki'hs^I would like to ask:
He spoke of those five frame colonies
going through vt-fte winter well; would
you think that, if you had combs of
honey on hand, combs of honey would
be as good insulation as to fill up with,
leaves ? *

President gaj^ter — Yes.

The time is getting late and we have
about finished our program for this
afternoon; what is your further pleas-
ure ?

Mr. Stone — There is one thing that
is not on the program, and that is the
election of officers.

President Baxter — "We have' a paper
from Mr. France. Doctor Baxter, AVill
you please read it?

Platteville, Thanksgiving Evening,
November 25.*
Brother J. A. Stone:

I am sorry at the last moment to
find it impossible to be with "The
Boys" and not time now to properly
prepare a paper, but will just outline:

As a large majority of bee-keepers'
are farmers or . interested in same, I
wish to outline a subject which to me
is of great importance in bee-keeping.

YOUNG QUEENS FROM BEST OF
STOCK.

What would you think of me as a
farmer if I never changed the head of
my farm stock, be it horses, cattle,
sheep or hogs? Kept same sire so long
as he lived, then his son to cross with
his own relation. We would soon find
lack of vitality, sickness and scrub
stock.

I dare say this condition has been
the true situation of many bee-keepers,
and, dare I say, of some at the Con-
vention?

I have been keeping careful records
of the apiaries with European foul
brood, and to a great extent this in-
breeding has been going on for genera-
tions.

In an apiary where exact age of each
queen is kept, I fipd no disease, hives
over-running with jtoung bees in the
fall, which have the energy to main-
tain heat when needed during the win-
ter; also this apiary, which is re-
(iieened largely every summer, has no
spring dwindling, but has young hatched
bees in abundance, are the hives
which are full of brood in early spring,
first to prepare for swarming, and the

^2

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

ones which "get there" during honey
■flow. His average of honey per colony
is more tlian double nearby apiaries,
with old queens of inbred records if
any have been kept.

"I fully believe European foul brood
is, a "blessing in disguise." It means
th« ,.Q4alner must clean up, get some
better'^-blood in his bees, and with that
comes a still more important part, "a
better bee-keeper."

In a diseased apiary of over two hun-
dred cases of European foul brood,
we treated and used young ciueens from
several breeders, and watched results.
Some of those swarms after requeen-
ing and removing combs showed it In ■
a half dozen cells during the season.

So that queen was exchanged for one
raised. from another strain which never
showed the disease. It took two sea-
sons to find whose bees were the
strongest or most immune to disease.

This breeder does not inbreed but is
selecting and importing all the time
and only from the best does he raise
queens for market. So far not one of
his queens used in many diseased api-
aries has showed disease.

I wish to say I am no queen breeder
nor am I interested in any, but I do
wish to impress the bee-keepers in
■Illinois State Convention that this sub-
ject is of great importance.

Better queens — better bee-keepers —
better winter stores with better winter
protection. More honey and more pro-
fit.

Best wishes to you all.
Tours truly,
(Signed) N. E. FRANCE.
Mr. Bowen — Since coming to this
Convention I have had some talk with
some of the men about queen breeders
in particular, and I take the same stand
that Mr. France does.

This matter of inbreeding: While
you might' get pretty bees, you work
against the vitality of the bee. Some
took exception to it. I still hold to the
idea that we ought to introduce new
blood every year and this practice I
have followed for some time. Generally
I want to introduce from twenty to
twenty- five per cent.

I have never had any foul brood; I
don't know whether that is the cause of
it. I don't ^Vant to brag too much
about that. I have never had any foul
brood, and I do believe in the matter
of hunting up who raises the best
queens, the best honey gatherers, and

introducing a little new blood in your
bees every year; and then as a rule I
bought from those if they were good.

It is just as he says — it is something
that pays — good stock. Who would
think of following up the same strain
without some new blood?

Mr. Kildow — I don't want to get into
any discussion, but I have my doubts
about this inbreeding business among
bees and insects; I don't believe there
is anything in rt still I cannot go ahead
and tell you exa^ly why.

There are lots of thirds we believe
but we can't tell it exact^. I believe
if you breed from the b'est of your
yard and keep selecting that way that
you are on the rigKf line and are doing
as good ^s the man who went off and
bought queens from some one else; he
is doing Jh^-^ame thing; and, after you
get pure sto^^to start with and will
select from the best, I don't believe in
that inbreeding business among insects.

If you get queens from different
parties through the country you don't
know where you are, hardly; you are
getting a promiscuous lot; you cannot
get a standard. Every fellaw^is breed-
ing after his own liking, aimm you get
queens from Tom, Dick and^Harry, I
don't believe in it. *

Mr. Stone — I am a good deal like Mr.
Kildow. I get new queens prettj?;' nearly
every year, but then I select the young
qufeehs from the best queen I have got,
but when these young queens hatch
out and go out to be fertilized I don't
know but that the drones, will go out
of the same hive as she does; then
what am I going to do? You cannot
control that.

Mr. Coppin — You could prevent that
now if you wanted to. If you have one
hive better than the other that you
want to queen from, keep the hive
without any drones; you would not
have any inbreeding.

Mr. Pyles — That has been thrashed
out a number of times at Conventions
at which I have been. In the Illinois
State Convention two years ago; in the
Chicago and Northwestef^n Convention
and the Eastern Illinois: and finvthine-
that is brought out usually is re-hashed
from that which has been said before.

In Italy are they importing new-
queens all fhe time to increase their
stock, or are they making use of that
which is produced in Italy? Are they
sending to America, to France or to

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

63

England, to introduce new queens? Or
are they selecting from stuff they have
there?

Is it not the survival of the fittest?
What has made the great race of
Italian bees?

How is it with the French people,
with the Italians? They are Italians
because they have been bred there for
hundreds and hundreds of years and
the same class of people living there
are bred and must be closely related;
the Jews are the most closely related
people on earth. They can -stand more
strain when it comes to dollars and
cents than any people on earth. "^

We have a greater amount of weak-
lings in this "trountry than any other
country. We cannot stand what the
Italian laborer can nor what the Aus-
trian can.

We must do the same thing, and if
the bee-keeper will step in and select
not for color alone but for vitality, for
honey gathering — that is what we are
trying to get — and, if he will select,
from his best, he cannot make a mis-
take, but if he selects frtfm his poorest
he is going to -run down rapidly; at
least, I think so.

Mr. Dadant — I think Mr. Pyles has
given an argument against his conten-
tion, and I think the American race is
successful and growing fast because of
this mixture of nations.

We rmist do a little selecting and a
little cross -breeding.

It is a good thing to select from your
best but it is a good thing to from
time to time get some of the best of
somebody else.

Americans are being bred from Scan-
dinavians, Italians, Greeks; a race mix-
ture.

Mr. Pyles — Do the people in Italy do
it that way?

Mr. Dadant — The race in Italy is a
race itself.

Mr. Dadant — We want some inbreed-
ing, but we want the best.

The American people are not up to
the standard because we have more
consumptives, more cancers. We are
more careless.

President Baxter — I think, in sum-
ming this up, that any one who is fam-
iliar with Darwin's origin of the sur-
vival of the fittest will agree there
can be no improvement unless there is
inbreeding. But the inbreeding must be

made according to scientific principles
and have some purpose.

You cannot expect to inbreed queens
from indifferent colonies, weak or sub-
ject to European foul brood, or poor
honey gatherers, etc., and get anything
good out of it, but if you do inbreed
from colonies that are marvelously vig-
orous, good honey gatherers, docile and
all that, your product will be still bet-
ter; it is so with all animals except
the human race.

You cannot expect to improve horses,
cattle, swine or anything else without
selection in breed; it is a scientific
fact with all scientists that inbreeding
where proper selection is made is the
only true secret of improvement.

When it comes to bees, I don't see
how there can be inbreeding when you
take into account the different changes
there are in the apiary, in cross-selec-
tions, in mating; inbreeding in an api-
ary is practically impossible; it is not
as in other animals.

Mr. Dadant — Not if you raise all your
best stock from one breeder.

President Baxter — ^Well, that would
be all right; that would be inbreeding
and would be the proper way if you use
good stock, but not the average apiary.

I raise my queens as others raise
theirs, for home use; the commercial
queen breeders could not raise enough.

Doctor Phillips — They raise six or
seven thousand queens from one
mother iri a year.

President Baxter — Some of the
breeders I have seen claim that they
do not. Didn't know there was any
place in the United States where they
did.

Even then, I would prefer those
queens from proper stock to those that
were raised promiscuously. This in-
breeding is a bugaboo ; it all depends
on how it is conducted. .:

President Baxter— The meeting will
stand adjourned until 7:30 p. m.

7:30 p. m. meeting convened.

President Baxter — Gentlemen, we
have come to order now and we have
no regular program for this evening.
As Mr. Stone has suggested, the first
thing that we might consider is wheth-
er we wash to have our picture taken
tomorrow to put in the report. What
is your pleasure %

Mr. Stone — The artist suggested that
we could go to the Lincoln Library and

64

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

have our -fKctures taken on the steps
there.

We will have it taken between 9 and
10 o'clock, if agreeable. (It was so de-
cided.)

President Baxter — The first matter
we will consider will be the matter of
securing- a building for our honey ex-
hibit on the Fair Grounds. Was that
brought up by resolution?

A nember — By question: What is
the ..est way to secure an apiary build-
ing at the Illinois Fair Grounds, a sep-
arate apiary building?

Mr. Dadant — My reason for asking
that' question: The Minnesota people
have been highly praised by those who
have attended their Fair, and I wrote
to their Pres'ident to ask what they
had done ta secure such nice results.

They wrote back they had obtained
from the F&ir management a separate
building, the size of which I do not re-
member, but they have ampe room for
their exhibits of all kinds. They have
a little ground adjoining which is sepa-
rated by a sufficient fence so the bees
do not disturb any one; they bring
quiet bees there, and the bee-keepers
of the state have clubbed together to
bring enough honey to run an extractor
the entire six days of the Fair, and
the report was it was astonishing how
many hundreds of people saw the ex-
tracting and asked questions and be-
came enthused over the consumption of
honey.

Illinois ought to keep up with Min-
nesota; however, I must say, we don't
give near the premiums that the State
of Minnesota does.

The state of Minnesota gives. I think.
$1,165 in premiums on bees and honey
and Illinois gives, I think, less than
one-fourth of that.

Mr. Stone — About half.

Mr. Dadant — We ought to be able to
keep up with Minnesota.

Illinois is one of the best states In
the Union, certainly equal to Minne-
sota, in the production of honey and in
bee-keeping, and there is no reason
why w^e should take a back seat.

It seems to me that the Illinois State
Bee-Keepers' Association should take
the matter in hand and insist that the
Fair organization must see that we
have representation as well as Min-
nesota, and I believe we can obtain it.

Mr. Stone — Mr. President, the State
Fair at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has

a building for the Apiarian Department
and the Culinary. In our Fair here, the
Superintendent of the Apiarian Depart-"
ment is also that of the Culinary De-
partment, and it would exactly suit him
to run them both in one building and
the bee-keepers have the whole of the
outside of that building. There are no
windows but all skylight. The whole
roof is skylight; it is splendid.

President Baxter — Where was that?

Mr. Stone^Oklahoma City. Our Su-
perintendent here is over both the cul-
inary and apiarian department and that
is all he has to do and the vegetarians
are trying to crowd us out of that wing.
They want our space for farm products
and they are after us all the time.

When Mr. Coppin is slow about get-
ting in there they try to get his space.
He comes down with a car from his
town and a man brings the honey In
the car with his stock, and Mr. Coppin
gets down that way along with him,
and he has to wait until he is ready to
come, so he gets here about Saturday
night and he is compelled to work Sun-
day to get it into shape.

There are dozens and dozens of theni
after that space, and there is conten-
tion all the time, and when our shelv-
ing was put In there they kicked '
everything about it, and they are al-
ways questioning giving us the room.

It has been said that we give a bet-
ter showing for the amount of prem-
iums than anything else on the Fair
Grounds and I believe if we will ask
for a proper building on that plan — the
apiaries to occupy the outer circle of
the building — it would be nice if it
were round rather than square, I guess,
because these angles are pretty hard to
fill in nicely. I believe something of
that kind would impress them very fa-
vorably.

President Baxter — This would have
to be voted by the legislature, would
it not?

Mr. Stone — No, the legislature has
nothing to do with it. The State
Board of Agriculture — they don't look
to the legislature for anything. They
don't wait for the legislature to make
any rules for the State Fair.

President Baxter — Of course we
coud not get the building unless the
management would ask the legislature
for it.

Mr. Stone — The legislature might be
asked for an appropriation to put it

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

65

there. It might be all right to put in
a Bill for the Legislature to have them
make an appropriation for it.

President Baxter— What is your
pleasure on th^?

Mr. Kildow — This fall at the Fair,
Doctor Baxter sprung this on me; I
don't know how long he had it in
mind. We have been for a number of
years now showing the product of the
bee-hive; that is all we have been
doing. Now it is getting time to edu-
cate our people, showing where we get
this, how we get it and the whole
thing from beginning to end, lecture to
them when the crowd gets there and
show them the different hives; if some
one will show them the manipulation
of the hive and everything about it,
it will draw the crowd and it will
educate them about bee-keeping on a
higher plane than it has ever been be-
fore.

We show them, the product every
year but it is the same thing over and
over again, and they will get tired of
it pretty soon and crowd us out or cut
the premiums down so we won't get
anything.

It looks to me as though we have to
change our tactics and get more of the
educational feature in this.

I talked to Mr. Stone and Mr. Cop-
pin and I think another one or two
during the Fair, and they said they
would bring it up at this meeting.

I think we ought to discuss it here
and have this meeting see the Agri-
cultural Board and see what can be
done about getting a new building ex-
clusively for honey exhibits and bees;
or give us all the room we have there
—the center.

Mr. Stone — I would like to add to
what I said about Oklahoma City. The
exhibitors there paid attention to their
honey exhibits; and would have a
honey knife, and all the implements
that a honey man needed, and prem-
iums were offered for them.

They asked ' me to come out there
and be judge and we passed on those
things along with the honey. It was
considered in their exhibits.

President Baxter — I have known of
an extractor being run right on the
Fair Grounds and several thousand
pounds of honey sold right there on
the grounds. Exhibitors here could do
the same thing and take lots of orders
for honey.

Mr. Kildow — It ran in my mind, if
we could have a room right in the
middle of that pavilion for hives and
things we carry — put in a couple of
men there each day to explain to
visitors as they came, we should have
enough to volunteer their services and
no one would get tired out; we could
take turns through the week.

If you have an exhibit of that kind
there will be many people to look at
it and it will keep one or two men
talking pretty much during the day. I
think it would be one of the best
things we could do.

The Dairy business have a building
exclusive for the dairy products; that
is all they do have in that, as I un-
derstand it.

I believe if we put this up to them
in the right light we could get some-
thing.

'^'^r. Stone — See how many cream
separators they have in that building.

Mr. Kildow — I would be willing to
take a day or two and explain what
I knew and include my experiences in
the treatment of diseases. Some others
could do some other part of the talk-
ing and in that way we could, make it
easy on all of us and advance bee-
keeping fifty per cent more than it is.

Mr. Dadant — The extracting of honey
in Minnesota was in a dfferent room,
a separate room; it is necessary that
it should be because there must be
screens to the door where they ex-
tract honey. Hundreds of people saw
the extracting.

I know by my own experience how
much of an advertisement it is to ex-
tract honey before a crowd.

Probably twenty-five years ago I
was a member of the Warsaw Horti-
cultural Society. They used to meet
at the members' homefs.

It came my turn to have them at my
home. The editor of the Prairie Far-
mer of Chicago, then living, promised
to be there to lecture. We had our
shops running manufacturing founda-
tion and we had a big crop of honey
and ran the extractor.

Some gentleman from Keokuk heard
of it and told the business men of
Main Street, Keokuk, they should hitch
up and go over to Dadant's Bee Farm.

We had over four hundred people
that day. It made a very perceptible
difference in our sales of honey. Peo-
ple knew what extracted honey was
in our vicinity; they wanted Dadant's

—5

66

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

hone J"; not onl5^ those that had seen
it, but they told their friends of the
honey they saw — honey taken off the
hives, brought into a room and ex-
tracted; and they knew what extract-
ed honey was.

Before this, they were ready to im-
agine that extracted honey was no
honey at all. You have no idea the ig-
norance of people regarding extracted
honey.

You can increase your sale of honey
by milliqns of pounds if you have that
in your State Fair.

If you have a few bee-keepers with
large crops who want to sell their crop,
it seems to me they would volunteer to
explain to the people so as to sell the
crop. It wil work in their own inter-
est and at the same time benefit the
Association, the Fair at large, and the
bee-keepers. I think it is very impor-
tant.

Mr. Pyles — Mr. Kildow and I have
thrashed this matter over a little at
home and we thought it would be a
good thing not only to extract honey
but to instruct the people how to go
at it. Show the bee-keepers who are
interested how to produce this crop
of extracted honey and the matter of
producing comb honey. A great many
people don't get anything like results.

We should tell them of some of the
things that would be good to do, and
how comb and extracted hon^-
be produced in greater quantities and
get more money for the crop.

We would be willing to give our time
to that part of it so far as we are
able.

We thought in making a showing of
this kind we must not only show the
things we do the work with but ex-
plain to the people how to get the best
results and have all the things there
that go to the getting of a good crop
of honey. Show them how to get things
ready for the market at the same time.

I believe if extracting honey could
be kept running every day all the
honey that might be extracted could
be sold on the Fair Grounds.

Mr. Coppin — I remember about
twenty years ago I advertised in our
home paper I would extract honey on
a certain day in the week and, if all
the people who didn't understand the
method of extracting honey would
come at this particular time, they
could bring their vessels along and
get honey at certain prices.

So, when the day came, the people
crowded in — so many of them I could
not supply the honey they wanted.

I had a lot already extracted, but
they brought vessels larger than I had
expected, and I could n¥>t supply their
wants.

I sold all the honey I could extract.

In regard to our State Fair here, we
did extract -honey at the Fair Grounds
lor a number of j^ears and it was fin-
ally cut out; but our method of ex-
tracting there was not just like it
ought to be.

When the time came to extract, why,
we would have a little bit of space,
and the Judge would come up, prob-
ably half a dozen or a dozen people
might come to see us extracting, and
that would be the extent of what could
be seen; there would be a big crowd
around but we didn't have the space,
and the people could not see what they
ought to see and the result was it did
not do the advertising it ought to.

Mr. Stone — Mr. Dadant, the year he
was Judge, suggested that the extrac-
tor ought to be on a platform.

Mr. Dadant — There were more peo-
ple trying to look than could be ac-
commodated.

Mr. Coppin — I think we could very
much better conditions by having the
proper place and doing it in the right
w-ay.

Mr. Dadant — I am full of the sub-
ject; I want a remind you that the
Minnesota people extracted every day,
all day, during the six days. If you
extract for half an hour you will have
such a crowd that they will not be able
to see it — but for six days, all day,
"morning until evening, and the bee-
keepers furnishing the honey to do it,
you will not only inform the people
and do a great deal of advertising, but
you will sell your honey. What we
want is a good exhibit and show the
people what we have and how the
work is done.

I am in a position to know how
many mistakes are made in taking
care of the bees. Many people when
they read of artificial comb founda-
tion — they cut out "foundation" and
say artificial comb.

We have had people come to oui'
place to see us manufacture comli
foundation imagining they were going
to see the manufacture of the honey
comb, the sealing of it over, etc.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

67

Many people who come there go
away enlightened and they understand
why it is the honey is always straight
in the sections.

Now when , they have all this ex-
plained to them, you have educated
them in a way that is worth millions
to the bee-keepers.

Thej' are doing it in Minnesota — ■
w^hy not in Illinois?

Illinois must do it and it is up to
this Association right here to And the
way.

Mr. Stone — I want to say something
along that same line. If the people
can listen to a bee-keeper tell how the
thing is done, and illustrate it, they
will change their minds. We advertise
in the Register, honey in 5- and 10-
pound pails at 15 cents, and we get
from three to five orders every day,
and when we get enough we start and
go around. Last Friday we went the
rounds, my son and I, in the automo-
bile; we had it full of buckets of honey
and we were all day unti four o'clock
in the afternoon, and traveled about
50 miles or more.

We advertised it — • 5- and 10-pound
pails, and a number in giving their
orders said thej' wanted it to be comb
lioney; one man said I want comb
honey and I want it to be nice.
We took two 10-pound pails of ex-
tracted honey and he took it. But
at first he said: "I don't want that;
that is not pure honey." His wife said:
"Is that pure, real honey?" I said:
"There is our card on there; we stand
behind that for all we are worth. I
would be fined big if that was adul-
terated. We have never had any no-
tice that we were furnishing anything
that was not pure"

The man said: "Yes, in this day
you can't furnish anything adulterated
without making yourself liable." His
wife tasted the honey and said: "That
sure is honey. We will send you an-
other order pretty soon."

They bought that to sell again.

We failed only in one place where
the lady didn't happen to be at home
and the lady who was in charge sa'.d
she would not risk taking it if it was
ever so pure, she would not dare to,
because the lady wanted comb honey.

There came a man in his automo-
"bile Saturday evening. "We have been
out to Ashland and my wife cold me
to stop at your place and get some
lioney if you have comb." I said: "We

don't have comb honey; we sell ex-
tracted." I did everything I could to
convince hini it was all right; he took
five pounds of it, and he will be back
for some more.

With honey as good as it is this
year, people will learn to like it. I
showed this man my bee house and
what I used; I showed him that it was
a big business and that this thing of
adulterated honey — there is nothing to
it.

President Baxter — Gentlemen, this
has been discussed pretty well. I
think the best way to go at this would
be to embody it in a resolution, setting
forth what has been done by other
states and what we want, and go to
the Board of Directors of the State
Fair Association and put that in the
hands of a good committee, and I
think we will probably get what we
want sooner or later, probably very
soon.

I think that would be the proper way
to get at it.

Now, I would be opposed to doing
anything along the lines Mr. Pyles
suggested. I don't believe we should
educate the average bee-keeper in the
State Fair as to how to produce good
honey.

They should take interest enough in
these meetinugs and field meets to at-
tend, or go without the knowledge.

What we want to do is to educate
the public in the usefulness of the
honey bee; also in the healthfulness of
honey as food, so that they wil con-
sume as large a quantity of it as pos-
sible.

We want to get all horticulturists
and the average farmer and every-
body, in fact, interested in the bees,
in the production of the bees, and in
that way we will have the protection
that we want from the legislature.

That is the only way we can get our
appropriation for foul brood and for
the sustaining of this Association and
for other purposes that we need funds
for.

Horticulturists are coming over to
us very fast. They are beginning to
realize the absolute necessity of bees,
and the farmer also is awakening to a
realization of this.

We want to educate the public at
large in these various lines.

Mr. Stone — The farmers are begin-
ning to want to buy bees to put in

68

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

their clover fields. I have had a num-
ber of applications for them.

President B'axter — Will somebody get
up this resolution and present it to
the Association for action?

Mr. Stone — I move that Mr. Dadant
and Doctor Baxter be appointed to
formulate resolutions.

Motion seconded and carried.

President Baxter — Mr. Dadant is
probably better posted than any of us
on that line.

President Baxter — What is your fur-
ther pleasure?

Mr. Pyles — We have a number of
questions here.

Question — Have any of you gotten
any honey from corn bloom?

Mr. Kildow — I can say I have not.

A member — I never saw bees work-
ing on corn bloom except for pollen;
more than half the ground around our
place is in corn; I never knew them
to get enough to keep them from
starving when there was nothing else
in bloom.

Mr. Kildow — I din't think they get
anything but pollen from it.

Mr. Stone — I have seen them on the
corn bloom.

Mr. Seastream — This year there was
quite a "bit of corn coming in and also
quite a bit of honey; the bees were
working nicely from four to five hours
on them.

President Baxter— Anything further
on this question?

Mr. Coppin — I put that question for
the reason that there was a sample of
honey at our State Fair and they said
it was from corn tassel, and in my ex-
perience I had never gotten any that
way, and I don't think the bees ever
got any.

I simply asked that question to hear
what the people — what other people
would say.

I am right in the corn belt where
there is more corn than anything else.

Mr. Pyles — Three years ago when
Mr. Kildow and I were at Mr. Bald-
win's, he reported that up in Missis-
sippi they got a large flow of honey
from corn bloom, very mild, of light
color.

And, while we didn't know any-
thing about Mr. Baldwin's reputation
for truth and veracity, he talks as a

man who knows what he is talking
about.

Mr. Kildow — I am like the man from
Missouri!

Mr. King — I was the one that pre-
sented that sample but found out
afterwards it was something else.

President Baxter — Is it not a fact
that corn sometimes produces honey-
dew which tastes like glucose and one
might take it for corn honey? Does
any one know of corn producing
honey-dew?

Mr. Diebold — I live in a corn belt
and never bad a drop of honey gath-
ered from corn tassel or bloom in my
life.

Mr. Seastream — During the time I
was talking about, I thought it pro-
duced honey, and I am positively sure
that they were getting a little honey
because I had a field of corn close to
me and as I went up I saw the bees
working on it every time, and I fol-
lowed the bees up from row to row
to see if there were some bees that
did get some honey, and I caught some
and mashed them up; of course they
were loaded with pollen and they had
some honey but it was not A'ery much.
It was enough to breed up on, to keep
the hive going on for a little while; I
am positively sure there was not any-
thing else in my neighborhood for the
bees to get at that time.

I could see it to a small extent in
the hives also.

I run my yards for nothing else but
extracted honey.

Mr. Kil(5^w — They say there are ex-
ceptions to all rules; I guess this is
one of theiril^

Question \ — Are queens always
marked the same, as they mark their
progeny ?

Mr. Dadant — Xo.

President Baxter — I guess the an-
swer to that is unanimous — No.

Question — Which is most profitable
for Cenjtral Illinois bee-keepers, out-
door or cellar wintering?

President Baxter — There is a nut
to crack.

Mr. Heinzel — I think that depends
altogether on the winter.

Mr. Stoae — I think, for this part of
the state, outdoor is best.

Mr. Coppin — It depends on circum-
stances and, the condition of the bees.

™«^Sij.

.rr

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

6?

If it was like it was a year ago this
time, a lot of bees would winter in tlie
cellar when they were not in condi-
tion to winter outside; then they were
light in bees and light in stores and
they, would winter in the cellar best
but would not winter out of doors in
single walled hives.

I had a lot of light ones and carried
them into the cellar and the result was
I lost about 100 colonies outdoors and
didn't lose what I had indoors.

Of course I didn't lose all that I had
outdoors but I lost a great percent-
age, 100 colonies.

This fall they ha.ve more bees and
full of honey, so that , I don't think
cellar wintering will make so much
difference this time.

President Baxter — As I understand
this question, it asks for the general
rule, not exceptions; your circupi-
stances were an exception.

Mr. Pyles — A man just north of us
winters out of doors all the time, and
perhaps there is no one that winters,
with all the packing you have heard
talked about this afternoon, or in the
cellar, that winters bees as success-
fully as he does or more so, year after
year, for the last 25 years.

Doctor Phillips — What is his per-
centage of loss?

Mr. Pyles — Not more than one per
cent.

Mr. Kildow — One year after anotlier
that man winters his bees successfully
out of doors. So successfully that his
bees are practically done swarming
the first day of June, and along the
first day of June, as a rule, you can
hardly touch a hive with bees on it.

I don't think his loss will average
two per cent, but he has — location.

Mr. Coppin — I have been at this
man's place once or twice. He is
down in a little place among the bluffs
where he is sheltered from all the bad
weather. He is protected more than
the balance of us; I have been there
a time or two, and he is right in where
he has protection.

Mr. Pyles — All the way up and down
the Illinois River on the north side of
the river, or w^est rather, every mile or
two there is just such a location as
that — &md. any man who will pack
them as he does and have them as
strong for the winter — year after year,
with such a slight percentage of loss —

would speak in favor of outdoor win-
tering.

President Baxter — The question is—
Which is more profitable in Central
Illinois, as a general rule, outdoor or
cellar wintering?

We want to confine ourselves to that
— not to exceptions that may arise un-
der certain conditions.

Mr. Dadant — We have wintered two
apiaries for 15 or 18 years in the cel-
lar while we wintered several apiaries
out of doors. We had built a room in
the cellar purposely for the bees in
our home apiary; we had a lined ceil-
ing; the building was sufficiently un-
derground to keep the temperature
good. In fact we had to give them air
to rather cool the cellar than other-
wise, but, after that length of time
we wintered the bees both out of doors
and indoors, we decided for outdoor
w^intering.

If we could tell when a winter is to
be very mild beforehand we would al-
ways winter out of doors; if we could
tell when we w-ere to have a very hard
winter, we would winter in the cellar.

We have finally decided to winter
out of doors because we have oftener
here a mild wanter than very cold.

Rarely are the bees kept in the hive
more than a month at a time; usually
about two weeks, and when allowed
to fly that often they generally win-
ter well out of doors.

Of course the trouble in wintering
in the cellar is to keep the 4)ees cool
enough in mild weather. When we
have mild winter weather the bees be-
come restless in the cellar. We have
been told to use ice but a cake of 'ce
does not last very long and the bees
become restless, and we find it is de-
sirable that they should be out of
doors.

When you go to Doctor .]^iller's,
there is no doubt about the advantage
of wintering in the cellar. Where we
are, in Central Illinois, I would vote
for wintering outside.

If I had fairly weak colonies, I would
winter those in the cellar. A colony
has very little chance in wintering out
of doors if it is weak, unless well
packed.

Mr. Bowen — I never winter in the
cellar, so I can't tell you. I have been
pretty successful wintering outdoors.

Speaking of weak colonies: One
weak colony I had last year — I ex-

70

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

pected that colony would be gone tliis
spring and counted on nothing else,
but it was not gone and turned out
to be one of the best colonies I had
this year.

As I stated this afternoon: One rea-
son, I suppose, was that we had such
a great honey flow; but in this ca.«e
I speak of I had intended to unite
with another but did not do so and
was surprised to find it in active use ,
this spring.

I should take the outdoor wintering
every time.

Mr. Stone — I have wintered in the
cellar for ten or twelve years; I have
a good room, plenty large for the
number of bees I had; I never had
higher than one hundred and twenty
colonies, and I could get them all in
there, and I didn't think I would ever
need any bigger room. I never wanted
an out apiary because I never had the
time to spend with them.

In running the farm, (we have not a
very large farm, one-quarter section,)
I had enough to do running that and
attending to that number of bees, but
we had to have, with that number of
bees in the room, a ventilator at the
window.

We made a ventilator considerably
longer than the window and the bees
got plenty of air; there was always
good air in there, and we kept the
temperature as we wanted it when it
was cool outside.

I had pretty good luck. I noted,
if a hive was very light, that it would
winter through but woul^ die in the
early spring if we didn't feed it.

After running that way for a time
I made up rny mind to winter out of
doors; I like it best outdoors; except
ojie winter I was not fixed for it; I
had not packed them — and that taught
me I had better pack them.

Light swarms go through all right
outdoors, and then, by early attention
in the spring, they come out all right
— so I have made up my mind that it
is best to winter outside, here.

Mr. Bender — My experience has been
the opposite. I wintered twelve years
outdoors and had continuous losses, al-
though I packed them as I should.

I wintered six years in the cellar
and had practically no losses, two or
three per cent; so I am in favor of
cellar wintering — Langstroth hive,
eight- or ten-frame.

President Baxter — It depends upon
hives and other conditions.

Mr. Seastream — I have been winter-
ing in the cellar for the last fifteen
years I guess, straight, and I don't be-
lieve the losses in the last fifteen years
would average three per cent where
the bees were in shape when I put
them in.

We do not go to work and call the
hive in good shape if there is no queen
in it and it is entirely too light in
brood.

If a hive was in middling fair shape,
I don't believe I ever lost one.

There are times when I was both-
ered with dysentery in the spring
pretty bad but as soon as possible I
got them out for a flight and in doing
so I had considerable trouble in drift-
ing from one hive to another.

There was one time there I didn't
watch my business right; I didn't at-
tend to business and they drifted so
bad. I could have made three swarms'
of the front rows when there were
hardly any bees in the hind rows, but
I overcame that trouble and it didn't
hurt me very bad.

President Baxter — Well, we will pass
this question now. We have discussed
it pretty thoroughly.

Question — What should be done with
that section of honey that has pollen
in it? Should it be put on with

the fancy or No. 1 honey?

Mr. Withrow — I would like to ask
you if that other question was decided.
Xo two seemed to agree upon it.

President Baxter — You must judge
for yourself.

Mr. Withrow — I believe if you travel
around Central Illinois you will find
95 per cent or more wintering out of
doors.

President Baxter — I would answer it
by saying: Winter out of doors every
time in this altitude unless you take
the trouble to put them in the cellar
during exceptionally hard winters, or
the bees are weak or stores poor.

Mr. Dadant — I want to say a little
about the percentage of loss. Doctor
Phillips asked about what the per-
centage of loss was; I can see he aims
for us to have not more than one per
cent.

You will have to teach us better bee-
keeping before you succeed in having
99 per cent of our colonies in good

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

71

queens and good stores. The best bee-
keeper has occasionally a colony that
is weak, hardly enough honey, that has
no queen ; we go into winter quarters
with a certain number of colonies and
we don't sometimes know that the col-
ony is queenless, and we must figure
on a three or four per cent loss in that
way.

I don't think you will find condi-
tions different from this if you go
among bee-keepers. There are some,
I suppose, like jewelers, who are keep-
ing bees, who look after every little
detail; you may 'find one^who will have
his colonies so uniform that there is
no chance of loss except big losses;
but as a rule every bee-keeper has
some worthless colonies, and, when
they report three per cent loss, you
must figure they have lost only Avorth-
less colonies.

Question — What should be done with
sections of honey that have pollen in
them? Should they be put on with
fancy No. 1 honey?

Doctor Phillips — The grading rules
put that in the cull.

Mr. Coppin — I don't remember seeing
anything in the grading rules in re-
gard to pollen in sections.

Question — Did any one ever sow
sweet clover in corn when laying by
corn and what was the result?

President Baxter — Who has had any
experience in that?

Mr. Hawkins — I have had experience
in sowing sw'eet clover on gravel beds
in the winter time on snow.

Mr. Bender — I think the results
would show that the sweet clover
sown in corn would come up in ths
spring.

Mr. Dadant — I think what the party
aims to find out is whether sweet
clover cannot be made to yield a crop
next year without losing a year.

Mr. Coppin — They are sowing it in
our neighborhood sometimes. I believe
they have been sowing it before we
sowed the oats, I think in the winter
on thebsnow, probably.

I asked one man this summer if he
hnd any sweet clover planted; he said,
"Yes, thirty-five acres." I said to him-
"Do you expect to grow a 'crop of
seeds or what?" And he said: "Yes, I
planted it for the purpose of growing
9, crop of seeds." I said: "I tell you
>vhat I think you had better do. I

think it would be a good idea for you
to see Coppin and see if you could not
arrange for him to get some bees out
there." •'

He replied: "You tell Coppin he
can put all the bees he wants out in
the sweet clover field." So I expect to
take bees to his place next summer
and to have the advantage of thirty -
five acres of sweet clover.

President Baxter — We know that
sweet clover is sowed in wheat, rye,
barley or oats, now the question is —
can it be sown in corn? Will it grow,
that is the question.

Mr. Kildow — There is no reason why
it could not be done.

Mr. Hawkins — I don't believe it
would be a good plan. I think most
of the men Who raise alfalfa or sweet
clover will bear me out in the state-
ment that the more preparation we can
give the seed bed, alfalfa or clover,
the better crop you will have.

Mr. Kildow — I want to differ.

The better attention you give sweet
clover^ accordhig to my experience,
the worse you are off; if you sow it on
the roadside or^'in the field and let
the cattle tramp on it, it seems to be
the best way to do, in our neighbor-
hood.

Mr. Heinzel — Two years ago, about
the Fourth of July, I had a pretty
stand of sweet clover; we had a dry
season that year; it bloomed the sec-
ond year. It came up after it w^':|S
sown the same year; it bloomed this
year.

I got a good stand, only there was
not very much of it. Also sowed some
in. the rye this spring, after sowing
the rye, and got a good stand. I don't
know whether it would do any good in
corn or not. I sowed it last July a
year ago.

Mr. Stone — Did you put in lime in
the soil?

Mr. Heinzel — Xo, sir.

Mr. Stone — Did you inoculate?

Mr. Heinzel — Xo, sir.

Mr. Hawkins — It was luck.

Mr. Seastream — If you inoculate
sweet clover it will grow on lime-
stone.

Mr. Heinzel — This soil overflows and
probably gets its inoculation that way.

Mr. Kildow — In regard to inoculated
ground: Up through our country I

..»*.

72

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

sowed sweet clover along the road;
you never saw sweet clover there be-
fore, but it is growing there today and
that ground was not inoculated.

Doctor Phillips — Yes, it was; some-
thing else was growing that 'inoculated
it.

. Mr. Kildow — The soil through that
country does not have to be inoculated.

President Baxter — It must be the soil
of Hancock county grows without in-
oculation.

Mr. Stone — The ground along the
road is rich with nitrogen and the
nitrogen inoculates the soil. It is nitro-
gen that alfalfa and sweet clover lack
when they fail to grow. The Univer-
sity has discovered that, and we did
ten years before the University did,
that when, the land was rich it did not
need inoculation. The nitrogen in the
soil was inoculation enough.

If you try to sow sweet clover in a
worn out field you can keep on sowing
and you will not get sweet clover; we
tried it. We sowed alfalfa and sweet
clover and failed to put the inocula-
tion in it and neither of them grew;
the soil was acid; we had to put lime
in; we sowed twenty acres twice and
lost the alfalfa seed and sweet clover;
we had some sweet clover but it would
die out before it seeded; after losing
two crops of seed we put limestone in
and you never saw such a crop of
alfalfa as we have had for the last
four years. This year we cut four
times; had two tons the first cutting;
iy2 tons the second; 1 ton the third,
and % ton the fourth cutting.

Mr. Kildow — He speaks about the
ground being full of nitrogen. I won-
der how it was in the Sanitary ditch.
Tt is full of limestone out there and I
never saw Buch a crop of sweet clover
as grew there.

President Baxter — Sweet clover does
not need 'any nitrogen.

Mr. Seastream — When sweet clover
came to be talked among bee-keepers,
I asked about the seed; I didn't know
much about inoculating the soil. I put
bushels of seed in, scattered it over
the country where I lived and never
got a stand, but after a while I, like
the rest of them, learned it needed
some inoculation; I got some carpen-
ter's glue and mixed it up with the
seed, and it grows nicely. I have even
tried it on limestone and it grows
there, too.

Mr. Heinzel — I have seen it grow in
a gravel pit where there was nothing
but stone.

Mr. Pyles — It seems to me we are
getting nitrogen and bacteria mixed;
we must have the bacteria first to
start the nitrogen in the soil. In any
limestone soil sweet clover will grow;
sweet clover is a hardier plant .than
alfalfa.

Any land that will grow red clover
will grow sweet clover, and will pro-
duct a crop of sweet clover.

Along the drainage canal you will
find sweet clover growing with the
limestone. You will find sweet clover
growing among that pile of stone,
nothing, but stone so far as you can
see but there must be some soil mixed
with it.

I know of land where there are
great quantities of lime and there you
will find lots of sweet clover and that
is where it yields honey.

We must not get the idea that we
must first have nitrogen; we must first
have bacteria that stores nitrogen.

President Baxter — We have been
growing sweet clover for the last forty
years to my knowledge and I know for
a positive fact that sweet clover will
grow on land that has not been arti-
ficially inoculated. Wherever sweet
clover grows, sweet clover will store
nitrogen taken from the air and not
from the ground, and sweet clover will
produce more nitrogen, acre for acre,
than will red clover.

Mr. Dadant — We must not deduce
from that that sweet clover will grow
anywhere.

We live right by a big dam on the
Mississippi River. Below our home- is
an immense quarry made by the Water
Power Company. Millions of tons of
stone have been taken out. We said
to ourselves: As soon as the thing is
finished we are going to sow sweet
clover in that waste. It got there ahead
of us.

On the other hand, I sowed on a
very poor piece of land up on the
hills, where there is no linestone near,
several acres of sweet^ clover, and in
some places there was not a bit of it.

I am satisfied that land is too sour
or needs improvement either by lime
or bacteria beforehand.

President Baxter — Can't get bacteria
if it is sour.

Mr. Hawkins — I can cite you the

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

73

finest example of the value of lime-
stone in growing alfalfa or sweet
clover.

I know of a man in the state of Wis-
consin (the County Agent) who had
a farm and planted a field of alfalfa;
a field where the seed was inoculated,
and the soil was given the finest kind
of preparation, was very rich, and the
only place the farmer got a reason-
ably good stand from the field was
within 150 feet of the north and south
road and this man, the County Agent,
claims, and I do not doubt his state-
ment, the reason for the yield along
the road was, the prevailing winds
were from the west; and, whenever a
team gofes by this gravel road, it picks
up dust and that is carried over in the
farm, a very fine limestone, and scat-
tered over the surface of that soil;
and within a reasonable distance of
that road, where the dust could be ex-
pected to blow, there was an excellent
stand; and on the same land, eight
or ten feet away, and the balance of
the field, it was an absolute failure. .

President Baxter — The only way to
do is to test your soil. If the soil is
acid you will have to have lime, other-
wise, if the acid is not there, the poor-
est clay soil will raise sweet clover."

Question: Does alfalfa yield honey
in Illinois?

Mr. Stone — I never saw a bee on it.
We have had it for twenty years.

Mr. Valerius — My brother had .i
piece of alfalfa on which the bees
worked heavily and it yielded lots of
seed.

President Baxter — Did you see any
results of the alfalfa honey in the
hives?

Mr. Valerins — Not to amount to any-
thing, but you could see it.

Mr. Stone — How manx bushels of
seed to the acre?

Mr. Valerins — On one and one-quar-
ter acre I got seven bushels of seed.

President Baxter — "Did it yield
honey?" I suppose that question
means in quantities, for commercial
purposes.

Mr. Valerins — Only in dry time we
found that the alfalfa would either
bear seed or that the bees would
work on it.

Mr. Hawkins — It is a good deal like
buckwheat, certain soils will yield
and others won't.

Mr. Diebold— -My* bees are located a
half mile from ten acres of alfalfa and
I have never seen a single bee on the
bloom. :;

Mr. Pjies — I have seen bees work
heavily on alfalfa in the hot, dry
weather, along the river bottom, near
Rose Hill, but there was aft ideal con-
dition there, dry, hot air (k)ming over
the sand, with water close by.

This year when Mr. Kildow and I

were at Minooka, Dr. B told us

that he was south three or four miles,
in the limestone country, and the bees
w-ere working heavily on alfalfa.

There are two cases, close to Rose
Hill, and in this instance, where the
bees worked heavily on alfalfa, and
Dr. B^ 's word would be like gos-
pel with me.

Mr. Coppin — Out on the prairie —
w^here I live, there are thirty acres of
alfalfa within a few hundred yards of
my bees and I never saw any bees on
it. I have watched them; as soon as
I would get up to the fence I would
hear the bees singing but they were
on the sweet ! clover by the side of the
alfalfa.

Mr. Seastream — I have the same re-
port to make.

Mr. Heinzel — My experience is like
Mr. Coppin's; upon watching it for the
last two years, I have never yet seen
a bee working on alfalfa. ,

Mr. Bender — I have never been able
to see it.

President Baxter — It is safe to say
that generally they do not produce
honey.

Mr. Stone — I have seen a good many
different kinds of insects working on
alfalfa but never saw any bees; there
is a kind of wild bee that works on it.

President Baxter — Probably for pol-
len.

Question: Is sweet clover for seed
profitable?

President Baxter — Who has raised it
to know?

Doctor Phillips — You heard what Mr.
Cloverdale said at Hammond last'
summer; that ought to pretty nearly
answer that question.

Mr. Coppin — One gentleman lived in
the same county as the man who
asked the question. He had twenty
acres there and I had some bees with-
in reach of it a year ago this summer.

74

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

and he claims he made $1,500 from the
seed — a Mr. Mills.

Mr. Pyles — When I was in Gundy
County this spring, it was reported a
man had thirty acres of sweet clover
for seed last year. He mowed it
about the twentieth day of May; he
then let it go to seed, cut it with the
binder and threshed it and sold it
and he had warehouse receipts for the
seed showing that he had gotten $130
an acre for seed, besides a crop of
hay.

Doctor Baxter — My father had eighty
acres of sweet clover; this year he got
a crop of hay the first part of June;
the first of September he cut that with
a binder and threshed it with the
threshing machine; he got seven bush-
els per acre and sold it at $14 a bushel
in Chicago; he did not pay the freight.

Now, I don't believe you-^can 'ibeat
that with any other -erep. ^<^

Of course, if everybody was raising
sweet clover the market price would
go down; it is a hard crop to handle
and to thresh.

Men don't like to han(*le it; they
don't like to run that bindSK

It is a crop that does not become
ruined with rain.

After you get it shocked and piled
up, you can leave it there almost in-
definitely. This season ruined the hay
crop but it didn't ruin the seed, and I
don't know of anything that you can
produce on the farm that will give you
as much money for the number of
acres. The crop practically amounted
to about half the value of the land.
We have tried alfalfa but it is not a
paying crop with us; of course it can
be used for feed at home or put in
the silo or something of that kind, but
it is not a profitable crop for us to
market; you cannot make money out
of it every year by selling it in this
country.

Last year was a good one; we had
about 15 acres of alfalfa and the crop
was good as far as for hay.

Question: Should there be some
standard as to the amount a hive
should be assessed in taxing?

Mr. Hawkins — I think something
might be said, about that. It is a good
deal a mattef_,of conscience in figur-
ing the amount that these might
weigh. It might be a good idea if we
had some such law in this country
such as, where a man who has bees
and puts a certain valuation on them,

the state maintains the right to buy
it from him at any time. .

Mr. Diebold — I don't believe liees are
assessed in my part of the country at
all.

President Baxter — They are down
our way, and should be everywhere.

Doctor Baxter — They are not
assessed here.

Mr. Stone — They assessed me last
year because I wanted them assessed.
The Assessor said: "Here is a place
down here for other products or other
things." I said: "Putin bees there."

Mr. Coppin — The Assessor assessed
mine and later he told me he had
struck if off of the list because I was
the only one in the .township and he
said it did not look very well to assess
only one who had bees.

President Baxter — All property
should be assessed, no matter what it
is, if there is any value to it; bees
and everything else should be assessed
at its real fair market value.

Mr. Dadant — I think there is another
argument. We are asking the legisla-
ture to support us and the legislature
does support us by paying an Inspec-
tor, and giving an allowance to the
State Bee-Keepers' Association, and so
long as our business gets help from
the state we ought to be allowed to
return help to the state.

I know there is a good deal of neg-
lect and failure in making statements.
I remember once when the Assessor
told me I was the only man in the
township who had any jewelry. I
found out the entire amount of jewelry
in Keokuk was $600. The Assessor
said he pitied the four jewelers with
onlylSeOO of jewelry in Keokuk.

Mr.( Hawkin.s — There were only 20
watches in the county next to us last
year. \^ , /

Mr. Kildow — I think we. ought to
have our bees assessed, and I think
then we can demand recognition from
the legislature.

But, you say, poultry is not assessed;
they raise hogs and sell them before
the Assessor gets around!

I thimv we should pay taxes on bees.

Mr. Bowen — I have given in my bees
at different times to be assessed and
they said, "Oh, let that go, that don't
amount to anything."

I noticed in looking over the assess-
ment last year that a man that I know

1

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

75

is worth a thousand dollars to my one
didn't pay as much taxes as I did.
They have everything, but somehow or
other it is covered up.

We want them to assess our bees; if
they don't do it we ought not to have
to stand over them with a shot-gun
and, make them do it.

My bees have been assessed as long
as I can remember.

Now they come to assess my bees
not only once but twice; personal
property should be assessed where one
resides.

'" My apiaries out in the country, out-
side of my township, are assessed and
the other township wants to assess
them too.

Mr. Diebold — Is not poultry assessed
in the state of Illinois?

President Baxter — Poultry is as-
sessed down our way in all townships
throughout the country.

Doctor Baxter — Men yho ; produce
fancy poultry for breeding purposes
are assessed in this county, but ordi-
nary chickens and the like are not
assessed here.

Question: What per cent of Euro-
pean foul brood is found after the
white clover harvest in comtjarison
with the earlier seascrn?

President Baxter — Mr. Kildow can
answer that.*

Mr. Kildow — I would like to hear
from Doctor Phillips.

Doctor Phillips — All I can say is,
most of the samples wef get come in
the month of June; it drops off very
rapidly after that. We have had
samples of European foul brood every
month of the year.

President Baxter — Most of it comes
before or just during the clover bloom.

Mr. Kildow — I can give you what we
find.

We find a little the fore part of the
season but not enough more to make
much difference.

I found this last year: from the fir'=''-
until the last of the season, or to July
first, we found 57 apiaries of Ameri-
can foul brood and we found 72 of
European; that was from April, when
we first commenced, to July first.

From July first to the end of the
season we found 61 apiaries of Ameri-
can and 34 of European.

From July down we found 61 of
American and 34 of European.

Doctor Phillips — You found less than
half as much the latter part as the
first?

Mr. Diebold — When I examined my
bees during fruit yield blossom I found
very little foul brood, and in June I
found lots of it in the same apiary.

Mr. Kildow — You might get your af-
fection in May and it did not show
up until June.

Mr. Pyles — In the figures Mr. Kildow
gives, he takes into consideration the
early part of the season; I did most of
my inspection before the first of July,
and it was all in European districts.
All my work was done practically in
European fo.ul brood districts; the.
after part of the season goes into
American foul brood districts nearly
entirely. That must be taken into con-
sideration when we take up these fig-
ures.

The fore part of the season my work
was done in the eastern part of the
state. My work was done in the dis-
trict where we find almost entirelj'
European foul brood.

I feel very sure if I had been going
after that same territory in the after
part of the season I would have found
none.

Five years ago when Doctor Phillips
and I were over in the state he said to
me: "One thing I cannot understand,
Mr. Smith never found one case of
European foul brood while he was In-^.
spector and you and Mr. Kildow have
been finding it right along."

We found it in the east part of the
state. We found all of it (all but one
apiary) after the 12th day of July.
Doctor Phillips does not get any of
■ ~mir figures any more. We used to
send a sample; when we would write
to him and enclose under separate
cover sample of European foul brood,
Doctor Phillips would write back and
say: "We find your diagnosis correct."
Sometimes it is so plain it is not nec-
essary to send it to the Department at
Washington to exam.ine this matter.

Another thing: The fore part of
the season, when you are providing
for the white clover crop of honey, if
the people are trying to do anything,
they are trying to get their bees into
condition to father a crop of honey,
and, if anything is wrong, they are apt
to look at it and take a sample, but
if they get honey they don't care about
their bees and are not going through
the hives to examine the inside of

76

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

their hives; I don't think they them-
selves know what the condition is un-
til afterwards.

Doctor Phillips — European samples
of foul brood come the first part and
American is scattered throughout the
entire summer.

I know that is the way it works.

June has the highest mark.

Mr. Stone — Is it possible that in the
earlj- part. of the season when work-
ing with the bees you can notice Eu-
ropean foul brood and that later it is
so absorbed?

Doctor Phillips— European foul brood
very frequently^ disappears in the lat-
ter part of the season. I don't believe
it is safe for an Inspector, for instance,
to give a certificate of health to queen
breeders — for a queen breeder's yard,
after the white clover honey. There
might be European foul brood there
which the Inspector could not see at
all.

Mr. Diebold — Last year, last season,
I had a colony of bees in which I
found there was foul brood in it but
the season ? was not right to treat
them at that time; it was such a
drought, weather dry; I concluded to
leave them until spring, but marked
the hive. ;

In the e^rly spring I opened the
hive and examined them and could not
find any foul brood, and even the
queen was gone. I gave it a new
■comb with larvae in it and they reared
a queen and later on I examined and
could not find any'trace of foul brood,
and I got some surplus honey from
that colony.

Mr. Pyles — I would say, Mr. Presi-
dent, whether he was trying to treat
his bees or not, unconsciously he treat-
ed them: the colony was treated; then
he reared the queen; it does not make
any difference whether it was reared
in that colony or another.

I have had this year in my own ex-
perience, in a colony that I killed the
queen and let them rear a queen early
in the season. At first it didn't show
European foul brood and later showed
plenty of it.

I am sure that what he did was
practically the same as I did, but I
took two weeks at it and he did it
only once.

Mr. Kildow — Doctor Phillips, what is
the law in regard to shipping queens
Irom a foul brood apiary?

Doctor Phillips — The postal regula-
tions require that a queen breeder
shall have a certificate from a duly
qualified Apiary Inspector that there
is no evidence of disease. Certain
states do not have any Apiary Inspec-
tor.

Mr. Kildow — We have, I think, one
or two breeders in the state who are
breeding queens and shipping them
throughout the country that have no
certificate.

Doctor Phillips — They can still ship
without a certificate if they certify that
they use boiled honey.

Mr. Kildow — I know one party asked
me if he could not ship by express. I
told him he had better not sell any
queens until he got his apiary clean.

A member — If you wall read the law.
It is against the law to either sell or
offer for sale either bees or queens
or fixtures from a diseased apiary.

Mr. Dadant — The question is, wheth-
er a man can ship queens without a
certificate.

Doctor Phillips — If there is a ques-
tion whether the Postoffice regulations
are being enforced, the Postmaster will
be glad to attend to it.

Mr. Hawkins — A man who will ship
queens out of his yard that are dis-
eased is a crook.

Mr. Coppin — The disease is supposed
to be in the honey and not in the bee.

Mr. Hawkins — A man who ships
queens out of his yard if he knows the
yard to be discussed is a crook, be-
cause you can convey the disease
through the bees — through the queen
— 'as well as through the honey.

President Baxter — As I understand
the law in this state you can ship bees
without a certificate, but, if you do so
when you know you are infected with
foul brood, you are taking great
chances, and if any queen breeder is
suspicious of having European foul
brood he should be inspected by an
Inspector and should be stopped from
shipping if he has the disease.

We will stand adjourned until to-
morrow morning at 9 o'clock.

SECOND MORNING SESSION.

Meeting called to order by Presi-
dent Baxter.

. President Baxter — The first thing
this morning, we will hear from the

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

n

committee that was appointed to draft
resolutions in regard to the Fair
Grounds proposition — Mr. Dadant.

Mr. Dadant — The Committee ap-
pointed begs leave to report as fol-
• lows:

Be it resolved, By the Illinois State
Bee -Keepers' Association, an organiz-
ation incorporated February 26, 1891,
under the laws of Illinois and recog-
nized officially by the State of Illi-
nois:

Whereas, The members of the Illi-
nois State Bee-Keepers' Association
consider that their interests need
greater representation at the Illinois
State Fair; and.

Whereas, If a greater space is allot-
ted to their industry and a larger
amount paid in premiums, it will help
increase the demand for honey and
thereby encourage their industry; and

Where, Other states such as Minne-
sota have a much greater recognition
in this line;

Therefore, Be it resolved by the Illi-
nois State Bee-Keepers' Association in
meeting assembled, that we request
the Illinois Board of Agriculture to
erect a separate building for the ex-
hibits of bees and honey with a spe-
cial room in said building for the dem-
onstration of manipulations such as
the extraction of honey from the comb,
to educate the people as to the true
nature of our products.

Respectfully submitted,

EMIL J. BAXTER, Pres.
JAS. A. STONE, Sec.

Mr. Dadant — We move the adoption
* of this resolution, Mr. President.

Motion seconded and carried.

Mr. Kildow — Would it not be well,
provided they will not build that room,
for us to ask them to have all the
room we have been occupying?

President Baxter — We will have to
do that anyway, Mr. Kildow, if they
cannot build a building in time. We
will want to keep all the space we can
get.

Mr. Stone — Mr. Kildow referred to
having the whole "L".

Mr. Kildow — I referred to taking out
the vegetables and letting us have that
center.

President Baxter — This committee
can make it their duty to see to get-
ting it until we have a new building
provided.

President Baxter — The next thing in
order will be the essay of Mr. Dadant
— 'The agency of bees in the fertiliza-
tion of flowers."

Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, I was
going to say I was afraid that tho
bee-keepers present are pretty well
aware of the facts that. I have stated
in this paper; they are generally well,
posted on the fertilization of flowers,
but this subject I think is a good one
to insert in a report because it is read
by farmers who often imagine bees in-
jure their flowers and fruit instead of
doing them good.

That belief is dying away but there
are still a g'reat many people who do
not know the real facts.

I take it for granted you all know
that which I am going to read. " I
don't think there is much that is new
in what I have written; I am simply
bringing those facts more plainly be-
fore bee-keepers and fruit growers.

"THE AGENCY OF BEES IN THE
FERTILIZATION OF FLOWERS."

Mr. C. P. Dadant.

The question which I have accepted
the task of answering today is: Are
bees useful or necessary in the fer-
tilization of our fruits?

Bees gather both pollen and honey
from the blossoms upon which they
work, pollen for the breeding of their
young and honey both for the brood
and for their own food. But it is not
generally known why the wants of
bees are supplied by the floral world.
Investigation shows us a meaning to
the existence and the relation of in-
sects and flowers.

Plants blossom in order that seed
may be produced. The flower of each
plant is an intricate problem. Before
the seed is produced pollen from the
anthers must reach the part called the
stigma, or in other words the male
part must supply its fertilizing sub-
stance to the female part, the seed-
bearing pistil, of which the receiving
part is the center stem or stigma.
Some flowers be^ar both a number of
anthers and the stigma in the same
corolla, some flowers are self-fertiliz-
ing; others, though possessing both
organs, are unable to fertilize their
fruit without feid; some other flowers
are incomplete, having only one of the
organs perfect while they have to rely
on other blossoms for the other organ.

78

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

For instance, some strawberries are
called 'pistillate," having a pistil but
no anthers, a female organ, but no
male organ. In some flowers the male
and female organs are placed at dif-
ferent parts of the plant, as for in-
stance in corn, where the male organs
are at the tassel and the female organs
at the ear. In these plants the pollen
furnished is so plentiful as to scatter
in all directions and, as in the case
of the ragweed, cover the clothes of
people when they tread among them.
It 'was at first thought that flowers
which possess both male and female
organs were easily self-fertilized, that
all that was necessary was for the pol-
len to fall from, one upon the other,
especially when it was noticed that the
anthers were usually placed higher
than the , stigma. But experiments
made have proven that if blooming
trees, such as peach, cherry, plum, pear
or apple, are covered with light gauze
to exclude all Insects during the period
of blooming, very few blossoms are
producers of fruit. In some experi-
ments, as for instance in a test made
by the Florida Experiment Station in
1S9S, and recorded in the American
Bee Journal of that year, two isolated
peach trees were tested comparatively,
one being covered with gauze, the
other left open to Insects. The one
produced not a single fruit, the other
was covered with fruit. This is not a
lone experiment, for it has been tried
many times. It is also w^ell known that
when fruit bloom takes place in un-
favorable, cool, cloudy, or rainy wea-
ther, there is little if any production
of fruit. Then sometimes fruit will
be found on the sheltered side of a
tree where bees have had occasion to
work, while the other side, exposed to
strong wind, has failed.

But when flowers are incomplete,
when a certain kind of strawberry,
for instance, has blossoms bearing
only pistils, the conditions are still
more strenuous for the agency of out-
side forces and not only must those
forces be present but other plants of
the .same species, with pollen -bearing
anthers, in profusion, must be present
in sufficiently close proximity.

Now let us see how bees and other
insects serve in this connection.

Honeybees and many of the hyme-
noptera feed their j-oung upon a mix-
ture of pollen and honey. The worker-
bee is provided, upon the third or
rear pair of legs, with a cavity which

enables it to carry quite a load of pol-
len. Many persons who see it thus
loaded imagine that it is wax that it
carries; but wax is a product of di-
gestion, made of honey. The pollen is
gathered while the bee visits the flow-
ers. In some flowers it is so easily
shaken off that the minute hairs which
cover the body of the insect become
sprinkled with it. The bee then
brushes itself with the front and mid-
dle legs and forces. the pollen into the
pollen basket, where it is packed b5'
repeatedly pressing it. This proceed-
ing may be easily watched by anyone
while bees are upon flowers that yield
any quantity of pollen. It is easy to
understand that, during these maneu-
vers inside the corolla of a blossom,
particles of pollen are shaken or
rubbed onto the stigma of the flower
and fertilization takes place. But this
is not all. As a rule the anthers of
each flower are a little ahead of the
pistils in development. So it often
happens that, when the pollen is fit
for fertilization, the female part of the
blossom is not yet ready. But as the
bee goes from one blossom to another
the pollen carded by her serves for
other blossoms which are nearer ma-
turity. Thus cross-fertilization is ac-
complished, with greater fertility as a
result, since it is well-known that no
beings in the world are as successful
in close inbreeding as in cross-breed-
ing. Not only is the pollen carried
from one blossom to another, but from
one plant to another, from one tree
to another. Thus are pistillate straw-
berries fertilized and made to bear
fruit, provided there be other straw-
berries bearing" anthers in close prox-
imity. It ie also because of this agency
of bees that there is a hybridizing of
fruit and the explanation is furnished
of why peaches true to their kind
cannot be reproduced from the pit us-
ually. The pollen from unbudded trees
is carried by insects and bees most
especially to the flowers of the budded
varieties and, if seeds were planted,
inferior fruit would be the result. It
is a fact wo;rthy of notice that the
fruits which are nearest in condition
to the original wild kinds are the most
profuse bearers of pollen. In order to
secure improved varieties as does the
great Luther Burbank, it becomes nec-
essary to resort to artificial fertiliza-
tion.

To make sure of the need of insects
in the fertilization of our fruit trees

^^

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

79

is not difficult. Cover a small branch
of well -developed buds with light
gauze, thre or four days before the
opening of the first flower, and keep
it thus covered till the bloom is en-
tirely gone. The result will bea mini-
- mum of set fruit on that branch in al-
most any variety of fruit tree.

Insects and bees especially are need-
ed, not only in the production of fruit,
but in the securing of seed as well, in
many of our useful plants.

None of the clovers can be fertilized
without the agency of insects. Red
clover, as is well known, does not fur-
nish much if any seed at the first crop.
Red clover has this peculiarity of pos-
sessing a corolla so long and deep that
the honey bee and other small insects
cannot reach to the bottom of it in
average seasons. It is only during the
very dry years, when the corolla is
dwarfed, that the honey bee can reach
its honey. The bumblebee becomes in-
dispensable to its fertility and, as
bumblebees are very scarce in early
summer, the result is an almost entire
lack of formed seeds in the first clover
crop. But in very dry years the red
clover bloom has been short enough
to enable the honey bees to work upon
it during the first crop and in those
years farmers have noticed an abund-
ance of seed.

Darwin was the first man to call at-
tention to these facts. When red clov-
er was imported into Australia, it pro-
duced no seed. Darwin ascertained
that there were no bumblebees there
and advised the importation of them
into that country. Henceforth red
clover produced seed there as well as
elsewhere.

Not content with all these evidences,
some of our educators have made ad-
ditional experiments. Bulletin No. 289
of the United States Department of
Agriculture, dated September 21, 1915,
gives a detail of experiments conduct-
ed by J. M. Westgate, Agronomist,
with the collaboration of H. S. Coe,
assistant; also Messrs. Wianco and
Robbins of the Indiana Agricultural
Experiment Station, and Messrs.
■Hughes, Martin and Pammel of the
Iowa Experiment Station. The latter,
who is Professor of Botany at Ames,
attended our field meet at Hamilton
in September, and gave us a very in-
teresting lecture on honey plants. The
Bulletin in question gives an account
of experiments conducted simultane-

ously by these gentlemen on "the pol-
lination of red clover.''

I cannot very well go into all the
details of these experiments. It is
sufficient to say that they have added
to the evidence furnished by Darwin
and other early scientists. They prove
that, although it is possible to have
an occasional seed produced from self-
pollination of clover, the plant is prac-
tically self-sterile and "pollen must
come from a separate plant in order
to effect regular fertilization.

In these experiments, clover heads
that were covered with tarlatan and
not in any way helped to pollinate
produced less than an average of one
seed for every ten heads. Clover heads
that were left to the agency of insects
produced an average of over 50 seeds
per head.

If we were to hunt among the reports
published at different times in our bee
magazines, we could bring out some
marvelous incidents, relating to the
benefit secured through honey bees for
the pollination of fruit blossoms. For
instance, a few years ago, before the
honey bees became a source of revenue
in the irrigated plains of the Great
West, a fruit grower planted some 20
acres in cherry trees in a newly irri-
gated valley. To his great astonish-
ment, although the trees bloomed pro-
fusely, not one cherry w^as produced,
until someone suggested that bees
were needed. Some colonies of bees
were purchased and, from that time
on, the crops of cherries were regular
and full. On the Snake River, in Idaho,
the early settlers who -built their homes
and planted orchards in the few moist
spots, some thirty years ago, found
need of the bees to fertilize their fruit.
Now, wherever there is fruit produced,
they have the bees at the same time
and the reward comes both in fruit
and honey.

Mr. Dadant — Since I wrote this I was
sent for review a book entitled "The
Apple," and of course the apple, a book
entitled "The Apple,-" is out of place
in the American Bee Journal; that is,
a review of it is really in its place in
a horticultural journal, but I found
this in it, which I think will interest
every one of you. On page 417 it says:

"The pollen of one variety is carried
to the pistils of another in two natural
ways — by the wind and by insects.
Bees, wasps and flies aid in the cross -
pollination of orchard fruits, and of

80

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

these the wild bees of several species
are probably the most important. But
few of the wild bees can live in a large
orchard, especially if it is well tilled;
therefore, as the extent and thorough-
ness of cultivation increases, the num-
ber of these natural aids to cross-
pollination decreases and it becomes
necessary to keep domestic honey bees
for this purpose."

"Every large orchard where the trees
are numbered by the thousands should
have nearby a bee yard of at least
fifty swarms to help in thoroughly pol-
linating the blossoms and obtaining
the best results.

"Bees will not be poisoned by the
spraying of fruit trees with poisoned
substances if the work is done at the
right time, which is just after the
blossoms fall. No sensible orchardist
will spray his trees when in full bloom
and thus poison one of his best friends
— the bees."

President Baxter — This paper is now
before you if you wish to discuss it.

President Baxter — The election of of-
ficers is the next on the program.

First is the election of President.
Who will you have for your President?

Mr. Stone — I nominate Mr. Emil J.
Baxter of Nauvoo, 111.

Mr. Bowen— I second the nomination.

A member — I move the Secretary be
instructed to cast the vote of the Con-
vention for Mr. E. J. Baxter.

Seconded and carried.

Mr. Stone— I hereby cast the ballot
for President for 1916 — Mr. Emil J.
Baxter of Nauvoo, 111.

Mr. Baxter — I enjoy the position and
try to do the best I can for the bee
industry in the state, nevertheless t
am getting on in years and I cannot
do so much as I used to when I was
younger. I thank you very much.

President Baxter — The next in order
will be the election of five Vice-Presi-
dents.

I will appoint Mr. Hawkins and Mr.
Kildow as tellers.

Mr. Dadant — I would like to know
who are the present Vice-Presidents.

Mr. Moore — Coppin, Doctor Baxter,
Henry C. Dadant and J. W. Bowen.

Mr. Dadant — I think it would be a
good idea to vote for the people who
are present, as much as possible.

President Baxter — While they are
counting the votes I might bring up

the National question. We were to
make that a special issue for this
morning.

Now, what is your pleasure in the
matter? Do you want to keep affiiliat-
^ ed or do you not? A motion will be
entertained either way.

Mr. Bender — I think we ought to
have testimony from members of the
National who will tell us what they
have been getting. I am not a mem-
ber.

President Baxter— You heard my re-
port, didn't you?

Mr. Bender — No, I did not.

Mr. Coppin— Won't it tell the senti-
ment by the way the members are
paying, whether they want it or not?
If they have not paid their dues to
the National, I should think we might
drop it. I just paid for the Illinois.

President Baxter — Not a single one
has paid for the National.

Mr. Stone — Yes, two or three.

Mr. Bowen — As I understand it, we
can belong to the National whether
the Illinois Association affiiliates or
not, but the question is as to whether
we shall afhiliate with the National.
Personally I have no objection to it
but if there is no benefit I don't see
that we need to. I have not seen any
detriment in belonging to the National
except that we send our representa-
tive, and he reports against the Na-
tional; that he can't have his way;
that they pull hair and fight; we can
do that here if we like; if that is a^ll
there is to it, I don't see why we
should belong.

I have no objection to the Review.
I. think the last article in the Review
.was worth the price of it. I think it
was one of the best articles I have
ever read.

Doctor Phillips — I think it was worth
the price of the Review. I am with
the majority. I want to belong though,
even though you don't consider afflili-
ating.

President Baxter — Is that a hit at
me?

Mr. Bowen — Were you our represent-
ative?

President Baxter — You got a little
off; I did have my own way there.

Mr. Bowen — Then why did you ob-
ject to it so?

Mr. Dadant — He is among the ofR-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

ai

cers and doesn't like it; he is on the
Board of Directors.

Mr. Bowen — When Brother Dadant
was President of the Association we
didn't hear any wrangling.

Mr. Dadant— That involves me; I
will have to answer that. Mr. Presi-
dent, I must say that I am partly re-
sponsible for the existence of the Na-
tional under its present conditions. At
the meeting in Minneapolis five or six
years ago we had a number of young
men there, Mr. Tyrrell, Mr. Gates, Mr.
Phillips, who were all very anxious to
see the National go ahead; create a
sort of union, co-operation among bee-
keepers.

I have been with the National so
long, and we have tried so long to
make changes — I was one of its offi-
cers. In fact I filled every office in
the National from Treasurer to Presi-
dent.

I had lost faith; when I saw those
young men with enthusiasm I said,
"Boys, let's go in."

I had Mr. Finance tell me he was
overloaded as Manager of the National
and could not keep it up much longer.
And I thought — "Here is a chance to
let Mr. France have it easier and let
the young fellows pitch in," so \ put
my heart and soul into the re-con-
struction, the making of the new con-
stitution, but Mr. Tyrrell lost heart
after one year.

I think the great mistake he made
was to set Mr. France aside rather
rudely, telling the people openly there
had been nothing done and that there
was now going to be something ac-
complished.

Mr. France had worked faithfully
and done lots of good and he resented
it and of course worked in opposi-
tion; that has done a great deal of
harm; I don't blame him.

Then the management saw fit to buy
the Review. It was never known how
it was managed. I was Treasurer at
one time and only part of the funds
came in and the other part was kept
by a man in charge of the Review.

Those of you who were present,
when we joined the National, remem-
. ber that our Secretary, Mr. Stone, was
opposed to a new organization. I
fought for it and finally won over Mr.
Stone and he became as enthusiastic
as I was.

"We were the strongest, when I rep-
resented this State, Association repre-

sented in the National; the one that
had the greatest number was Pennsyl-
vania.

I dropped out because there was a
feeling that as I became Editor of the
American Bee Journal there might be
antagonism and I dropped out entirely
from taking any active part in it.

If you drop the National I believe
it would be a good idea to still send a
representative there, not exactly to
vote, but to see what is .done and re-
port to the Association here, so that
if the National improves, if it goes
ahead in any way, you can be informed
by your representative; this is simply
a suggestion. I want it understood I
worked hard for it at one time but am
now standing in the background.

President Baxter — We will drop this
matter for a while and hear the report
of .the tellers in the election of the
Vice-Presidents.

The report of the tellers — as follows:

Mr. Coppin — 13.

Mr. Baxter — 9.

Mr. Dadant— 9.

Mr. Kildow— 8.

Mr. Bowen — 7.

Mr. Hawkins — 7.

Mr. Dadant — I would like to with-
draw my name from the number of
Vice-Presidents; I have been Presi-
dent of this Association and I don't
feel it Is at all necessary I should
serve; I am a great talker and you
cannot talk so much if you are Vice-
President. I would rather let those
two who have seven each drop my
name.

President Baxter — You have heard
Mr. Dadant's request; let it be granted
and the two who have seven be elect-
ed.

The Vice-Presidents for the ensuing
jear are:

Coppin, Dr. Baxter, Kildow, Bowen,
Hawkins.

President Baxter — The next in order
will be the secretary.

Mr. Dadant— I wish to nominate our
forrner Secretary, who has been so
faithful for years and years — Mr,
James A. Stone.

Motion seconded and carried.

Mr. Dadant — I move you, the Presi-
dent be instructed to cast the vote
of this Association for Mr. James A.
Stone, Secretary.

—6

82

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

Motion seconded and carried.

President Baxter — I cast the vote of
this Association for Mr. James A.
Stone for Secretary the ensuing year.

President Baxter — The next thing in
order is the election of Treasurer. Who
will you have for Treasurer?

Mr. Dadant — I don't believe we can
get a more accurate Treasurer than
the present Treasurer, Mr. Becker. I
nominate Mr. Charles Becker.

Nomination seconded.

Mr. Pyles — I move the nominations
be closed and that the Secretary be
authorized to cast the vote of this As-
sociation for Mr. Charles Becker for
Treasurer.

Motion seconded and carried.
. President Baxter — It is so ordered.
Mr. Stone — Treasurer for 1916, Mr.
Charles Becker of Pleasant Plains.

President Baxter — That ends the
election of offlcers. Now I would like
to entertain a motion appointing the
same Executive Committee we now
have, for the ensuing year, because
these resolutions have to be presented
to the legislature; there will be more
or less legislation to be looked after.

I was buttonholed by one of our
representatives, and it appears that
the Hquse of Representatives and the
Senate liave locked; hence the possi-
bility is we will have no further legis-
lation this summer. It is Chicago
against the rest of the state, it seems
like.

We want this Legislative Committee
to look after our interests here be-
cause we want those extra $700 and we
may have to work all summer to get
that.

Mr. Becker — I thank you very much
fo'r my re-election. I have been Treas-
urer a good many years and I once
said this, and what I always could say
and will saj': Whenever you send me
an order, if the Secretary sends me an
order signed by our President, your
money is ready for you any time and
any quantity. I receive the mail on
one train and the check is mailed on
the next train; we get mail by 11
o'clock and I generally send it out
by two o'clock or so that evening.

I am unfortunate in losing my hear-
ing. I have been Secretary of the
Masons for fifteen years. Secretary of
the Odd Fellows for many years; I
have been Clerk for the Modern Wood-

men for twenty-seven years, and we
have an election next Monday night,
and I don't know whether I get it
back or not. I told the boys last year
when I wa^ elected: "If you can stand
my not hiring, I am willing to serve."

I always run the business in a
straight, upright way, and never had
any trouble witb> the head clerk.

I have been l^e, at this Convention
the second day and I tell you honestly
I don't know what has been done.

I thank you very ipuch.

President Baxter — Ladies and Gen-
tlemen, what is your pleasure about
this Executive Committee?

Mr. Pyles — I move that the present
Executive Committee serve for the en-
suing year.

Motion seconded and carried.

President Baxter — The present Leg-
islative Committee ^-ill so serve — Dr.
Baxter, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Stone.

Mr. Withrow — We have with us Mr.
George W. Williams of Redkey, Ind.,
and he has a paper that he would like
to read — "One Promising Outlet for
Dark Honey"— I would like to hear
from him.

President Baxter — Just as soon as
we can get through; we had a special
meeting last night that we might get
through this morning as some want to
catch an early train.

You have not decided on what we
shall do about the National. We want
that decided one way or the other; if
the Association wants to affiliate as
an Association and pay extra dues we
want to know it and if not we want
to know that, too.

Mr. Pyles — I think if we get this in
the form of a motion we can get it in
some shape to vote on, one way or trie
other, I move that each person be al-
lowed to use their own judgment
whether they wish to join the Na-
tional Bee-Keepers' Association or
not, and that this Association accept
dues of $1.00 for each member for
here.

Mr. Stone — Second the motion.

Mr. Kildow — Part of that motion is
already in effect; we can pay our $1.00
and stay here.

Mr. Pyles — I change the motion —
that we do not affiliate as a body.

President Baxter — Is there a second
to that motion?

You have heard the motion — are

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

83

there any remarks to be further made
on the subject?

Mr. Diebold — If we do not affiliate
with the National, what will be the
admission into the National?

Mr. Dadant— $1.00.

Mr. Diebold — We do not get the Re-
view, either.

Mr. Dadant — Allow me to state:
That depends entirely on the publisher
of the Review, if he is willing to ac-
cept the two together; I don't know
just what he gets; the Constitution
has never been lived up to and the
matter has been changed by him a
number of times. He furnishes the
Review — that is his lookout. I be-
lieve you would have to pay more than
$1.00; something like $1.50.

Mr. Williams— $2.00, is it not?

Mr. Dadant — When they reorganized
it was $1.00 for membership in the
National and the Review. Now that
he owns the Review, I don't know
what he will do but, if you send to
him, he is perfectly honest and you
can depend on his treating you right.

Mr. Williams — I am not a member
but according to the Constitution that
was adopted there last year, in Article
4, Section 3, this body or any other
body can affiliate as a body and can
have one vote for every fifty members;
that does not state that they have to
pay dues for each member. This is
Article 4, Section 3, if I remember the
wording.

Any Association can affiliate by res-
olution and then it has to be acted on
by the National at its first meeting;
then lower down it says that individ-
uals pay $2.00; when they don't pay
that they are dropped. $2.00 — and half
of that goes into the subscription fund
.and half into the general fund. The
subscription fund is supposed to pay
for the paper; you don't have to take
the Review unless you want to.

Mr. Baxter — The question is this:
That this Association discontinue to
affiliate with the National.

All those that vote aye will mean to
discontinue the affiliation; no, means
to continue.

All those in .favor of the motion
signify it by saying aye; contrary —
no.

Unanimously adopted.

Mr. Baxter — We are no longer affili-
ated with the National.

President Baxter — Is there anything
else on the program? We are ready
for Mr. Williams' paper if it is the
wish of the society.

Mr." Stone — ^If there are any here
who want to unite with the society
and pay $1.00 we are ready to receive
it at any time.

Mr. Hawkins — I move Mr. Williams
be given the privilege of the floor.

Motion seconded and carried.
Mr. Williams — This relates to hav-
ing the use of honey taught in schools.

A paper by Mr. Geo. W. Williams of
Redkey, Ind.:

ONE PROMISING OUTLOOK FOR
DARK HONEY.

A decade ago, Geo. W. York told us
it was not over-production, but under-
consumption that ailed the honey mar-
ket. Since those words were uttered,
the ratio of production has remained
practically unchanged, although about
twice the amount of honey is produced
and consumed today as when those
words were uttered.

Even with this large increasCjO the
honey market of the United States is
really undeveloped, and capable^ of
enormous expansion.

In our pessimistic moods, we are in-
clined to view with alarm the widen-
ing alfalfa and sweet clover areas, the
rapidly awakening interest in the
south, and the rapid increase of spe-
cialists with their automobiles and
outyards.

But so long as only approximately
one home in a thousand uses honey
consistently throughout the year, and
so long as six homes out of every ten
do not know the taste of honey eleven
months out of the year, and three out
of every ten never see it at all, the
conditions are not so discouraging,
after ^11.

As a business proposition, we must
face the certainty of a very large in-
crease in production of honey in the
next few years, and, if prices are even
to be maintained at the present prices,
new customers must be secured, and
new uses must be provided to absorb
the increased supply.

This will not come by chance. In
these modern days of keen competi-
tion, results come only from following
carefully conceived policies of prepar-
ation and education, sometimes cover-
ing considerable periods of time.

84

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

In other days, when men lived closer
to Mother Earth, and the elementary
methods of publicity prevailed, and
when real merit was the determining
factor in the selection of food for the
family, honey Avas deservedly placed at
the head of all the good things.

Modern advertising methods and
practices have, temporarily, let us
hope, caused the buying public to neg-
lect it for articles of lesser merit, but
greater publicity. The publicity that
is necessary under modern circum-
stances for any food product, no mat-
ter what its merits may be, if it is to
maintain place and prestige in the es-
timation of a fickle public.

This is true in the face of the fact
that no food product given to man for
his sustenance, with the possible ex-
ception of milk, is , so high in food
value, so delicate and appetizing, so
attractive to the eye as honey. These
abstract truths regarding the excel-
lencies of honey are firmly implanted
in the sub-conscious mind of every
one who reads the Bible, Ancient or
Current History or literature, or lis-
tens to the traditions of the fireside;
it only needs the suggestion of a
handsome display or a neat card
placed side by side with a display of
Korno or similar products that at-
tempt to usurp the place dedicated to
honey in every mind, to arouse this .
sub-conscious sentiment and belief in
the superior qualities of honey. But,
the Korno people are pushing their
product, and the honey people are not.
You will see Korno attractively dis-
played on half a million shelves,
"Boosted" on ten thousand bill-boards,
its praises sung by their publicity
agents in the press and masquerading
in borrowed plumes in ten million
pamphlets and dodgers. In the mean-
time, honey is not seen on the shelves,
no pictures appear in the windows, no
publicity in the papers, and the bee-
keeper sits tight, doing nothing and
keeping eloquently silent. So, as a
natural seqjuence, Korno is bought,
honey is leglected, and the children's
teeth and stomachs pay the penalty.

This is no fancy picture. It is the
plain truth, that can be demonstrated
in ten thousand groceries. The excep-
tions where honey is prominently dis-
played prove the rule that honey is
discounted by a lack of energy on the
part of the bee-keepers who fail to
force it to the notice of the public.

The time was, when "honey was
honey," and any of the scores of dif-
ferent colors, flavors or bodies would
be accepted without question. A dis-
criminating public now selects the
choicer table grades, which find a
ready sale at fair prices, but the off
color grades are neglected, and bring
low prices, with a tendency to drag
down prices of all grades.

The profitable disposition of these
<3arker grades is the big thing for
present consideration. These honeys
contain all the sterling qualities of the
lighter grades, and are just as desir-
able for all purposes except for the
table, where a light color and mild
flavor are desirable.

When we find a profitable use for all
these darker grades, then a long step
has been taken to relieve the unsatis-
factory condition of the honey market.
It is the purpose of this paper to sug-
gest a possible means to accomplish
this end.

We now have, in most of the stat*-
and soon will have in all, an army of
patient, competent school teachers
whose business in life is to teach the
coming generation what to eat and
how to prepare it. I refer to the Do-
mestic Science instructors in our Pub-
lic Schools.

These teachers are sincere and un-
affected by the perorations of the pub-
licity people of any food product. They
place each article offered for their
consideration strictly on its own
merits, and- we bee-keepers are willing,
yes, anxious, for honey to meet the
test of merit in competition with Kor-
no, or any other food value on the
face of ,the earth, bar none. Honey
will not suffer when it comes to a
test of real merit.

This department of our Public
Schools is comparatively modern. Its
systems are not universally organized
in all the states. It is not the wish or
intention of the bee-keepers to trans-
gress the bounds of propriety and
courtesy in suggesting that the sterl-
ing value of honey as a sauce, delicacy
or staple food, should receive due con-
sideration in the course of study.

And, in order to avoid even the taint
of individual commercialism, it is fit-
ting that the various bee-keeping as-
sociations, representing the industry as
a whole, take the necessary steps to
have the value of honey as a staple
food, as a sauce, and especially the

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

8S

value of the darker grades in cooking,
taught in the Domestic Science de-
partments of our Public Schools
throughout the states.

This matter will be presented to a
number of State Meetings this fall,
and I would suggest that committees
composed of the best material obtain-
able be appointed from the various
associations, to arrange for this in-
struction. These committees should
co-operate with each other, and col-
lectively can wield the necessary in-
fluence to attain the desired results.
In the selection of the members of
these committees, due attention must
be given to the selection of persons
familiar with the working of the Do-
mestic Science machine, and the ethics
of the profession.

We offer the best services of our
paper to assist in the Avork, and we
are sure the journals will lend their
aid. This is an opportunity that must
not be neglected. We are all partners
in this business and must work in
harmony with each other. We will
remember that the ups and downs of
the bee-keepers in one locality affect
the bee-keepers in all other localities.
We must realize that the low price
paid for the dark buckwheat honey or
the dark honey from the south or else-
where drags down the price of your
choice honeys, in your market. There
is no getting away from the fact that
we must consider our business as a
whole, and work for its uplift in a
broader sense, and get away from the
narrow, selfish viewpoint.

The bee-keepers are realizing this,
and from every region we are receiv-
ing assurances of support for a propa-
ganda of wider and more general pub-
licity of the excellencies of honey.

GEO. W. WILLIAMS,
Redkey, Ind.

Mr. Baxter — We have a little time:
if it is the wish of any of the mem-
bers to discuss this paper it will be in
order now.

Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, this
statement comes exactlj'^ in line with
a statement made to me by Mr. Pel-
lett; Mr. Pellett was Inspector of Iowa
State Bee-Keepers' Association and he
is with us now at Hamilton for a few
months.

Mr. Pellett says the great mistake
has been in not having representa-
tion of the bee industry in Colleges,
in State Agricultural Associations,

and he brings this as evidence: When
oleomargarine was discovered there
was a protest raised all over the Unit-
ed States by the representatives of
the dairy industries, in Colleges, in
State Agricultural meetings, every-
where, because the dairy is powerful;
the result was the people will not buy
oleomargarine if they can afford to
buy butter, and yet oleomargarine is
very much like butter. Many of us
do not know when we eat oleomarga-
rine.

In a hotel in Illinois, once, at break-
fast, I had by me a traveling man
whom I didn't know. He took a little
butter and put it on his bread and bit
into it and said: "This is the real
stuff." I said "what?" He replied
"Oleomargarine." I asked him how he
knew and he replied that he manu-
factured it.

I could not see any difference from
common butter.

But in the matter of honey why,
honey is something like three times as
sweet as corn syrup. I was told that
corn syrup had about three per cent of
saccharine matter; honey has some-
thing over eighty per cent.

If people will taste honey and corn
syrup side by side they will readily
notice one is a great deal more sweet
besides being the straight article.

Why is it people buy corn syrup and
think it is so nice? Because nobody
has been protesting against the use of
that stuff and urging the use of honey.
Once in a while in a meeting of
eight or ten bee-keepers, they talk
about it and that is all there is to
it.

If we were as active as the dairy
industry we would have raised a big
protest all over t,he country and tell
people not to buy corn syrup, and
why, and to buy honey.

It is time yet — we may talk corn
syrup although it is pretty well es-
tablished by this time.

President Baxter — I will announce
the Committee on Fair Grounds Build-
ing.

I will a.ppoint Mr. Coppin as Chair-
man of that committee; he is com-
paratively . a young man and he can
boss; Doctor Baxter as another, be-
cause he lives in Springfield, although
I think we are imposing on him too
much because he lives in Springfield;
he is close at hand and knows the
Agricultural Society Directors; Mr.

86

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

Kildow, State Inspector, as the third
member. He has more or less con-
nection with these men throughout the
state; and I think that will make a
strong committee. Every member of
this Society should help.

Mr. Kildow — I would like to .see an-
other member added to that commit-
tee.

President Baxter — We provided for
only three.

Mr. Kildow — I would rather drop
out and put in Mr. Dadant.

Mr. Dadant — I am not near enough.

Mr. Coppin — I am 100 miles away
from Springfield.

President Baxter — That doesn't
make any difference.

President Baxter — Is there anything
further? What is your pleasure?

Mr. Pyles — Mr. President, is it nec-
essary at this time to take any action
as a body now after dropping out or
not affiliating with the National?
Should we fix by vote the dues that
we must have — are we going to allow
the Chicago-Northwestern to come
in for less than $1.00 per member, or
how are we going to do this?

President Baxter — That is already
fixed by our constitution and By-
Laws, unless you want to change
them.

Mr. Pyles — Suppose the Chicago &.
Northwestern do not affiliate with the
National, are we going to take them
for 50 cents or $1.00 from now on?

As I understand it each individual
member who wishes to join the Na-
tional has to pay $1.00 and $1.00 for
the Review, and how much is it going
to leave for us?

President Baxter — We are not going
to have anything to do with it at all;
that has to be done individually.

Mr. Stone — It does not prevent us
from still continuing the same benefit
to our members we have always had
if we do not affiliate with them. If
they pay us $2.00 we can send $1.50
(50 cents for the National and $1.00
for the Review) and keep 50 cents
ourselves.

Mr. Dadant — Not now.

Mr. Kildow — That is not fair to all
your members; some members get in
for 50 cents and some for $1.00.

Mr. Stone — Then we will have to
ask 50 cents more.

• Mr. Dadant — But we have decided
not to affiliate with the National any
more.

President Baxter — I notified the
members here yesterday that if they
wanted to join the State Society they
could do so by paying $1.00 but not
to pay until this matter of the Na-
tional was decided, and if our Secre-
tary accepted any money more than
the $1.00 he did so erroneously be-
cause it was plainly here stated by
myself yesterday that until this ques-
tion of containuing affiliation with the
National was settled we would not
receive any funds toward the Na-
tional.

Mr. Hawkins — That is my under-
standing.

President Baxter — If these dues are
accepted, Mr. Stone will have to re-
turn the $1.00 and they will have' to
take it up with the Secretary of the
National. ;

Mr. Bowen — I don't understand
simply because you put out that no-
tice yesterday that fixes any obliga-
tion on anybody until the organiza-
tion has acted on it. Anybody who
paid under the old rule. Now the
Association has acted on it.

President Baxter — You cannot pass
an ex post facto law. If you accept
money to continue something which
has not yet expired. The membership
in the National does not expire until
this meeting has adjourned sine die;
if you pay anything towards those
dues you pay before it expires, there-
fore it does not count.

Mr. Bennett — There is no law in the
United States made retroactive. We
paid our dues here to the National,
then you pass your law; you can't
make that law retroactive and make
it in effect before you pay that $1.0Q
•because we pay that $1.00 first you
have our $1.00, then you make your
law and your law becomes in effect
when you make it.

President Baxter — You cannot take
advantage when j-ou see that anything
is going to take place, for instance: A
rise in taxes or anything like that,
you can't take advantage of a rise by
offering your taxes before they are
due simply to get the rebate; and that
is what this would be.

Mr. Bowen — Nobody knew how that
vote was going to go yesterdaj%

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

87

President Baxter — You cannot pay
your dues when you think it is going
to be out of existence and pay them
before the vote is taken so as to keep
in; you have to wait until your time
has expired before you pay your
money for a continuance and that
does not expire until we adjourn.

,Mr. Bowen — Thinking so does not
make it so; you antifcipated what
might happen; suppose it turned the
other direction, then what?

Mr. Stone — We used to pay $1.00 for
membership in the National and in
the State; when we were affiliated
with the National we paid them 50
cents and we kept 50 cents, and in
our Convention w^e took advantage,
just exactly as paying the $2.00 now
would be, before this was settled; we
took advantage of membership in the
National for one year ahead when they
had changed their ruling to $1.50 and
the President didn't rule us out — why
not do the same in this instance?

Mr. Hawkins — As I understand par-
liamentary law, the President has a
right to make a ruling now and that
ruling stands.

President Baxter — That is not ex-
actly the parliamentary law; the par-
liamentary law is that the President
is your Executive; he passes on all
rulings and his ruling is absolute law
unless he is repudiated by a majority
of the members ; all you have to do
is to vote his ruling down if you do
not want to sustain him.

Mr. Dadant — This is not a matter of
Constitution and By-Laws, but is
simply passed upon at each meeting;
this would make our President right.

Let me read to you from our Con-
stitution: f

"Any person interested in Apicul-
ture may become a mfember upon the
payment to the Secretary of an annual
fee of one dollar ($1.00)." (Amendment
adopted at annual meeting, November,
1905). "And any affiliating Associa-
tion, as a body, may become members
on the payment of an aggregate fee of
fifty cents (50c) per member, as
amended Nov., 1910."

We have to vote at each meeting as
to our affiliation with the National. I
think this will make our President
right. Whether we affiliate or not is
to be decided by vote and not by Con-
stitution.

You must consider, as long as you

have this Constitution and By-Laws,
you must figure that you pay $1.00 for
membership in this Association and,
if you belong to the Chicago -North-
western or the Eastern Illinois, you
pay $1.00 there.

Their Secretary had the right on
the vote of that Association to make
them members of this by his paying
out of their treasury 50 cents per
member.

Some of you may think — I will join
the Northwestern; very likely if you
join the Chicago -Northwestern they
will ask you $1.00; whether you are
a member of this or that makes no
difference because you have the re-
ports of both Associations.

According to this decision, on which
our President insists, I believe the
only way out of the difficulty is for
the Secretary to return to the mem-
bers the excess that they have paid
to him and let them join the National
direct, since by your vote a little while
ago you voted not to affiliate with the
National.

Mr. Kildow — Then the way it stands
we are only members of, the National
for a year at a time until we vote on
it.

President Baxter — That is right. We
are only affiliated '^ year at a time.
We vote on it every year.

Mr. Stone — Then the members that
have paid their $2.00 will have to have
$1.00 refunded to them, but they can
send it or not, as they like, to the
National for membership and for the
Review.

Mr. Dadant — I move you to instruct
the Secretary to refund to those per-
sons who have paid more than $1.00
at this meeting the amount so paid
over $1.00.

Motion seconded and carried.

Mr. Hawkins^Why is it tb.at a
member of the, Chicago-Northwes-
tern can get merlibership for $1.00 for
both Conventions, while we pa5- $1.00
here and get only one?

President Baxter — Didn't you hear
the explanation of Mr. Dadant? We
accept them at 50 cents, in getting 30
or 40 or 50 at a time we can get mem-
bership much quicker and easier.

President Baxter — You can get the
proceedings from up there and can go
up there and deliberate with them and
have all the privileges except voting.

88

(

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

What is iycur pleasure — is there
anything more?

Mr. Williams — Is it the intention to
have a committee appointed on the
matter I spoke of?

President Baxter — Did it suggest a
committee?

Mr. Williams — Yes, in the paper I
read I suggested a committee be ap-
pointed from this as well as other
State Associations and to avoid any
suggestion of individual commercial-
ism that the state meeting would be
the proper ones to take it up — it was
suggested that a committee be ap-
pointed cpmposed of men familiar
with the working of the school system
and ethics of the profession, to take
up this matter of having the use of
honey taught in public schools.

Some of the states are going to do
that and possibly it would be a help to
have Illinois represented with a com-
mittee of that kind.

I would be glad if this could be
done.

President Baxter — Members of this
Association, you have heard the paper
read and have heard the suggestion —
what is your pleasure?

Mr. Withrow — I believe it would be
a good idea to have a committee ap-
pointed to wait on the State Superin-
tendent ^nd see if he could not help
us out some. I will make a motion
to that effect.

President Baxter — A committee of
how many?

Mr. Withrow — Three.

Mr. Pyles — I second the mation.

Mr. Diebol^d — I suggest Doctor Phil-
lips, r"

Doctor Phillips — Mr. Chairman, I
don't know anything about Domestic
Science work and consequently I could
not make any suggestions of any value
along that line.

Mr. Pyles — The bee-keepers them-
selves will be able to do a good deal
of work if they wish to . The glucose
people in many schools have exhibited
the stuff they manufacture: they give
samples away and they furnish the
schools with everything they need and
the use of glucose is being taught in
some of the schools.

For instance: At St. Anne, when I
was there the last day of school, and
I went up in the afternoon to see the
work, they had a case of those

samples; the Standard Oil Company
had their product exhibited. Bee-
keepers, if they wish to do so, can get
hold of the school boards and offer
them some of the samples that we
can produce, and this can be brought
before the children and they can be
taught how the work can be done, and
I am sure the school board will assist
us in any work we wish done.

It is up to us bee-keepers to do all
the work we are a mind to, but unless
the bee-keepers stand behind the com-
mittee it will not be worth anything
to have a committee appointed.

President Baxter— I believe it stands
principally with the individual bee-
keeper; i don't think committees can
accomplish much. Possibly 'we might
give it a trial.

Mr. Dadant — I think in the very few
words Doctor Phillips spoke he men-
tioned the key of the matter — Domes-
tic Science.

That is where it must be taught —
to the children. If we could only have
put in the text books adopted by the
schools some mention of the greater
value of honey as compared to those
other sugars — and have it taught in
Domestic Science classes, and the lit-
tle girls taught they must prefer honey
to glucose!

It is strange so many women think
there is so much in corn syrup; many
women make their preserves with corn
syrup; when there is no comparison
between corn syrup and honey or pure
sugar.

I believe the State Association
would have more power than any in-
dividual, in going before the Super-
intendent of Schools and endeavoring
to get it before the Domestic Science
classes and urging upon him the
greater value of honey. And show
him there should be as much differ-
ence between honey and glucose as
between butter and oleomargarine, and
have the children so taught.

Question — Would it not be to our
advantage if we could furnish these
Normal Schools with the analysis of
honey ?

Doctor Phillips — They have that.

Mr. Bennett — I have a daughter at-
tending Normal School. They have
practiced teachers and they practice
teaching them for Domestic Science
teachers, and I don't hear anything

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

89

about honey being taught in the Nor-
mal Schools at Charleston, 111.

President Baxter — All in favor of
the motion, say Aye.
Motion carried.

President Baxter — It is so ordered;
a committee will be- appointed.

Question — What is the better of the
£wo, wood or tin separators?

Mr. Bender — Wood, certainly; it is
the cheaper and I think it is the bet-
ter.

Mr. Beaver — I have used galvanized
iron for the last 15 years. I have used
wood; I prefer the galvanized iron;
it is high to start with but I never
have a break or have it wear out; the
bees never eat holes in it as quite
often occurs with wood separators.

President Baxter — Would tin be as
good as galvanized iron?

Mr. Beaver — It is aptrto get out of
shape. ;

Doctor Baxter — I had two supers,
one wood and one tin; the one with
wood above the tin and it was filled
and finished first; the one with the tin
seemed to be too cold for them; they
could not hang on to it.

Mr. Dadant — Tin for the bees to
climb on is worse than glass.

Mr. Diebold — I am the one who
asked the question. I spoke to some
one about this and he said I was
twenty years behind time when I
spoke of tin.

I know that tin has been recom-
mended by some Convention gather-
ings, largely preferring tin to wood.
I have used tin and I have used wood
and I prefer the tin; the bees will
get to the section all right without
climbing on the tin very much.

Question: How many colonies do
you think it profitable to keep in one
location in this state?

A member — Seventy-five.

Mr. Kildow — It would be well
enough to state the locality first.

President Baxter — The man who
asked the question could state the
localitj-; it all depends upon locality.

Mr. Kildow — In our state at one
time you might keep a dozen very
profitably and, the next j-ear, one hun-
dred.

Mr. Bender— An average of opinion
of this Convention, what they think is
the case.

Mr. Seastream — I tried that ques-
tion several times for my own bene-
fit, in several places. For myself, it
seems like, 75; 70 or 75 in most any
place that I have tried, would about
suit; would be right. Not over 75
hives.

Mrs. Kildow — It depends a great deal
upon how many your neighbors have.

Mr. Seastream — I don't count on
neighbors.

Mr. Hawkins — You would count
them when they get American foul
brood,

Mr. Pyles — It depends entirely upon
locality; some places a dozen would be
as much as could be kept any year
profitably; and, other places, 200 could
be profitably kept; it depends on lo-
cation most years.

I am sure that Mr. Kildow will bear
me out: That this man we were talk-
ing of, north of us — he keeps from 160
to 200 in the same locality every year
and it is always a profitable matter
with him every year — and some years
quite profitable. •.,

Now I would hardly know another
place in the state of Illinois where it
is quite as good as that, yet, in any
of the white clover districts where
there is growing a quantity of sweet
clover, 200 is not too much.

Mr. Diebold — In localities where it is
situated along a large stream, good
timber, good low land, and plenty of
sweet clover, I think 100 or 200 col-
onies would not be out of the way in
an ordinary season. In dry years, and
away from any stream or timber, why,
very few colonies would exist, profit-
ably.

President Baxter — You would prob-
ably qualify that by saying, not too
large rivers, along the Mississippi
would not do at all.

Mr. Diebold — Low lands where you
are back from the river a mile or
two.

President Baxter — I have been hav-
ing large apiaries now for a number
of years, for about thirty-five years,
quite a number of them, and in our
locality, Hancock County, where w^e
have to depend solely on sweet clover
and sometimes on heartsease, why,
from 50 to 75 colonies in one location
on the average is about right, al-
though I have seen seasons when 200
would not overstock the region.

If you had conditions such as Mr.

90

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

Frank Cloverdale has, in Iowa, hun-
dreds and hundreds of acres of sweet
clover: He has 300 colonies in one
apiary, and gets good big crops.

We could not do that in my loca-
tion.

You have to take into considera-
tion, also, other bees within a radius
of the bees' flight.

If there are other apiaries there you
have to diminish your number. As an
average, fifty to one hundred colonies
is enough for a diameter of about five
or six miles, you being located in
about the center of it.

Mr. Kildow — You could shrink that
diameter a good deal and then be
right.

Question — How is European foul
brood spread?

President Baxter— Some of our In-
spectors or Deputy Inspectors' might
answer that.

Mr. Kildow — I think that devolves
on Doctor Phillips; he is at the head
of the government; he can answer
that better than any one else.

President Baxter — Doctor Phillips,
can you tell us?

Doctor Phillips — All we know is Ihat
European foul brood can be spread by
being fed to colonies in honey or
syrup.

That has been proven, but whether
it is spread by any other means re-
mains to be fully proven, I think.

Mr. Withrow — Where does American
foul brood originate?

Doctor Phillips — They are both of
foreign origin and have been in ex-
istence probably about as long as bee-
keeping.

Mr. Withrow — Suppose I have one
hundred colonies of bees and no foul
brood and in two or three years from
now they have foul brood, where do
they get it?

Doctor Phillips — Always of course
from some other diseased colonies,
without question.

Mr.- Withrow — It is not in the nec-
tar?

Doctor Phillips — Not at all. It al-
ways comes from a pre-existing case
of disease.

Mr. Pyles — The spread of this dis-
ease is much the same as typhoid
fever, is it not? And it is not in the
form of contagion like measles or

mumps; it is always through the feed
in some way, is it not?

Doctor Phillips — So far as I know it
is.

Mr. Seastream — There has been
quite a discussion about this Euro-
pean foul brood. When I was a little
boy in the old country we had an
apiary in Sweden. The way we ran
it over there, of course the apiary
was not up to the standard of this
country today.

We had movable frames. When we
had European foul brood we would
go to work and get rid of a whole lot
of brood in the steel skep. Father
used to make a hook on the end of a
long wire and run it up among the
combs, turn the steel skep upside
down and run the wire in among the
combs and cut it out; he was most
particular to get as much as possible
of the pollen out of it; he took pains
to get as much pollen as possible and
then of course there was no caging of
the queen or anything of. that kind;
and do you know that colonies like
that, they went to work when the fall
flow would come and built up and you
would not see a trace of it?

Doctor Phillips — Which disease?

Mr. Seastream — European foul brood
I am speaking of; we never had any
American over there; there was none
up to the time I came to this coun-
try, in 1897.

When I happened to get it in my
own yard, I tried of course the same
process and succeeded. I found out
that my darkest queens were the ones
who got first affected by it. I went to
work and removed as much of the
brood as possible and all of the pollen,
and I just simply threw that on top
of the strong Italian hives, the best
blood I had, and changed the brood
for some that were ready to hatch,
took the pollen away and gave another
queen and effected a cure.

But afterwards, later in the fall, I
did away with my black queens and
introduced better blood there, and I
never had a trace of it after that.

How I got the black bees, I would
get a swarm here arid there all over
the country; people would notify me:
Here is a swarm of bees, do you want
it? That is how I got my black
queens.

This is going on four years now and

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

91

I have never had a trace of foul
brood.

I never had American foul brood
here in this part of the state.

I was going- to say, I honestly be-
lieve it is in the pollen. The pollen
from alsike clover.

During this time when I had this
foul brood, there was a 40-acre field
ef alsike, but the next year I plowed
it under, and have no more alsike
clover. I think there is some kind
of intoxication in alsike clover that
makes them dull.

If you take the pollen away you will
see an agreeable change in the bees
that are hatched afterwards.

President Baxter — Are there any
school teachers present or members
of school boards? Please hold up
your hands if there are.

One — Mr. E. T. Laurie of Jackson-
ville.

President Baxter — I have appointed
Mr. Bovven as Chairman of this com-
mittee.

Mr. Bowen — Please excuse me.

Mr. Laurie — I would not be able to
get away from home.

Mr. Bowen — I think, however, I
shall use my efforts to get it into the
schools in our own vicinity without
being appointed on the committee.

President Baxter — I will appoint Mr.
King on this committee; Mr. Hawkins
and Doctor Baxter.

Mr. Kildow — Our neighbor spoke of
pollen from alsike clover as being a
cause of European foul brood. I want
to get that out of the mind of any
one. That being the case all of our
northern bee-keepers and southern
"Wisconsin would have been wiped out
of existence if that had been the
cause, because they rely almost en-
tirely on alsike clover.

President Baxter — We will adjourn
sine die.

At 11:30 a. m. the Convention ad-
journed to meet at the call of the
Executive Committee; but before sep-
arating the most of the members went
to the front of the Lincoln Library
where the artist was in waiting to
take a picture of the group.

The Association throughout their
meetings spoke in high commendation
of the Commercial Association, for the
kindness shown in the way of such
hospitable entertainment as we had
given to us.

Resolutions of thanks were in the
minds of all, and when the adjourn-
ment for dinner was moved, and about
to pass, a substitute was moved and
passed to adjourn sine die.

92

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

HON. N. E. FRANCE,
President for 1916.

JOHN C. BULL,,
Secretary for 1916.

THE 18TH ANNUAL CONVENTION

OF THE

Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Association,

HELD AT THE

GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL, CHICAGO,

DECEMBER 17 and 18, 1915,

was called to order at 10 a. m., De-
cember 17th, by the President, Mr. N.
E. France.

Mr. France, President, addressed
the Convention as follows:

One of the features which induced
me to come to this meeting, if you
please, official duty. At your election,
whether it was a joke or otherwise,
they decided the ballot and put me
into this office, so as duty I am here,
and, may I say, I have the pleasure of
holding in my hand, as presiding offi-
cer, a gavel made from an apple tree
(this portion of it) which Brother
Langstroth had in his own home. This

was a gavel which was presented to
the Chicago-Northwestern some time
ago. A mate to it was, at the same
time, donated to the National Asso-
ciation. I wish there were enough of
that tree left that each state organ-
ization all over the country might
have a souvenir.

I would have called this meeting
together sooner, but it seems like the
social feature sometimes is worth
more to us than the entire Conven-
tion; they make that a point up in
our state — the social feature — and we
get together for the sociability and
the commercial feature as well.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

93

I had placed up in view last week
at our State Convention a list of Wis-
consin bee-keepers who had honey
for sale and another list of those who
had bees for sale, and a list, not so
large, of those who wanted to buy.
The result was "A" and "B" were ex-
changing. One young gentleman liv-
'ing near my home told me, before we
had commenced, that his 5,000 pounds
of honey was all sold for l^c more
than he expected to get for it, by just
coming to that meeting.

So that that feature of social and
commercial interest is of great im-
portance and I do not like to take
any of the time away from you.

Again, I wish that, may I call it a
censure, that we would learn at the
Chicago -Northwestern meetings that
when the time is set, when it is time
to sound the gavel, the house would
be full to overflowing.

At a late hour I will have to vary
the program in order to bring in all
the different features.

On the Committee on Resolutions, I
will appoint Mr. Bull and Mr. Rohrs
and Mr. Hassinger.

On the Auditing Committee: Messrs.
Kannenberg, Coppin and Wheeler.

One other Committee should be fhe
Wide Awake Committee. If you please,
a few 5'ears ago when Mr. York was
living liere and was the presiding offi-
cer, I have been to the Chicago-North-
western meetings when the room was
full to overflowing, and no program.

We had to quit with the Question
Box only partially answered.

Now, if we have a few questions,
we will make the answers to them
prompt. I will appoint John C. Bull to
take charge of the Question Box.

At any time, whether it be in be-
half of some paper or some question
on bee-keeping, you want to bring it
out through the Question Box; some-
times we can reach it that way "bet-
ter than in any other.

We have on our program for this
morning, topic: "A Paper" without a
name. Has any one a paper they care
to donate? That will come in very
nicely at this time.

We have: "Out Apiaries for Profit,"
by L. C. Dadant, Hamilton, Illinois; I
understand, since I have arrived here,
that this family of C. P. Dadant &
Sons have, in each- home, sickness;
both in the hospital and their respec-

tive homes, so that it is impossible for
any one of them to be with us at this
time.

THE VALUE OF YOUNG QUEENS.

(By N. E. France.)

Mr. France — In the absence of a
Vice-President, may it be your pleas-
ure, I will stay here at the Chair, in
case something should come up.

I do not know whether I should read
you a paper I read last week in the
Wisconsin Convention along that line
of thought, or give you some other.

I believe I will do this:

You do not want a copy of what
they had in Wisconsin. We will vary
from that meeting, if you please, and
I will not read my report but will
give you a few thoughts: "The Value
of Young Queens."

In my work, as I have traveled over
our state now about twenty-one yesLVS
inspecting bees, I used to keep a sta-
tistical report of each place I visited,
not only the number of colonies of
bees, the number diseased, the kind
or hive, the flow in their locality and
the kind and quality of goods that
they produce, but also — did they know
the age of their queens, and, lastly — *
were they subscribers for one or
more Bee Journals?

When I began to sum these up, to
my sorrow, I found the number who
read and were subscribers for a Bee
Journal were so few in the total
number, that I said as Governor Hoard
had said some years before at a Farm-
ers' Institute: "There are many thou-
sands of dairynfien in Wisconsin." He
said he would modify that to: "There
are many thousand cow-owners, but
few dairymeil." I found in Wisconsin
(I don't suppose it is so in Illinois),
that many were registered by the
Wisconsin census as bee-keepers
when really they were bee-owners and
the number who were practical bee-
keepers were few.

Just almost in comparison to the
lack of literature, the lack of reading
and studying that they do in bee-
keeping, so was their bee business.

When I went to a bee j'ard I could
almost, at a glance, tell whether that
man was a subscriber to a Bee Journal
or not.

JHives tilted every way, grass up
nearly to the top.

You know how some of these things

94

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

are if you have ever been in Wiscon-
sin; this does not appear in Illinois,
of course.

Now then to come back to the sub-
ject: "The Value of Young Queens."
They would look at me in surprise
when I asked them if they knew the
age of their queens.

Why we have, up in our state, men
who have boasted to me they don't be-
lieve in this buying of queens, they
never did such a thing in their lives
and don't believe in it.

I suppose you will pardon me for
referring to my own state so often.

If I were to go to some of our men
who are purchasing, in the dairy line,
the best registered sires that can be
had, upon the line in which they are
working, I would find that must be
exchanged in the near future for still
better blood, if it can be had, until
practically that entire herd is nearly
thoroughbred and he is then regis-
tered for selling thoroughbred, and he
is proud of his stock; and he will then
take care of it better than he did be-
fore.

If the sire of that herd has cost
him several hundred dollars, he will
take care of it, and those that follow
from it will be cared for.

So in the line of breeding. He has
brought up the standard of perfection
in his dairy to a point by which he is
proud of it.

I remember, on the east side of the
state a few years ago, a man w-ho
had grown gray with the care of
breeding up on a certain line. Mis-
fortune had come in, his wife laid
away, his children grown up, and he
was left at home alone.

Would he go and live with the chil-
dren ?

He said: "I hafve one more duty to
perform before life takes me: That
cow has got to prove to the world
what is possible with breeding and
feeding," and, he told me, he was not
out of sight of that cow for a year
with the exception of one and one-
half days.

The result? That Guernsey cow
produced, in actual butter, more than
her weight in one year.

I saw her little calf, w-hich was
sold before birth for $100; that was
not scrub stock.

What will I find in an apiary with-
in the same postofRce address with
this cow?

A man who has been putting honey
upon the state in advance of others —
and some bee-keepers asked me to go
and inspect his bee yard, thinking that
something was wrong — that he must be
adulterating to produce such nice
honey and get it on the market so
early.

What did I find?

He had been selecting and buying
queens from abroad; he had young
queens; he gave them care and at-
tention, and he was having fancy
clover honey on the market when his
neighbors had just got their bees be-
ginning to work in the sections.

There is something to it, that a
young queen is ambitious and there is
much less tendency to swarm than
an old one, and will fill our hives in
the spring when the old queen will not.

Will keep up the brood rearing so
that w'hen the honey flow comes we
have a hive full to overflowing with
bees.

Whereas, if we leave the queen
proposition alone, the chances are we
would not get ready for brood rear-
ing when the honeyflow^ begins, and
our best brood rearing is in the honey
flow.

The question was asked last week
of our largest comb honej' producer
in the state: What did he do to
check swarming during the honey
ffow? He said: "the queen is no
longer of value to me when the honey
flow is at its best; I pinch her head
off; her daughters are to come on and
take her place the latter end of the
season."

In the poultry business, if you have
to winter your hens on expensive feed
throughout the winter and get few
eggs only in the summer time when
prices are at their lowest, it is not
profitable.

It is just as true with bees; if we
have old queens that will not begin
brood rearing until the honey flow.

In order to make this matter open
for discussion: Young queens mean
hive full of bees at that time when
you want it; less swarming, and, if a
queen of proper blood has been intro-
duced, little or no disease, especially
European foul brood.

A young queen, I think, would cut
no flgure with American; with Euro-
pean I know it does, decidedly.

There are three things that are

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

95

worth our considering for value of
young queens.

I am no agent for any man's queens,
but that one thing I do advocate, bet-
ter blood and young blood if we are
going in the business commercially.

There is plenty of time in which you
can discuss this matter, if you wish,
'rather than to run it at any greater
length.

Mr. Stewart — I claim that any man
who has ten hives of bees, and he has
in that yard one good queen, that will
raise his as good bees as ever he can
buy; one good queen will raise him
just as good bees as he can buy from
anybody else.

Mr. Wheeler — I don't exactly agree
with you on that queen business. I
am glad to see you take that stand
though. I know you are conscientious
in what you say and I am here to
learn.

I have got to the point where I do
not think blood counts for anything;
age counts for a great deal, but I
don't think blood counts for anything.

Mr. Kannenberg — I think I am just
the contrary as Mr. Wheeler.

I think, if you want new blood, you,
have got to take it from something
else as out of your own yard, be-
cause I know in poultry raising, if
you keep on raising out of your own
yard you will get nothing else but
scrub.

Mr. Wheeler — That is just the point
that I think we miss on. When you
begin to talk bees we begin to com-
pare bees with poultry and stock and
other things. The bee is a different
creature; the bee is an insect, travels
three or four miles in all directions.

We are not confined to one poultry-
yard or one farm; the queen travels;
the drone travels. In that way we
don't have to worry about the stock
about inbreeding bees.
;.- Mr. Bull — There are a whole lot of
us that don't have superior drones
within three or four miles of us to
mate with our queens, as Mr. Wheeler
would seem to imply.

I say you cannot get too good
queens, even though you buy the best,
you cannot get too good queens.

It is foolish to try to take something
in your yard and start to build by that
when somebody else has spent a life-
time in this particular work. Go and
get the best you can get, the same
as any other kind of stock.

Mr. France — I wish you would go
and make a trip with me to some of
the bee yards that I have been to.
This fall I was in a county where, to
my knowledge, up to three years ago
there had not been over two queens
shipped into that county for years.
European foul brood broke out and it
went, within twenty days, to almost
every yard.

These two parties were surrounded
with European foul brood; it showed
in only a few hives in their yard;,
and, when they took those queens
away and requeened, it disappeared
in those yards.

Then I took a flying trip from there
as I was so near to where my son,
was, at the University in Minnesota;
and, when I reached the Experimental
Farm where they are sending out
queens, it would do one's eyes good to
see those big fat fellows; the workers
were as big as the queens where I had
been before.

Another yard: On the opposite side
of the county, some twenty -eight miles
I think from there, farther east, a
man, with over 200 colonies of bees,
had bought, each year, one or two
queens and and had been requeenlng
in his yard. He was buying queens
not as good as he already had.

European foul brood broke out there
and, in about from twelve to twenty
days, he had plenty of it.

I said: "Mr. Fleming,, something has
got to be done."

W^e bought queens from different lo-
calities, not introducing them promis-
cuously, but kept a record of them.
Some of those queens gave way to the
disease; some other queens showed
here and there a cell, and, from one
breeder where he had only three
quens, they were put in some of his
worst infected colonies, not a cell of
the disease appeared.

I am at sea where or how European
foul brood spreads.

A neighbor, over the hill three miles
away, with 80 colonies, infected brood;
ttueens from several breeders, and
among them some from the same
party. '

There are disease resisting strains.
While I was in New York one of the
Inspectors, who was surrounded with
European foul brood, was without it in
his yards. I asked him the cause for
it; and, when we found the cause, the
state of New York took advantage of

96

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

the opportunity and have been re-
queening from that yard with good re-
sults.

Mr. Stewart — Is not the queen
rearing habit a hazardous business to
the best of us?

Mr. France — To- some extent; but
there are queens that are well worth
our time and money.

Mr. Smith — I have been studying
bees for about eight years as a recre-
ation; I am not what you might call
a practical bee-keeper.

I have read a good many books —
all the magazines I could get.

I am satisfied that, in nature, the
bee is susceptible to exactly the same
forces that all other life is suscept-
ible to.

Thirty or thrity-five years ago I was
raising hogs. I was trying to raise the
best. As I look back now, I can see
that those hogs I was raising were
no more like the hogs of today than
they were like seven or eig;ht other
breeds. Times have changed; condi-
tions of farming have changed, and it
has become necessary to raise a dif-
ferent kind of hog to make it pay.

I am satisfied exactly the same
thing can be done with bees that is
done with hogs or cattle or with any
other livestock or even with thit hu-
man race. The same laws of nature
will hold. The difficulty is, the bee is
so much smaller than other animals
and much more delicate in its repro-
ductive results that we cannot get at
it.

If some man will spend money
enough and time enough — and get the
best minds at work — the most scien-
tific minds at work on the improve-
ment of the bee, I believe it can be im-
proved two or three hundred per cent
in practically every way, but I believe
we have got to examine drones and
queens with the microscope, and spend
some money to find out how we can
improve them.

There is one thing that we have al-
ways done, and that is, fight shy of
the advertising men who have goods
for sale. There is good reason for it,
but I believe we should get above
that.

I believe the Association should have
some one appointed, or some commit-
tee appointed to ascertain for the As-
sociation what man is the best
equipped, mentally and physically,
and financially, to produce the best

bees that can be produced, and then
let us know who he is, that we may
buy our bees from him.

Find out impartially who he is,
whether his yard is in Virginia or
Texas, Illinois or Montana, and then
back him up; let him make some
money out of these queens and let
him produce a better bee for us.

A few years ago, if you will allow'
me to refer to a personal matter: A
man came to me and wanted me to
tell him how to handle bees. He told
me he would give me half that he
made out of those bees. He was in
Chicago.

WCv. purchased seven colonies of
bees worth $70. We ran those bees for
honey. He did the work; I saw him
three or four times during the sum-
mer and talked with him. That fall
he turned over to me $73 in cash and
had twenty colonies of bees to start in
to winter. So that there is monej'
enough in the bee business if it is
handled right, and a man can afford to
do it properly.

Mr. Coppin — How do you tell the
difference in bees, in the size? The
President spoke of large bees. Are
the Italians larger than the black bee,
or how is it? How do you tell; do
you weigh them, so many bees to a
pound? Does one lot have more bees
to a pound than another?

I often hear some one say when they
are looking at a colony of Italians:
"My, are they not large?" I have not
any proof that they are any larger
than any other. Whether any one else
can see that they are any larger, I
don't know. If any one has proof, I
would like to know.

Mr. Rohr — I think we all admit we
have scrubs and the first class, ani-
mal or insect, in everything, and the
laws of inheritance have shown us
that like will beget like; therefore, I
don't doubt it, and it is very impor-
tant for us bee-keepers to get the very,
best queens to be had.

But just there is the trouble — where
can we find the best bee? And then
again, and I think you will bear me
out in this, that queens, being trans-
ported through the mails, as a rule,
they won't live as long as others; at
least that has been my experience, and
it seems to me we are up against it
again.

Certainly, bees are more of a side
issue with me, but, if a man would

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

97

give all his time to it, it seems to me
he ought to make a success of it.

There are bees — and bees. We have
different kinds of bees and we know-
that bees will behave differently.

About small and big bees: If a bee
is fed well, especially during the time
the honey is coming in, they will look
heavier, fatter, bigger; if a bee is
starved, it will shrink.

Mr. Coppin — I have noticed some
small bees and black bees at that. I
am not thinking it was on account of
color of the bees, but on account of
age of the hives the bees were in.

A farmer gave me a hive of bees
one time, thirty-seven years old. I
finally tore the hive up, after I kept
it a year. I transferred it and found
some of the cells in the combs were
so small you could not expect a bee
of full size.

Mr. Wheeler — I am in, hopes we will
stick to the one point you made of the
eradication of foul brood by change in
stock, because these other questions,
as to the size of the bee, the breed of
bees, breeding for honey, is an old
thrashed out subject; but you, Mr.
President, are in a position to know
just how much truth there is in this
point of stock of bees helping us to
eradicate the disease among the bees,
and I wish the folks here who haye
anything to say on that point would
stick to" it, because I want to learn if
there is anything in the bee that will
help me in eradicating the disease.

If we can stick to that and learn
all we can on that point, I believe it
will be of value to every one here.

Mr. Bull — In regard to bees being
immune to European foul brood: Euro-
pean foul brood went through our
' country six years ago; I don't think
there was a colony of bees in my part
of the country that didn't have it. I
requeened with Italian queens and
since that time have not seen the first
sign of European foul brood. Off goes
the head of the poor queen, the first
chance I get; I have no fear of foul
brood as long as I keep up my stock.

With American foul brood, that Is a
different proposition entirely.

Mr. Kluffer — I don't know whether
I can call myself a bee-man or bee- •
keeper, because this last year was my
first experience.

I hear a few things often that are
kind of Greek to me.

I would like to know how this foul
brood is carried. Does a young queen,
after making her virgin flight, make
any other flights after that, and is
the disease carried by the queen or
by the bees from other apiaries?

Is it carried by the queen after the
virgin flight, or by the bees? Does
the queen make any other flight afteJ
the virgin flight?

Mr. Smith — The queen goes out with
the swarm; no other time.

President France — Any one want to
answer as to the probable cause of
the spread of disease, in reply to his
question? Mark the difference be-
tween American and European foul
brood.

Mr. Rohr — It seems to me that if a
queen is a good queen she will put
the hive into good condition; if there
are a lot of bees, then the disease will
be fought.

It is just like the human body; as
long as the body is healthy and strong,
contagion will not attack us so easily
but, if we get weak and run down,
it will. It is the same with bees. If
a colony is not strong, it is exposed to
disease.

I have read of the statement and be-
lieve it is true, that more or less every
colony of bees has some kind of dis-
ease, especially foul brood, but that
colony that is full of strength will ex-
pel those diseased conditions. If we
have a good queen and she will fill up
the hive with strong colonies we will
get rid of it.

Mr. Stewart — The question was:
"The Value of Young Queens." What
is a young queen? When is a queen
old or young? Is it usually advisable
to kill your queens before they get
old? Is it advisable to kill your
queens every twelve months, or shall
we let nature do some of your se-
lecting?

Is it advisable to requeen at the
end of the honey flow?

Is it well to try to buy queens and
get them into the hive as early as
possible? Is it well to buy from the
south?

Those are some questions I would
be interested in, in connection with
the value of young queens.

If there can be any fixed rule as to
when a queen is old — and what are
the signs to look for to decide whether
a queen is young or old — I would like
to know.

98

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

President France — On the point of
bee diseases, as the program is nearly
all on that subject tomorrow, it would
be well to defer that part of it; but
the subject, the value of young queens,
as suggested by our Secretary, is
worth our time.

Please bear in mind one thing:
When we are speaking of bee diseases,
we' should designate American or Eu-
ropean, for they are decidedly differ-
ent, in that one spreads rapidly and
the other does not, but American foul
brood is one which has no favor for
the best of blood or weakest. In fact
the stronger colony will reach far-
ther away from home and is more
likely to find infection and bring it
home; but European foul brood, that
is another proposition.

I am of the opinion that a young
queen, if of better blood than what
they have already sustained in the
hive, more of the disease resisting, is
one of the things to eradicate the dis-
ease.

We should have the best in our
yards and not scrubs.

I call to mind a queen breeder who
makes a circuit several miles from
his home every year, and, if he finds
a man who has scrubs where it would
be possible for his bees to come, he
offers to give him the best he has.

This man guarantees that the mated
queens he sends out are true mated.
There is one of the lines of careful
breeding we have overlooked.

I acknowledge that the best of us
are not getting the best returns. I
know of some queen rearing yards
where they were doing all in their
power but near to them was some or-
dinary scrub stock.

Again, as to the buying of tested
queens and having them shipped
through the mails: It is only recently
we have learned that a queen that is-
laying heavily, when caged and sent
by mail, is almost a guarantee of ruin.

Let me give you an illustration:

You buy of me a fresh cow, and I
ship her, without having some one to
milk her and care for her, you would
not expect her to be as good as when
she left home; it is the same with a
tested queen; unless she receives
proper treatment, if you send her
through the mail, she is soon dead or
never reproduces as she used to.

I believe the largest queen breeder
in the United States, if he were to

/

guarantee the best queen he had, he
would take chances of injuring her if
sent through the mail.

Only a short time ago, not far from
Chicago, I was asked to investigate
Why shipments of queens made by a
certain party failed, on arrival, to re-
produce while others went through all
right, and we found after investiga-
tion:

At . his home station, some trains
went through rapidly, and the mail
bag was caught with a flying arm;
those queens failed; and others which
he took to the station and put in the
mail bag, where they were handled
carefully, went through all right.

How would .^t do to ship a comb of
brood with the queen you wanted to
preserve?

President France — That is all right.
Years ago when the bee business had
not got down to such economic condi-
tions as now prevail, when I paid Mr.
Grimm $18 for a queen, he would no
more think. of letting me take a queen
home in modern cages, and it must
have a comb of brood, and honey, and
all necessaries.

And he said to me: "Hold on, don't
you get it chilled; put it under your
clothes next to your heart." When I
gpt it home, I had something I was
proud of, and, out of that queen, pro-
d,uced bees that have given me return
for future years; but I was foolish, I
kept her until she was four years old
and then got scrubs from the same
queen.

We had exhausted her; I question if
it is advisable to so crowd a queen.

As we go farther north, especially
in our Wisconsin latitude, where the
winters are severe, I have decided T
don't want to have a queen over a
year old; there are exceptions. But,
in order to have something as a guide
to go by, I don't want a queen to ever
go through two winters.

Mr. Rohr — How would you requeen
your bees? It seems that question
comes right in here now. Would you
kill off your old bees after the honey
season is over, or would you rear your
young queens and introduce them to
separate hives?

President France — Well, as Mr. Stew-
art suggests: From the best ones
I select a few, but the larger part
from some queen that has been prov-
en from outside blood to be still bet-
ter, and requeen from that. There is

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

99

that individual difference in colonies of
"bees, just as much as there is in the
human race or any animal life. Es-
pecially now, in this age of European
foul brood, we should select those that
show diseasew resisting strength.

Now before we drop this subject:
If you please, we have Father Yaeger
with us, who has charge of the Min-
nesota University. We would like to
hear from Father Yaeger; have him
tell us something about what Minne-
sota is doing in the way of better-
ing conditions.

Father Yaeger — I was very much in-
terested in the discussion, about in-
troducing new blood into our apiaries.
The point was well taken. With scrub
queens we cannot go on with bee-
keeping; in the first place we won't
get any returns.

The importance of young queens is
really underestimated.

If I put it the other way: The bee-
keepers as a rule, they think they have
good queens, whereas, they have not.

We are naturally inclined to think of
our bees, they are the best; the same
as we have the best cows; the best
horses, the best automobile; all is the
best; I will not deny the fact that
most of our queens nowadaj^s are
mostly scrubs, and I can prove why.

In the first place, our queens are
scrubs, because they are inbred. Now
this is not merely a supposition, but
there is a great deal of evidence to
support this statement. It stands to
reason that, where one man keeps an
apiary, ten or twenty hives, at a dis-
tance from his neighbor, those queens
should be inmating in his yards for
two, five, ten years, and I know of
apiaries where the queens have never
been changed, where the yard has
been inbred for more than twenty
years. The law of nature is that any
inbred animal — the longer you in-
breed the more they deteriorate.

If you plant some corn from your
own field from the same seed, it will
run out; different grades work won-
ders for a few years and then run out.
Take it with potatoes, it is the same;
for a few years there will be a won-
derful crop, of fine quality, and then
it runs out. Nature hates inbreeding
and the punishment is nature pro-
vides ultimate extinction.

In the human race, it is proven that
when human kind inbreeds, cousins
marry or intermarry in, same family,

you find insanity, imbecility, weakness
of mind.

So it is with the bees; queens in-
bred are not good.

The problem with you gentlemen
and with me, is where to get good
queens; how to get them to apiaries
and how to requeen your yards.

I find out, as a rule, bee-keepers,
when they meet, they like to have de-
tailed statements; they like to have
you go into the very particulars of
how those things are to be done.

In the first place, where should you
get your queens?

I have bred quite a number of
queens, and I know when you go to
our nuclei and pick out thirty or
forty or fifty queens a day, no matter
how careful you are in breeding those
queens, fully one -third will not be up
to standard, and by and by you begin
to read it as plain as a newspaper,
which queen is good and which is not.

If raisers of queens go through that
same experience, I wonder if they dis-
card those worthless queens or ship
out those they can get a dollar for.
After they have gone to the trouble
of raising those queens, I wonder if
they discard tho?e they know to be
worthless.

What is needed in all our states,
really, is that the state or agricultural
schools will take care of raising
queens and providing them to the bee-
keepers of the state at practically cost.

The state is the only institution that
is interested in you and your stock.
Naturally queen raisers are more or
less interested in the returns in cash.

We have heard so much in the
northern part of the country, that "We
can't raise our queens here; we must
get them from the south; they will
have to be imported from a warmer
country; we must ship them in here."
This language is prevalent now
throughout the northern states.

Gentlemen, we can breed just as
many and as good queens right here
as they breed down south.

I have heard it said: "Our season is
too short." It takes three weeks to
raise a queen from the egg until she
is ready to take charge of the colony,
While the queens are being bred,
warm weather comes and the honey
flow.

Have we not three weeks in this
country, and, if we have, the season is
long enough to raise queens.

100

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

We can raise four queens comfort-
ably in one season up in Minnesota;
that is about all that is required.

Mr. Yaeger — The importance of those
young queens: The subject is so vast
I don't know how to approach it. The
advantages of young queens: Young
queens introduced in your hives every
year will do these things: First — A
young queen will be prolific and will
provide your hives next spring with
a larger number of bees. An old
queen may fail you just before honey
crop. Second — A young queen intro-
duced iri; your yard every j'ear will
effectually keep away European foul
brood. There will be no danger of
having it. Third — A young queen will
not only effectually keep away foul
brood but it will effectually stop
swarming. Fourth — A young queen In-
troduced into your apiary every year
will improve your stock and prevent
inbreeding. Now what is the time of
the year? I may give you some other
reasons besides, but these are enough.
When is the time to introduce the
queen into j'our apiary?

If you read our bee journals and
books you will find all kinds of the-
ories. One may say any time between
spring and fall, which means nothing.
What is the best time, definitely? I
don't want to be an authority on this.
The time is coming when all those
things will be common property
throughout the United States, and
when all of us will be agreed on cer-
tain things, and when we will all do
the same thing — when we will all treat
our bees for swarming in the same
manner. Now, Tve are at a loss — as
many heads as there are, there are so
many opinions, and you are in a maze
of uncertainty. I sometimes don't know
what to do. I pick up one journal and
certain advice is given; I pick up an-
other and contrary advice is given.

How must one man who is inter-
ested and begins to acquire knowl-
edge feel in having these contradict-
ing problems?

The time to rear queens?

I believe right during the honey
ilow. At the beginning of your honey
flow; if we investigate and look into
the matter we probably will come to
the samfe conclusion some day. I will
give you reasons:

In the first place I would rear queens
during the honey flow because that is
the time when the bees naturally re-
queen their own yards. When the

swarm goes out of the hive, what is
left behind? The queen is tired. At
the beginning of the swarming season
during the honey flow, the bees are
used to being without a queen; nat-
urally they are supposed to be with-
out a queen. Why should not a bee-
keeper just as well take out the old
queen? The bees expect the old queen
to get out during the month of June,
and if the bee-keeper removes the old
quejBii in June and substitutes a new
^g/aeen at that time you will find it a
better time for providing a queen for
the hive than any other time.

Another thing: Why requeen dur-
ing the honey flow?

It eventually stops swarming be-
cause the young queen introduced in
that hive will not swarm that season.
Why she does not swarm we do not
know. We only know the fact from
the experience of bee-keepers; when
you put a new queen into the hive,
that ygung queen as a rule will not
bother you with swarming that sea-
son.

When a man has five, six or seven
out apiaries and cannot visit the api-
aries except once in a week or two
weeks; this is an advantage. The
worry during the summer is some-
thing; I went through with it; and
still worse, your neighbors say: "Your
bees are bothering us all the time."

How would I introduce those queens
in June and how would it work out In
the swarming .problem?

If I take my old queen out the 15th
of June:

Those bees will get at the queen
cells immediately, and within four
days you will find the queen cells be-
ing drawn out.

If those queen cells are from a good
queen, for instance, one you would re-
ceive from an experimental station or
a breeding queen from a first class
dealer; Let those queen cells develop.

It will take eleven days before those
queens will hatch from the day that
you have removed your queen. Don't
wait over eleven days. As a rule the
tenth day those cells will be far
enough advanced that the young
queens will begin to move; you can
hear them move in the cells.

If this hive is from your best queen,
leave one of those cells in the hive;
take the ohter cells out and use them
in the other hive; the queen will
hatch the next day; will mate the
seventh day; and commence laying

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

101

€ggs three days after, and there is a
new colony with a new queen.

But the greatest benefit will come
to you from this fact:

Your bees have been without brood
for part of your honey flow.

I will give you my reasons for it,
if they are good enough, why —
- The moment you have removed your
old queen there is no more brood in
that hive; all those bees which have
been feeding the young brood, they
go out in the clover fields and carry
in honey and, when the honey comes
in, it is not fed to young larvae.

Instead of that, honey comes into
your supers.

But you will say, "The bees don't
move; they don't work well." They
do. With the bees it is all the same
whether they have a queen or queen
•cell and they will work with the same
energy.

We find out when the old queen
swarms the hive left behind goes to
work because there are queen cells.

You say: "It is too bad to lose that
beautiful brood. It will weaken the
hive!"

What are those bees worth to you,
gentlemen? Let us figure.

The 20th of June the queen lays
eggs.

Twentj^-one days after, or the 11th
or 12th of July, young bees will hatch
from those eggs.

Sixteen days after those bees that
go to work will go out.

The 27th of July those bees will go
out in the fields.

Gentlemen, what kind of honey
flow have j^ou around the 27th of July?

A member — Sweet clover.

Professor Jaeger — There are com-
munities and places where we have
not any; at the same time I will say
that the main flow in the northwest
is over by the 27th of July.

Now the bees from young queens
will begin hatching sometimes in
August and should produce large
liatches of beautiful young bees. The
young bees will fill up the hive with
winter stores and there will be a
large amount of young bees to go into
winter quarters.

In order to produce young queens
I had to make some hives queenless —
over forty I made queenless during
June.

Those hives afterwards raised a
batch of queens — I left in one of those

queen cells — so all of those colonies
were without a laying queen for three
weeks and last fall when we began
to remove honey from 125 hives I was
surprised to find in those colonies I
had been raising my queen cells loaded
with honey in the supers; produced a
great deal more than all my other
queens.

I suppose you may have different
ideas, but I do believe to queen dur-
ing honey flow will produce larger
crop of honey than otherwise.

Mr. Wheeler — Did you select your
strongest hives?

Professor Jaeger — I selected the
strongest, but our hives are nearly all
alike.

They were practically all alike; we
went down the row.

Now this is a matter of course that
is based on our local conditions in
Minnesota.

Moreover, young queens generally
will effectually stop European foul
brood.

We introduce queens year after year
and bring new stock year after year.

And it is of great value to you to
know that you do. not have to bother
or worry about foul brood ever get-
ting into the j'ard.

And by this method you are prac-
tically free from all swarming.

The problem of who is to raise your
queens?

If I were better acquainted with lo-
cal conditions I might give you en-
lightenment. I believe your quefen
stock can be raised right here in the
state of Illinois; I don't believe here
in Chicago, because they could not get
mated; the drones could never see a
queen with the smoke!

But around the country here there
are apiaries where your queens could
be raised.

May be you have some state insti-
tution here. Would j'our legislature al-
low you a couple thousand dollars for
that purpose, and get a bright young
man to go to work and establish a
queen rearing apiary for the benefit
of bee-keepers?

Why does the state spend thousands
of dollars to improve stock?

In agricultural pursuits the conntry
is spending thousands of dollars every
year. Minnesota alone (and what is
Minnesota compared to Illinois? You
are known to be one of the biggest
and richest states in the Union)

102

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

spends $10,000 a year for bee-keeping.
The legislature allows us that much
money.

Go after your legislature and let
them do something for bee-keeping.
Tell them what other states are doing.

Go before them as an organization
of influential men.

Say to them, there are 10,000 bee-
keepers in the state of Illinois be-
hind us — demanding an appropriation
of $2,000 for queen rearing apiary, an
experimental station for bees.

I wrote to Ernest Root, a personal
letter, asking him to give his own per-
sonal attention with a view of lo-
cating for me the best breeding queens
that can possitfly be obtained in the
United States.

It took him a year to do it.

I selected three grand daughters of
that queen selected especially by Mr.
Root for that purpose; I got those
three queens and introduced them into
full sized colonies, and have seen
them develop, lay and produce brood
and you would be surprised what size
queens they were and what beautiful
bees they produced, beautiful leather
color Italians, gentle, industrious
workers, great producers of honey.

Although I was disturbing them all
summer they gave me a wonderful
crop.

The state allowed me $1500 to buy
an outfit, and, if you want to have
mating boxes, the common Hoffman
frame is the best.

About the mating of those queens:
There is a great deal of ignorance and
prejudice. Queens can get mated in
neighboring yards and queens fly
three or four miles away.

I will tell you of our experience:

We have, in Minnesota, bees all
around us from one-half mile to two
miles.

We are surrounded by bees. We are
in the suburbs.

In our yard at Minneapolis I intro-
duced 125 of our own queens; onlv
four were mismated; all others mated
ppre.

I found upon observation — where we
have four hundred mating boxes —
queens flying through the air — drones
flying through the air — that a queen
did not go, I do not believe, a block
away before it mated.

Of course we have an unusual lo-
cality.

We have a queen -rearing yard lo-

cated in the middle of a grove, witli
trees all around.

The queens keep circling over the
tops of the trees, trying to fly away,-
but they meet hundreds and hun-
dreds of drones in the same yard.

But, gentlemen, the pleasure of hav-
ing pure bees, and all kinds alike, is
something that only those know who
have the pure bred stock.

Hybrids and black bees, the moment
you approach the hive they run for
you. There is no pleasure in keeping^
a yard like that.

But the pure bred Italians — you can
handle them the whole season through
without gloves and without a veil; and
practically without a smoker. You can
perform all your operations there in-
your yard without hardly ever getting'
stung.

Xo danger, if you have children or
have visitors, of getting stung, and,
besides, the advantages you have, the
pleasure of handling those bees — the
pleasure of handling pure stock which
only those people know who have ever
owned pure stock.

I don't know what Mr. France would
like to have me say to you, but if
there are any questions you can think
of I will do all I can to answer them.
(Applause.)

President France — If Doctor Phillips
would like to add to this, at this time,
anything further on the subject of the
value of young queens, we w^ould like
to hear from him.

Doctor Phillips— I don't believe I
could add anything to what Professor
Jaeger has said because he has cov-
ered the ground so thoroughly.

The difficulty is a great many bee-
keepers are very much misled as to
what they actually have.

A great many bee-keepers, when you
first visit their apiaries, will brag to
you about certain colonies and queens-
they have, when it is true that, if you
have recently come from a yard where
there is good stock, j'ou will be sur-
prised to find that a man would take
in such scrub material.

We should take advantage of what
others have done to improve because
there is no doubt that the stock can be
improved.

The bee-keeper would, with advan-
tage to himself, breed his queens from
his stock in the yard if he knows pos-
itively he has .the best stock that can
be obtained.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

103

There is, in this state, the best bee-
keeper in the United States, in my
opinion, that is, Doctor C. C. Miller.
He is known to all of you. One of
the things that has made him famous
from one end of the country to the
other is stock he produces by careful
selection.

I often, in talking to bee-keepers,
find they are a little jealous of some
of the things Doctor Miller has done
and are inclined to attribute his suc-
cess to locality — exceptional locality.

I don't believe that is the case, be-
cause there are other bee-keepers liv-
ing near and around Doctor Miller's,
who are producing scrubs.

The difference, in my opinion, is due
to two things: First — The finest stock
that can be obtained. Second — The
finest care — the best that can be given.

The care is practically as necessary
with bees as the right kind of feed is
with cattle, so that it seems to me it
is a double problem, not only the
breeding, but the manipulation o^ the
right kind, and I might add a- word,
that it is a great satisfaction to see
the states taking up work of this
character.

I have been attending nine meetings
before I attended this one, and you
may be interested in knowing that
Iowa and "Wisconsin are both planning
to do what Minnesota is doing. They
are proposing to give their bee-keepers
the advantage which they will get
from careful selection of the best
stock by men who are not commercial-
ly interested in the selling of that
stock — at the lowest possible figure, to
the men who most need it, and when
work of this kind spreads the bee-
keepers will get away from that which
has kept it from progressing and will
come out into something that is so
big — bigger than we have ever
dreamed of. (Applause.)

Mr. Coppin — Mr. Phillips refers to
Doctor Miller as being one of the best
bee-keepers in our state and having
some of the best stock: I was think-
ing about the disease — European foul
brood — Doctor Miller has that among
his bees and it seems to me that he
should not have it or should, not have
much trouble to get rid of it, provided
he had the best stock.

Did he ever get rid of it? I never
heard.

Doctor Phillips — I suppose there is
some European foul brood in Doctor

Miller's yard; there was in 1915. I
can't remember the absolute figures,
but he gave them to me.

I think he found six or seven cells
of European foul brood in three col-
onies; the difference between Doctor
Miller and some of the rest is that
when he found those six or seven cells
he did something with it.

So far as Doctor Miller is concerned,
it does not make any difference
whether he eliminates it entirely or
not, because he is keeping it under
control so that it never interferes in
his manipulation in the slightest de-
gree.

It does not lose him one cent a year,
and, when you can get the disease
throttled to that extent, it does not
make any difference whether we get
rid of it or not.

I know of other apiaries where Eu-
ropean foul brood exists and will con-
tinue to exist, but where it never does
any harm.

I suppose there is not any stock in
the world which will absolutely keep
some European foul brood from the
yard and j^ou will see cells occasion-
ally from dead brOod if you are in a
community where it is.

Mr. France referred to one of the
Inspectors in New York.

I have been in Mr. Stewart's apiaries
also and know that European foul
brood is all around him but it never
interferes with his work. If he finds
the disease as he goes over his yard,
giving the colonies the careful exam-
ination to which they are entitled and
which they deserve, he simply does
something and does it at once and it
never interferes with his production.

It seems to me that that is the solu-
tion of European foul brood — we do
not expect extermination, but we do
expect to get this disease in such
shape that it does not interfere with
honey production.

Mr. Smith — What did Doctor Miller
do when he found those few cells?

Doctor Phillips — Caged the queen
about ten days and gave the bees an
opportunity to clean out the few cells
that were started. That method of
treatment is entirely satisfactory for
men like Doctor Miller. It is entirely
satisfactory for a careful, watchful
bee-keeper, and under those circum-
stances European foul brood will not
spread, it will not get a chance.

But if the bee-keeper waits until

104

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

there is 50, 60 or 75 per cent infection
in a colony and then cages the queen
ten days he must not be surprised if
he finds it unsatisfactory. He generally
does not change queens.

Mr. Kannenberg — I think we have
had quite a long session. I move we
have a recess.

Motion seconded.

President France— Just one thing be-
fore we adjourn for dinner; I will give
you these figures: Here is a bee yard
where there are eight colonies of bees,
last spring increased to 32; honey sold
out of that yard, 1,240 pounds.

Here is a bee yard one' mile and a
half from there, and — if you will allow
my judgment — he has the best location
for bee-keeping in the state of Wis-
consin. I offered him $20 a year rental
for ten years to follow. It is 200 miles
from my home, and I would be glad to
go that far for such a location to keep
bees.

That yard has never seen a day it
sold 1200 pounds.

This yard (the first one described)
sold this year out of three hives as
much as that one (the second de-
scribed) and it has 75 hives. Euro-
pean foul brood got in — hives rotted
and tumbled down — no care — no man-
agement. Here is a man who is a
druggist and makes it pay.

Young stock of the best of breed,
and, may I say he bought his stock a
year ago out of this yard. Before he
got those bees all transfered he had
ordered, and coming by mail, new
queens to put in there.

We will stand adjourned.

AFTERNOON SESSION.
December 17th, 1915.

Meeting convened at 2 o'clock.

President France — We have left over
one subject of this forenoon that
should have been taken in its proper
place and we ought not to pass by. T
do not like to check the viewing of
the souvenir of a copy by Father
Langstroth on bee-keeping, with blank
pages put therein by which he may
make notes ready for his second edi-
tion.

We have Langstroth's own hand-
writing on the pages for the revising
ready for the second edition, which,
by chance, found its way into a second
hand store and Mr. Whitney was for-

tunate enough to find it there and has
been able to save it.

President France — But this subject
carried over:

"A Building at Each Out Yard or a
Motor Truck— Which ?" by Mr. Bull.

Mr. France — I would say while I am
waiting just a moment: That we may
have to vary our program a little to
accommodate some who cannot be
with us all the way through, and
therefore we will not stay with the
program, as in print, all the way
through and to those of you who want
to know whether Wisconsin was rep-
resented or not, when we had ' our
group picture taken the latter part of
last week — there were something over
fifty who got away from us before we
got the group together (exhibits pic-
ture) — and that is probably a reduced
copy which you will see in the bee
journals in the Review.

The fact that these are fairly good
size meetings shows the interest, and
the fact that we had an interesting
meeting — all were enthused and I be-
lieve we have accomplished some-
thing for which I alone have been
working for years. Now our univer-
sity at Wisconsin sees the need of
co-operation with the State Associa-
tion. We are to join in co-operation
with them and things we hope will be
accomplished this next year.

We have already under way a Bulle-
tin to be issued at the university for
the benefit of Wisconsin bee-keeping.

Although not on so large a scale as
Father Yaeger has been able to secure
for Minnesota, yet we are under way.

Has any one a volunteer paper while
we are waiting for Mr. Bull to come
in?

I do want to have one feature quite
prominent — that is the Question Box;
that should be prominent.

If any of you have questions, will
you get them written out and I will
see that somebody collects them in
the near future.

Mr. Wheeler, will you, in the ab-
sence of Mr. Bull, for the time being,
distribute some of this paper and we
will collect any questions you care
to bring up.

You know a colony of bees don't
like to stay clustered long — something
wants to be doing, and, when a clus-
ter of bee-keepers are together, they
must be kept busy.

Although we will try to take things

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

105

in their order, and while we have with
us those who cannot stay through the
entire Convention — -Doctor Phillips is
here with a paper which is alone, if
you lose all the rest, worth more than
it has cost you to come to this Con-
vention — and while we are waiting- for
Mr. Bull we will change our program
sufficient to give Doctor Phillips the
floor at this time.

Doctor Phillips — Mr. Chairman —
members of the Chicago-Northwes-
tern Convention: Tour President has
said that I do not intend to stay
through the meeting. I do expect to
be away a little while this evening,
but he cannot get rid of me before
this meeting is over.

I might say I have had the pleasure
of attending ten conventions of bee-
keepers, one right after the other —
six the past month, and I have been
the only one who has had the pleas-
ure of going to all these meetings.

Other bee-keepers have joined me
at the different meetings.

It has been a great pleasure, and
more than that it has been of great
profit to attend the various meetings
of the bee-keepers in the various
states. ,

I cannot look forward to any great
amount of pleasure in traveling for
months from Convention to Conven-
tion. It may seem like a vacation, but
I am ready to quit. However. I would
not want to deprive myself of the
pleasure of meeting the bee-keepers I
have had a chance to meet during the
past month.

The subject I want to talk about
this afternoon — "Out-Door Wintering"
I feel, is one of very great importance
to the bee-keepers of this country.

According to the best figures that
we can get, bee-keepers in the United
States from north to south, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, are losing
about ten per cent of their colonies
every year. That is a minimum loss,
and occasionally it is greatly in-
creased.

Let us put it another way:

Suppose that we live in a country
where the tax we had to pay was ten
per cent of our income. Every time
a man made $1,000, the state took
away from him $100; we know that
would be a tremendously heavy tax-
ation, j'et that is the fax the bee-
keepers are paying year after year

and they are doing this without com-
plaint.

We are being put to an expense
that can readily be avoided.

If the principles of wintering are
practically worked out, there need not
be more than one per cent loss. The
reason why we should have any loss at
all, perhaps, needs explanation.

Accidents may happen in the best
regulated apiaries, which the bee-
keeper is not there to adjust, conse-
quently we will have loss in the dead
of winter.

We often hear bee-keepers say, "I
never have any winter loss; my loss is
practically nothing."

I have heard that time and time
again and have seen some of the
apiaries in which this loss did not sup-
pose to occur.

It is not the w^inter loss in the total
number of colonies that die, but the
total number of individual bees that
die, and until we can get every bee
through the winter in good shape, that
is, until we can have 100 per cent of
them alive and vigorous and in strong
shape for spring — that should be the
object of the bee-keeper.

Out-Door Wintering.

See copy of paper reported under
report of Illinois State Bee -Keepers'
Association, Springfield, 111., page 51.

President France — Now from a pa-
per that has taken so much study and
thought, if you want to discuss it be-
fore we take up another paper —

Mr. Smith — I would like to ask if
that paper will be printed. Will it be
possible to get it into print?

President France — Yes, I may say I
was selfish enough last week in our
State Convention to ask if it were
possible that the members of our Con-
vention might have printed copies of
it; and Doctor Phillips said: "You
now have them" — and he left us a
bunch of them.

I wonder if it is possible to get some
of them here.

Doctor Phillips — I think there is a
bunch in the State that has been mis-
directed; I will try and get them.

President France — There is enough
in that paper that it will take time
for us to study and digest, and I leel
that it is worth enough to pay us for
coming here if we heard nothing else.

When we are losing ten per cent or

106

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

more of our capital stock, it is high
time that we pay attention to it. The
system of properly wintering indoors
or outdoors is nicely cared for in this
paper.

President France — I am going to
take the privilege to vary a little fur-
ther in our program, as some of the
busy people are hard to get and keep
them long.

Although it is not the hour assigned
for this paper: We have the privi-
lege of having Mr. Burnett with us. I
know Mr. Bull will stay with us
through the Convention and we will
have his paper later; and I am going
to favor Mr. Burnett at this time and
follow with his paper.

Mr. Burnett — Mr. President, you and
I have never had any difRculty that
I know of — and why he should want
to make a martyr of me on this occa-
sion, I cannot quite understand, and
through his energetic and unassail-
able Secretary — here I am.

Now what you can make of me on
this subject I do not know. I am of
the opinion that if this question was
assigned to each member here it
could be answered to their own satis-
faction. I cannot do it.
• I suppose that this question has been
asked me a great many times. I think
up until this time I have been able
to give some kind of an answer; what
it was, I cannot now recall, but it de-
pended upon the individual who asked
it.

If it was asked by a man whose in-
telligence was sufficient to answer
that question himself, I presume I
simply smiled at him. I don't know
that I can do much better now.

Mr. Wheeler — What is the question?
President France — Why the low
price of honey?

Mr. Burnett — That is a poser and
don't you forget it.

I see some of my old friends here,
wiseacres, smiling at the fact that
they all know.

People come in and ask me the ques-
tion and know I cannot answer it, but
they want to see how it works on me.

It does not work well, but I am in-
deed sorry that this question has been
assigned to me, inasmuch as the gen-
tleman who has just preceded me, and
whom I have never had the pleasure
of meeting or listening to before, was
master of his subject.

That places me in an embarrassing-
position.

Of course^ I might say, and I have
jotted down a few reasons why:

That too much competition is one
reason.

Now if Mr. Wheeler here, for in-
stance, had the selling of all the
honey, there would be no low prices.

The trouble is honey is not a self-
seller.

I think it is all of a quarter of a
century ago when bee-keepers' con-
\entions were in their infancy, that
we had Mr. Heddon here and the man
who, I believe, founded the American
]pee Journal, and Doctor Miller, then in
his prime, and quite a lot of fellows —
Mr. Hoffman —

And the question came up in Con-
vention: What was honey? Was it a.
staple — was it a necessity — was it a
luxury?

There was quite a lot of discussion,
and I had not said anything, but Mr.
Heddon jumped up and said: "There
is a man here who ought to know how
to answer that question."

I made very much the same reply
as I do here today. It depends on the
individual — what he considers is a ne-
cessity — what he considers a luxury
or a staple article. His opinion is-
biased but it governs that very largely.

However, I think that the idea of
the third question there, that of lux-
ury, holds good today, for it is one
of the things that people will cut out
from their table when the times are
hard and money coming scarce; they
consider honey a luxury.

Then there is another difRculty.
Most of the people try to undersell
the other fellow.

That is a very difficult thing to
overcome. The great reason, or, I
. might say, the frequent reason given
is oversupply of honey.

An oversupply of anything will makfe
low prices. I think this is a fact that
none of us cares to dispute.

Then comes the question of under-
consumption. If the consumption was
sufficient to take care of the supply
and the price of the commodity was
fixed when the season opened, why, it
would be a fair remuneration for
everybody concerned.

And then there are too many in the
business. Now which one of you will
drop out? No answer.

A member — Why quit? It is not a

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

107

matter of choice; we simply can't quit.
I am in that class; I have to recog-
nize it.

Mr. Burnett — Now then comes the
great question we are all living for:
The educating of the people. It is a
lifelong task, yet, in my opinion, nec-
essary. Although I believe the Bible
tells of honey and how honey was
found in peculiar places and that
honey was consumed in that time, but
I can remember here when honey was
hardly used at all. I began to sell
hones* in this city in 1877 and there
was very little of it coming in then.
There was a little honey that came
from Michigan, a little out here from
Dundee section and so on, but not a
great deal of honey came on the mar-
ket until jflve or six or seven years
afterward.

But a great hindrance to the sale of
honey is an inferior quality offered
to the people.

I don't know of anything that hurts
the sale of honey so much as for
somebody, some family to get some
honey that they don't like. They
simply put it away and honey is ta-
booed, for dear knows how long, un-
til perhaps some one comes along and
lets him taste his honey.

Then he will say: "That honey
tastes pretty good. We quit using
honey; we don't like it; none of our
folks will eat it. We got some honey
that we did not use."

This getting of unripe honey or
honey flavor that does not suit: I
remember very well of an intelligent
man who came in and bought a case
of honey of us, I think niore than a
quarter century ago, and he picked it
out himself. He took it home. He paid
cash for it. He didn't take any bill.

He came back a few days afterward
and explained that he had bought a
case of honey some time ago and didn't
get any bill for it and he wanted a re-
ceipt for his money.

The matter was looked up. He gave
the date when he came; the cash rec-
ord was found and he was given a
bill and receipt.

Now, he says, "I want my money
back." We asked him why he wanted
his money back; he could not hear
very well; I remember he was very
indignant.

He said it did not make any differ-
ence; he didn't care where the honey
came from; he had been cheated any-

way. "There is no more honey to
that you gave me than there is to a
turnip."

Now it happened to be a quality of
honey, though the color was right, that
he knew nothing about, and he con-
demned it as some manufactured prod-
uct of which he had no knowledge;
but he knew that he was swindled;
that is what he was sure of.

Now as to the fixing of a price for
honey — what honey could be sold at.

I don't know that there is any com-
modity of commerce on which you can
fix an absolute price with one excep-
tion, that of gold; gold is the only
fixed product.

President France — Any one else any-
thing further on this subject?

Father Yaeger — Mr. President: the
President of our Bee -Keepers' Asso-
ciation Tip in Minnesota used to say
when you want to have a lively meet-
ing, every time when the other fellow
says "Yes," you say "No," and, when
he says "No," you say "Yes." There is
nothing that will bring out things
more sharply than when we have sub-
jects here with opposite views ex-
pressed.

I have heard what this gentleman
just now said and I am surprised to
hear it.

Our Association holds opposite opin-
ions and, if any discussion can come
from it, I would like to tell you what
we think of it.

Now, first, you say that honey is a
luxury. We have discarded that
thought altogether and have conclud-
ed that honey is a staple article of
commerce.

If we consider honey as a thing to
put on the table like a piece of but-
ter or a little dessert after dinner, it
may be considered a luxury. But
since we organized the Tri-State
Honey Exchange in Minneapolis and
have handled all the honey of Minne-
sota, and we have a central station
from which all the honey of the state
comes, and one salesman sells it all,
we have found out that within two or
three months a hundred thousand
pounds of honey would come in and
that honey would be sold at the rate
of 10,000 to 15,000 pounds per month;
in fact as fast as we can handle it.

This business of ours brought us in
contact with some very prominent
firms. We never thought honey was
used so • extensively in the United

108

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

States as we found out since we went
into the honey business.

We know that manufacturers use
carloads of it.

A branch manager of the National
Biscuit Company told us (he was con-
ferring with us about honey) that they
employed a man who does really noth-
ing else but go around and buy honey,
and an extra salesman.

That doesn't look much like honey is
a luxury.

Just before I left Minnesota, the
Sanitary Food Company of Minne-
apolis sent word over to us if we could
manage to quote them prices on twen-
ty carloads of honey.

These are only a few that we have
found in a small village like Minne-
apolis. What about Chicago, Phila-
delphia, New York and the big states
in the east, of which we know noth-
ing?

If we discover a demand for car-
loads of honey in the far west, what
must the conditions be down here? I
think we had better change our minds.
I said, yes, because the o,ther gentle-
man said, no. I would suggest you
change your minds and begin to look
on honey as an article of commerce.

We speak about over-production of
honey. What do I mean by the words
over-production. When there is so
much of an article produced, it cannot
be consumed.

I grant, for argument sake, there is
an over-production of honey just
about this time when the crop comes
in. Let us say, in November up to
Christmas, an over-production of
honey comes to the United States, but
if we go to the stores anywhere in
March and April, May, June, July and
ask for honey you cannot find it; there
is none to be had.

When we speak about an over-pro-
duction of wheat, for instance: We
may speak of an over-production
when our elevators are filled; the
farmers say everybody is producing
wheat, but remember, next June when
there is no wheat stored we have to
eat wheat just the same.

We cannot say there is an over-
production of honey until honey is
represented on our counters for sale
the whole year round and every day of
the week; then and not until then can
we say we have too much.

In our experience in Minnesota: We
are dealing in honey.

Just as soon as the fall article is
sold, as soon as the people rush in
from the country with their honey, we
have an over-supply and have to store
the honey in storage houses.

When I left Minneapolis there was
80,000 pounds of honey in hand. Any
one would say, to look at that, there
is an over-production of honey.

That honey will be sold in March,
and in March we stand in the open
market and say: "Where can we sup-
ply our trade?"

We supply 600 stores in Minneapolis
today.

We had to, last March, import honey
from Michigan and Idaho.

Before Easter I am sure we will
have to import carloads of honey to
supply our demands for stores, or quit.

I suppose certain people that have
been eating honey up to March, they
cannot get it any more; and they say,
"Oh, yes, let's have some Karo syrup
or some molasses or other stuff, and
they start in to eating karo and mo-
lasses in March, April, May June, July,
August, and by the time they can get
honey again they have acquired a taste
for molasses and we have to educate
them all over again.

Moreover, an over-production of
honey would decrease the price. I won-
der if you all agree on that. It is a
paradox, gentlemen. A paradox is a
statement seemingls* contradictory.

Just like a man making a machine:
he has it figured out in his -mind
just so; he goes to work and builds
the machine and it doesn't work; that
is a paradox.

It doesn't work that way in practice.
Why, I don't know.

I will give a few examples: Take
butter:

Butter twenty- five years ago, was
eight cents a pound.

Every wonian churned at home by
hand and sent it to the grocery store
and got eight cents in trade.

Some smart heads, as they were
called in those days, started a cream-
ery. I was on a farm in Minnesota at
the time. The farmers gathered
around the grocery store, cursing and
swearing, because there was to be a
creamery — that every fellow will have
a cow and butter will be brought to
the store and given away; they were
all opposed to creameries and were
fighting them.

What was the result?

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

109

Now Minnesota produces 400,000
pounds of butter and in the last year
sold 61,000,000 pounds of butter at 35
cents.

The supply was increased over a
thousand per cent. The price went up
500 per cent.

Another reason:

When this country had only 20,000
miles of railroads — the freight rates
and those things were low; the men
who had railroad stocks got smaller
dividends; the rates were very low.

Now we have a railroad to every
village and town and the railroad
rates are three times higher; the more
railroads they build, the higher are the
rates.

So, also, I might say with honey; as
soon as you produce so much honey
that we can have it the whole year
through, without stopping for nine
months, the price of honey will go up.

Just as long as people can have it
only for two weeks and no more, the
price will not rise.

By all means, I say, produce more
honey.

Mr. Wheeler— What is the name of
your firm, in Minnesota?

Professor Yaeger — The Tri- State
Honey Exchange.

Mr. Burnett— Most commendable. I
think he can't be in the position of a
gentleman I heard of in Minneapolis
some j'ears ago, who was a member
of the town council there. You notice
that he didn't say anything about St.
Paul.

Father Yaeger — Excuse me. When
I come to Chicago, I don't talk about
South Chicago.

Mr. Burnett^I don't think, Mr.
President, that is quite fair. I am not
going to spare him now, I thought I
would.

We were talking about the Bible in
public schools. In Minneapolis some
of the members of the board were in
doubt as to the advisability of intro-
ducing literature of that kind into the
public schools, and one man said he
didn't know much about it, and they
furnished him with a Bible, so that
he could study It in the interval be-
tween that and the next meeting of
the council.

At the next meeting he was to make
his report, and, I understand, he did
it somewhat after this fashion: He
said, "I have readed that book and I

see a good deal about St. Paul, but
nothing about Minneapolis!"

Mr. Smith — I believe that we need
more information, more scientific in-
formation on honey.

I would like to know, if it would be
possible, whenever I put a spoonful of
honey in my mouth, something about
its value.

I would like to know, when I eat a
spoonful of honey, how much corn
meal I would have to eat to get the
same value, or how much of any other
kind of food.

I have been reading everything I
could get hold of on that line for the
past five years and cannot get hold of
very much that is of any scientific
value.

I know of a person whom I have
been trying to get to eat more honey
for the past five years, that goes to a
doctor once a week or once in two
weeks and gives him $2.00 to inject
some medicine into his arm.

This medicine comes from Italy.
This is done in order to get a little
iron into the system.

Well, now I have gathered from
reading bee journals that there is iron
in honey; that it is there in the best
form to be assimilated by the human
system.

Some of our best doctors say you
can drink all of the iron that it is
possible to get in liquid form into the
sj'stem and it does not get into the
system by going into the stomach, be-
cause it goes into the stomach as iron;
it has to go into the stomach in a dif-
ferent form.

I believe Doctor Miller has said that
honey contains iron in proper form
for the human system to assimilate.
He also says that it contains other in-
gredients for the system to have. He
is a pretty good object lesson. He is
over eighty j-ears old and has eaten
honey every morning, I believe, for
fifty or sixty years, I believe, he says.

If we could get some scientific
statements as to the comparative value
of honey, in regard to what other foods
have, it would help very largely in the
sale of honey, because American peo-
ple are waking up to the fact that they
should know of the value of foods.

I saw, in the American Bee Journal,
a statement giving the comparative
value in cents, in a certain town in
Iowa, in different foods, showing that
honey is much cheaper than many

110

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

other foods ^ve thought were a great
deal cheaper than honey.

But we don't know exactly how the
prices in that country compare with
the prices here.

What we ought to know is, how
much food value there is in a pound
of honey; then how much food value
is there in a pound of steak and a
pound of butter, and other foods, and
by comparison we would know how to
get a balanced ration for ourselves.

We know ten times more about get-
ting a balanced ration for cows and
for horses than we do for ourselves.

If there is any way we can get more
information on this and use it, then, I
believe, we will be in shape to sell
honey.

Mr. Miller — I think we are getting
away from our subject a little. It
seems to me that some of the prime
reasons why honey is low priced have
not been mentioned:

One reason, I think, is because the
production of honey is increasing very
rapidly, more rapidly than the con-
supiption.

Maybe that ought not to be, but I
think it is a fact. ^

Bee-keepers are keeping more bees.
We are producing more honey and in
very much larger quantities than for-
merly.

Furthermore, every fellow that has
no bees is urged to keep bees. I think
probably it is all right for those who
are putting out bee supplies, to urge
those things. I cannot see how it
benefits the man who is in the busi-
ness to urge every one else to enter
the field.

I don't know of men in any other
line of business who are urging some-
one else to compete with them.

We know that 95 per cent fail, but
the other five per cent compete with
us and bring down the price.

I can see how an increase in the
retail prices might bring down the
wholesale price. If we charge twenty-
five and thirty cents a pound for
honey, people are not going to eat so
much of it and the bee-keepers will
have honey left on their hands.

I know some of my friends have
been, for years advocating higher
prices; it will work out in individual
cases.

We know the wholesale dealer will
consult the market when he buys.

You cannot raise the wholesale

price; that depends upon supply and
demand. You can sell honey to the
consumer and she will pay any price
if she has the money.

If people pay twenty-five and thirty
cents a pound for honey, they are go-
ing to eat less of it. They have only
so much money to spend and they
won't spend more than they have as
a rule, so that they will buy less if
the price is higher.

I never found difficulty in selling all
the honey I had until 1914 — some-
times fifteen or more tons in the year,
but in the last year I had to keep
several tons.

People do not eat it so much; the
prices are a little above them.

I sell in a small town where I sell
practically all that is sold. People
buy two or three or four pails, as a
novelty, before they quit.

It has been said to educate people
to eat honey.

They get tired of it. It is not a
staple article like sugar. They will
eat sugar every day in the year, but
they will not eat honey every day in
the year.

Doctor Phillips — I suppose we might
as well continue Prof. Yaeger's theory
when he said he would like to contra-
dict men in order to start something.

I think my friend, Mr. Miller, is go-
ing at the matter backward, from the
standpoint of the honey producer.

If I am wrong in what I say I hope
Mr. Burnett will correct me; he knows
more about the honey market in a
minute than I do in a lifetime.

Probably 90 per cent of the honey
produced in the United States is sold
in the retail market; the other ten
per cent is dumped on the market,
about th6 same time, and determines
the wholesale price.

On account of the European War
the imports of honey increased twelve
times.

The total amount of honey being im-
ported into the United States Is in-
significant and yet added to this ten
per cent being dumped on the market,
the wholesale market is flooded with
honey — •

Now then, the American people
could eat all the honey that is on the
American market today, between now
and Christmas almost, and pay a good
price for it if they could get it in
available form.

The difficulty is not that of over-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

111

production, but is that abominable
selling condition, for which the bee-
keeper is largely responsible.

While it is the bee-keepers' fault,
it is not one of over-production, but
under-production.

There are very few bee-keepers who
have honey on hand today.

They have disposed of it before now.

There are very few families that
will eat honey long, after January 1st,
possibly February 1st; and, until we
can get enough honey produced so
that we can supply the demand twelve
months in the year, we cannot hope
to develop a selling system adequate
to take care of the situation.

The trouble is, there are not too
many bee-keepers — not too many pro-
ducers, but because we have not
enough.

And what we need to have In the
United States is about ten times more
honey than we have today and the
price will most certainly increase.

I don't think that can be questioned
at all.

And here is another point:

Bee-keepers are at fault in several
respects; they are selling honey, al-
most all of them, at too low prices.

I know of bee-keepers who are sell-
ing honey which every bee-keeper
would think of an inferior quality, and
get twenty and twenty-five cents for
extracted honey, and the significant
thing is they never have a complaint
on account of the high prices.

I realize that bee-keepers do meet
with complaints about high prices. It
depends where they go to sell honey.

But what is the use? The bee-
keeper ought to answer.

What is the use in trying to sell to
people who object to paying fifteen
cents, when there are people who will
not object to paying twenty-five cents;
we better go after that twenty-five-
cent trade.

There is another thing that it may
not be well to mention: You know Of
large dealers in this country who are
selling on a larg-^ scale. I happen to
know the price is 25 cents, as you all
know, who are in competition with
that honey; I also happen to know
they expect to raise that price. If
they can do it, selling as widely as
they do, most assuredly people selling
at home can get better prices than
any firm selling nationally.

I feel strongly on this point because

I know of cases in which bee-keepers
are doing this thing.

I know of a little group of bee-
keepers in this state selling a ton of
honey today and getting 20 cents a
pound, put up in tin.

I know that these same men have
worked in Indiana and have gotten the
same price.

It is sacrilege to put honey in tin,
nevertheless, they receive twenty cents
a pound; if it were put up in glass,
probably the bee-keepers would get
more out of it.

But what I wanted to get at was, it
is only the stuff dumped out on the
market that determined the wholesale
prices; the men who sell the other 90
per cent at home get what they ask
and almost always without complaint.

Mr. Bull— Candy sells for fifty and
sixty cents and more, per pound, and
there is more candy sold than honey.
There is something there that tickles
the palate, the same as honey. They
will pay the price for honey if we
give them a chance.

Mr. Burnett — Doctor Phillips made
a statement here I can hardly let pass
without comment, by saying that the
ten per cent of the honey that is sold
On the market regulates the price of
honey; that Is not a fact so far as
my experience goes in 38 years in busi-
ness.

Now, a member of this Association,
one time, brought me to task because
of the quotations that appeared on the
price of honey, and, being asked the
reason, he wanted a higher quotation.

I said to him: "Why, that is all the
honey is selling for, why want a high-
er quotation?"

"Well," he answered, "when you
quote honey at eight or nine cents a
pound, I go into the grocery stores
and they saj', 'Oh, well, we can buy
honey for so and so, for eight or nine
cents.' And he says: 'Well, yes, I will
sell to you for the same price.'

"They say: 'We get a better assort-
ment and we can get what we want;
you have only one kind of honey; we
want different kinds of honey.' "
"Now," he sajs, "if you would quote
a little higher prices; I am selling my
honey one cent a pound cheaper than
your quotation."

Then there is another reason why
this is not true — is not a fact:

The Doctor and his collaborator here

112

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

are enthusiasts; their age accounts for
that. The facts are that they will
moderate some of those ideas a little
bit by and by.

Experience is a great teacher. I
know that there is nobody who works
much harder at it than myself.

I have met so many people in busi-
ness, and, as I said here before, they
have peculiar ideas, and there is no
way of doing what the other fellow
wants to do if it doesn't suit him. He
is going to do what he thinks is best
as long as he is a free agent.

This thing of producing more honey,
to my mind, will not hold as compari-
son with butter.

The facts are, it has been given out
what the real properties of honey are,
as compared with another sweet. With
some sugar made into another form,
that we call a luxury.

Nobody will contend that candy is a
necessity. I don't know; I am almost
sure that, with an exception perhaps,
I will be more liberal, of two per cent
of the people who will maintain that
they must have honey for honey's
sake ; now they will have candy for
candy's sake, 90 per cent of them, but
they won't cry for honey. That is,
the great majority of them will not.

If we could overcome that objection
to it; that is, in other words, I bet-
ter use these terms and say. that if we
could get a popular cry for honey as
the cry is for candy, there would not
be too many bee-keepers.

Mr. Wheeler — There is a point Doc-
tor Phillips raised that I would like
to inquire into, he made the state-
ment that one-tenth of the people here
were sold out of their honey.

Doctor Phillips — Very few bee-
keepers have their full crop of honey
on hand.

Mr. Wheeler — You said a certain per
cent of this audience had so much
honey on hand — I would like to know
for my own sake how many bee-keep-
ers are sold out of their honey. Raise
hands.

Doctor Baldridge — We didn't have
any.

A member — I think the main poini:
in making a sale of an article is to
bull it.

We have more wheat than we will
ever be able to ship; the farmers re-
alized it was valuable last year and
will be this year. If he takes the

same view of honey, he can get his-
value just the same.

I came from the east — and I said I
will sell my honey for 25 cents and, in;
the fali, my eggs for 50 cents. The
natural outcome is that the neighbors
come around or telephone and say:
"Have you any eggs?" The Mrs. will
say, "I have two today." "I will come
over and get those two."

The same way with honey.

I let it be known that I have the
best honey; that there is no doubt of
it, and they come right a.round and
take it up, for 25 cents and 30 cents,
and strained honey, too.

Mr. Miller — In reply to what the
gentleman said:

Mr. Bull spoke about selling honey
at good prices; Mr. Bull has made a
success of retailing honey; he goes
around to the larger places, to many
people who have not tasted honey,
oftentimes. As l^ng as it is a novelty
they will buy the honey, but if you
go to the same place, to the same
people, over and over again, they go
just so far and quit.

I wonder how many of you would
pay twenty-five and thirty cents a
pound for honey, extracted honey, if
you did not have the bees to raise it.
You would eat sugar at five cents.

As to the food value of honey, it
has approximately the same value as
that of sugar and sugar sells for five
cents.

The company Doctor Phillips speaks
of — they put some honey into my
town; one or two of our grocerymen
loaded up pretty heavily. A fellow
came around to sell it; he was a
smooth talker; I don't think they will
ever do it again.

Mr. Bruner — As to how much honey
people will use, is not that a matter
of education?

■ How much butter did people use?
There was a time when not nearly
so much butter was used as is con-
' sumed now.

There was a time when oleomarga-
rine wag not used. What brought
oleomargarine on the table of such
a percentage of the people of the
United States? Persistent pushing;
the putting it in the hands of the sup-
pliers where you could get it every
da#.

If you could only get oleomargarine
four months of the year, how much
would be used?

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

113

We have to put honey in the
places where all the people can get it
better than they now do and we can
make them, steady consumers of it.

We need the people to put honey on
the table and keep it there and we
have to get them to do that.

The simplest and easiest thing to do
is to tell your customers where they
can use honey; give the ladies a cook
book and tell them how to use it in
cooking and show them how honey
will save them part of their work.

There is not one woman in twenty-
five in Chicago who knows the first
thing about the possible uses of
honey.

Some salesmen, who go out to try
to sell . honey, don't know scarcely
whether they are selling shoe polish
or hair oil; have no knowledge of
their subject.

What do you have for breakfast?
Fruit? If in January, what is it? Tell
the people to put honey on that fruit
instead of sugar, and see that you
have the honey to supply them.

Tell them to put honej' on their
breakfast food; they put sugar and
cream on their breakfast foods, why
not use honey?

Don't sell them honey because sugar
is selling for five or six cents, but sell
them honey because it is something
wrorth while.

Show them the uses of honey that
they have not known anything about.

I have gotten together a Honey Man-
ual. I am going to put it in the hands
of my customers each month, show-
ing them how they can use honey the
year around; use it on their table 365
days in the year. Eighty pounds of
sugar per head used each year; there
is an opportunity to replace most of
that sugar with honey in most families
if we go after it.

You cannot prevail upon the ladies
to change their method of cooking and
baking, but we can show them that
that here is a valuable food that will
save them time and trouble and we
can, by persistency, get them to use
honey; we can get our customers to
use honey every day in the year.

You have to help the dealer to
do the advertising if j^ou wish to sell
honey that way.

This idea of sending it in to the
wholesaler and letting him do the ad-
vertising. If you have honey to
sell, do the advertising yourself.

—8

Mr. Bruner — I wonder how long Doc-
tor Miller has been using honey. Fifty
or. sixty years. I myself have been
using it ten years. We get away with
five pounds a week, a family of four.

A member — I don't think Doctor
Miller uses honey only in his coffee
and tea.

Mr. Wheeler — Doctor Phillips said
that by increasing the amount of
honey produced you will raise the price
in proportion to the number of bee-
keepers that are raising it.

Increasing bee-keepers will raise the
price of honey?

Doctor Phillips — I said, increasing
honey production would increase the
price of honey.

Mr. Burnett — I think the Doctor is in
earnest about this thing, but it will
not be demonstrated during his time.

As a matter of fact niy friend over
against the wall put a hard one up to
us with regard to the ' lise of honey.
From my experience I know families
that have used honey for two, three
and five years, constantly, you may say;
they bought five gallon cans at a time,
and when the time came again to sup-
ply them they were called up and
asked if they wanted a supply of
honey. "No, we have part of that last
can of honey yet."

Why? I don't know, but they got
tired of it. That is really a big thing;
it is a fact that people get tired of it;
they get tired of the use of honey, I
don't care how good it is.

I heard the Doctor here ask, what
kind of honey it was; it does not make
any difference what kind of honey it
is; so far as my experience goes, peo-
ple get tired of it. I don't know that
that holds quite so true with comb
honey. Comb honey is used as a table
dressing to some extent; it is pretty —
and there are some people who like
that and will buy it.

Now, for instance (I don't w-ant to
be personal) my wife won't touch ex-
tracted honey, but she will eat comb
honey. I rather like extracted honey.

Mr. Kildow — I think that 'the people
in this room and the people through-
out the country get tired of honey. I
have my serious doubts if there is a
bee-keeper in this room that uses
honey every day in the year. I know
they get tired of honey.

I have been producing honey in a
commercial way thirty years or more;

114

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

there are months at a time when we
will not touch honey.

And, finally, we will want honey to
eat; it may go for two or three months,
then we will want it again.

As to getting a high price for honey?
People will not buy it; it may work in
some neighborhoods, but not in mine.
The laboring classes will not buy honey
if you ask them a high price for it;
you can make some people pay it, but
not all.

Father Yaeger — This is one of the
strongest arguments I have heard in
favor of honey. Men will eat pure
honey for four or five years without
getting tired. I never heard of one
man yet, who would take sugar out
of the sugar bowl and eat it for five
years.

Honey and sugar are made to go with
other things. They are sweets. Sugar
is used in candy and pastries and con-
sumed in that shape, and honey also
must be consumed in the same man-
ner, in bread in chewing tobacco, on
breakfast foods — there is where honey
is consumed. The amount of honey
consumed is at least one hundred times
as much as pure sugar consumed.

Mr. Bull — Some people never get
tired of honey. For myself, I can say
that ten or fifteen years ago I could not
eat a meal unless I had honey; now I
never care to see it. "Whether it is the
handling or not, I don't know. I find
thousands of people the same way.

The idea is this: There are plenty
of people and it will take us a long
time to get to all of them, leaving a
sample here and there; I have been a
thousands miles from here; I do not
confine myself to any particular town.

I have yet to find the place where I
could not sell.

Mr. Damon — A whole lot has been
said about the price of honey; that it
was too high priced.

If you will allow me, I would like to
submit a few approximate figures re-
garding the high price of honey, from
some things which I secured from the
Department of Agriculture, which de-
termines these things.

One pound of honey has food value
of 19 quarts of oysters, which ordi-
narily sell at somewhere around 35 or
40 cents a quart.

One pound of honey has the food
value:

Of 2 1-3 pounds of oranges;

Of 2 pounds of dried beef;
Of 7 pounds of celery;
Of 4% pounds of chicken.

I have twenty-five other articles
here; I just submit _these as compari-
sons.

President France — Just a word of my
own personal experience on this line of
marketing honey.

While at a little dinner today, rep-
resented by our American Can Co., this
proposition of why don't you sell your
honey wholesale to some of our dealers
here who want it, came up.

Because I have a fancy notion the
choice article ought to go to the con-
sumer without a middleman, and my
practice has been this: To sell it to
the consumer and have him keep it on
his table the year round, but 1 cau-
tion him, "Don't allow your family to
overload the stomach, by which j-ou be-
come dissatisfied with it."

You want it there every day in the
year as you do other staple articles on
the table, and, as a result, take in my
own home: My son, who is now out-
side of my own state, the year round,
wants a teaspoonful of extracted honey
at the table.

So many people have told me that
they used to like honey, but they don't
any more. At some time they have over-
loaded their stomach and the stomach
now rebels. If you will be careful not
to allow that condition, and, when you
have a consuming customer, see that
they are supplied every year with the
choice article, I have yet to find enough
in my own production to supply the
consuming market in that way.

This market proposition is an im-
portant one, but we are running over
our time.

President France — We will have a
recess of a few moments.

■ President France (Convention re-
called) — In this new age of advance-
ment, when we have to lay aside old
methods — comes the question as next
on our program:

Is it worth while to have a motor
truck?

Mr. Bull on that subject:

A BUILDING AT EACH OUTYARD
OR A MOTOR TRUCK, WHICH?

Mr. Bull — Mr. President, I didn't
have time to make out a paper on this.

The first cost? If a person has only
one outyard you can build a building

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

115

cheaper than to buy a motor truck; if
you have four or five or six outyards,
a motor trucli is the cheapest.

If you have a building there you
practically have to own that land;
that means another expense. If you can
get just what land you want for a bee
yard that would be one thing; but yon
might have to buy ten or twenty or
thirty acres to get what you want.

Another advantage is this:

If you own that ground there you are
pretty apt to keep bees there year
after year, although there may be a
better location within two or three
miles of you.

The beauty of a motor truck is, that
you can have a central location and
you need own no more land except that.

In using a motor truck you can have
your bees wherever you take a notion
if you get the consent of the land-
owner. Offer him fifty pounds of honey,
and he will say to you : "Now, don't for-
get to bring those bees back next year."

Some people might say, put up a
building at the outyard; but if you do
this the landowner is going to in-
crease the rent.

If there is no danger but what you
can move within an hour or two, he is
not going to say anything. But if you
can't move away then you have to
come across.

Another advantage of the motor truck
is this: In years like the last two
years, you don't want too many bees in
one place.

With a motor truck it does not make
any difference whether you have ten
or twenty or thirty hives in one place
or another. It takes only ten or twen-
ty minutes to crank up your machine,
and you can make your circuit in a
few hours, if you have good roads.

It may rain but you can put a chain
on your tire and go anywhere.

The model trucks nowadays are a
practical thing — not an experiment.

Another thing: The uses of the truck
in apiary work: One way is- to haul the
honey home and have it extracted; and
the other to do the extracting at each
yard; then the honey has to be hauled
home after it is extracted. Why not
haul it beforehand?

In a small yard it takes as long to
put your machinery in the outyard and
take it down again as it does to bring
the honey home and extract it.

Having your extracting outfit in one
place you can put in a modern outfit.

leave it there, and bring the honey
home to extract.

I drive out in the morning and, the
first thing I do, I get a lot of honey be-
fore the bees wake up, and I have been
there and have gone before they know
I have been there.

Another thing is this: If you have
a building at the outyard, you have
to have a wheelbarrow to bring the
hives and supers, etc., to the hives.

With a motor truck, you can drive
up to the yard of forty or fifty colo-
nies and have the hives all around
your motor truck and stop right there
in the middle of the bees and put your
supers on or take them off, or do any
work you wish. You can drive around
your yard, if you have more supers
than you need you can stack them up
there; pile up what you have left and
let them stand there. The r next time
you come around, if you want to use
them, all right; if not, they are right
there when you do need them.

I have taken my truck and taken forty
supers four miles, put them on the
hives and back again within two hours.
I have a slow speed truck, ten miles
an hour.

You can go as fast as you please with
some of the trucks.

Some say. ''But there is the deprecia-
tion in your truck."

Well, a truck that a bee-keeper
would use would last him a good many
years before he would wear it out; and
the advantages you have in the use of
the truck are many times more than
the depreciation.

In the two years I have driven a
truck the expense has been but trifling
for repairs; the cost of gasoline, in-
significant; very little oil; the tire ex-'
pense, nothing; the tires will last you-
three or four years the way the bee-
keepers use the truck.

So, as for myself, I would not think of
such a thing as having a building in the
outyard. I can do more ■u^rk, with
less effort, with a motor truck.

Mr. Kildow — He says he can go out
in the morning and load up a lot of
bees before the bees find out he has
been in the yard.

I don't know what kind of bees he
has; mine find it out.

Mr. Bull — What time do you start
in, in the morning?

Mr. Kildow — My bees are always
awake, no matter when I get there.

116

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

I take it along after sunrise in the
morning unless it is exceedingly hot.

President France — Just a word:
About your getting those bees down
and out of there?

Mr. Bull — I use the bee-escape.

If you want to take your honey off
in the frosty nights, in October all
right, but, if in July and August, use
the bee-escapes.

I would no more keep bees without
a bee-escape than to keep bees without
a hive body.

President France — While that point
of a bee-escape is up: Here (illus-
trating in hand) is a little sample.

How many of you have used the wire
escape in preference to board?

(Not one.)

President France — Is it possible you
don't know one of the things you are
missing? When you can put them on
and your bees will go down this es-
cape in about half the time, if it were
board.

I have something like 300, and I have
cut out that thin board and used it
for other purposes, and put the screen
on.

You don't know one of the good
things you are missing if you have not
used the wire escape.

Again, this little feature came to my
notice by a Norwegian at the Minne-
sota Fair a few years ago, in which,
where this is wood, he had observed
that the bees, like pigs, will follow the
fence; the bees went round and round
before they would go to the outlet of
your bee-escape board, and he found,
by putting a little guide in there, they
would go down and out and still retain
the fence idea; and use two in place
of one escape.

Then they have improved the escape
now by which it has an outlet both
ways; it lets the bees out faster.

If you are using the old bee-escape,
you don't know one of the good things
you are missing. Next year I will not
have any but what are wire cloth.

(Illustrating) — This would represent
the full size of the hive.

President France — Mine are ten
frames. This is made only as a model.

Mr. Bull — I have something like 150
or 175 moving screens; can I use those
for bee-escapes?

President France — Certainly. The
only question here is the depth; is it
not considerably deeper than this?

Mr. Bull — It is not any deeper than
that.

President France — That will work;
and after you have once used them you
will bid good-bye to your wood escape
boards.

You retain the heat in extracting
combs.

May I describe conditions between
two Wisconsin bee-keepers?

I stayed with one over night. He
went out in the evening and placed
his escape boards and the next morn-
ing before breakfast he took his little
girl for company and to help him, and
he had his bees out of the supers on
his arrival.

Before breakfast he wheels in as
many hive bodies as he can extract
during the day and, with his lifting
hive device, he lifted those hive bodies
full of combs to the upper room of his
extracting house. Right underneath is
a gasoline stove.

Before he went in to breakfast he
lighted the stove and turned the light
to a point by which it kept those hive
bodies warm all day at about the same
temperature that they were on the
hive; as though the heat originally in
the hive had never been released.

This is all done before breakfast.

After breakfast he starts the engine
going.

After going upstairs, with a steam
uncapping knife and this frame revers-
ible extractor he finishes up the day's
work.

From the honey extractor above, the
honey runs through a tin tube in the
floor to a strainer and storage tank be-
low and by this gravity strainer took
care of itself.

He made bee-keeping easy.

At noon that same day I was in an-
other bee yard; the same number of
colonies — where he was working the
hardest I ever saw a man work in the
bee yard. Everything done that was
possible to make it hard work.

He picked up his hive bodies of ten
frames and carried them up to the
bee house where a helper did the un-
capping with a cold knife instead of a
steam knife; put two combs in one
of the old style extractors. Then he
had to pick up that extractor, honey
and all, and set it on the table and
waited for that honey to run out be-
fore he can wheel in the next lot.

That is the difference between man-
agement.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

117

Thej' had the same advantages in
bee yards, and pasture, one having two
hired hands and making hard work of
it; the other doing it easily and enjoy-
ing his life with his bees.

Mr. Wheeler — Was he uncapping and
running the extractor, too?

President France — In either case this
one man was doing the uncapping and
running the extractor. With the ex-
ception: Here is a gasoline engine
running the extractor, and the other
man had an engine for power to run
his two frame machine.

President France — But I figure that
time is money with my bees, the same
as with myself. Did you ever stop to
think of that? Right here is one of
the things I have learned: (Illustrat-
ing the wire cage.) In the north this
is more noticeable than in central and
southern Illinois. How many days do
we have honey flow? Almost count
them in two weeks.

Is it not up to us to have those hives
running very full of bees beginning
with the honey flow? If we are going
to do that, we are not only bee -owners,
bu bee-keepers. We are drawing on
that queen to that extent that she has
served her mission and you are better
off without her.

Bid her goodbye: "You have served
your mission;" no swarming, young
queen takes her place a little later.

You don't want that queen fllling the
hive body just during the honey flow.

If our bees' time is worth money, we
must economize so as to save expense
not only of the bees, but with our help.
As for me, I have dropped three Ijired
hands by having a bee house at each
yard and an outfit at each yard. The
first outlay costs considerable, but I
hope it will last for years; within fif-
teen minutes from the time we arrive
we are in working order; the machine
bolted to the floor; the honey runs
through the fioor, through a tin tube to
the gravity strainer and storage tank
below; no chance of spilling the honey
— and the convenience of having every-
thing right there in the yard. No one
there to watch the faucets and at the
close of the day your honey is ready
to be canned.

I thought seriously of putting an auto
between my home yards as a means of
quick transportation, but I am hardly
yet ready to abandon my bee house.
, You can go out in the morning when

the weather is so that you can, being
outdoors and indoors the same, and put
your bees quietly in the cellar and you
are home again in the evening.

A good many of our bee cellars are
not so that they can be properly ad-
justed and ventilation is an important
factor.

Before coming here, I took an old-
fashioned automobile, my horse and
buggy, and went to my out yard to ex-
amine my cellars, the ventilation and
temperature. I could see only, in one
cellar on the top wall of one, a few
drops of moisture; that was the only
place there was any condensation; the
temperature was from 43 to 48 degrees.
Forty-two degrees is about the proper
temperature.

You want to keep a uniform temper-
ature as near as possible and the bees
will regulate the balance.

But we should have our paper.

Mr. Bruner — I have listened to Mr.
France talk a good many years, and
this is the first time I ever heard him
give a talk telling me where I could
save labor in producing honey.

To tell me how I can get the most
honey from my hive with the least
work — that is bee-keeping.

Mr. Miller — Mr. Bull and I operate in
the same county. He has, I think, six
yards, not very large ones; I have five
somewhat larger; so we are in com-
petition in one .sense, but we are very
good friends.

Mr. Bull has an auto truck, no build-
ing, no land.

I thought it best, where I did not own
lands, to purchase 'and have buildings
at three of these j^ards; from the other
two I haul in an auto.

Whether or not it is advisable to
have buildings, will depend somewhat
upon the distance.

The distance from my yards is about
fifteen miles from my home yards. It
would not be practical to haul those
supers and appliances I have to my
home yard. While, if my yards were
close at hand, as his are, I think it
would be proper.

As Mr. France has said, I think it is
more convenient to have a building at
your yard. You have everything there.
If you happen to forget something on
your trip it is there waiting for you.

It is convenient when the weather is
inclement; you can work inside instead
of outside, and, if you are fifteen miles

118

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

from home, it may not be convenient
to go home.

I think both plans are good, but it
depends on circumstances.

I use the cellar for wintering.

In one yard I built a cement block
house at a cost of $800; a cement floor,
cement cellar, and all that, and the
bees paid for it in one season; I had
a net profit on that yard; of about 95
colonies.

The other two yards, one house is
larger, the other not quite so large.
Furthermore, I have an outfit of tools
at each yard. I have an extractor at
each yard and the small tools, a set of
carpenter tools, saws, etc.; I have a
full outfit of supers at each yard, to-
gether with all other necessaries.

President France — Don't forget the
question box; Mr. Bull and Mr. Wheel-
er are on that committee.

President France — Among the papers
on our program is "The Marketing of
Honey," by Mr. H. C. Ahlers.

It was told at our Wisconsin State
Convention last Thursday, as this Wis-
consin brother was on our program, a
party announced that last week or a
week ago yesterday he was at Mr.
Ahlers' funeral. He was making ready
for another southern trip to Louisiana
and was taken ill and has gone.

President France — "Selling Honey,"
by John Kneser, of Hales Corners, Wis-
consin. I will allow our secretary to
read Mr. Kneser's paper.

"MY EXPERIENCE IN SELLING
HONEY AT HIGHER PRICES."

I have had considerable experience
in the selling of honey, both to the
wholesale and retail trade. I have sold
this commodity since 1908 in the great-
er part of northern Illinois and the
southeastern part of Wisconsin, to di-
versified nationalities. The variation
in price fluctuated, of course, as to sea-
sons and to localities; but the effort
to sell the product always has been
about as great in one place as in an-
other, regardless of the season.

Since the theme of my paper is
prices, I shall state briefly my experi-
ence why unreasonably low prices ex-
ist, and, if possible, the remedy for in-
creasing prices. While quality is, of
course, an important factor, I have al-
ways found the real reason for low
prices to be the lack of experience in
salesmanship. Subordinate reasons

are, fear of even asking for a fair
price, desire to meet the price of, or
rather to undersell the competitor, ig-
norance of cost of product, cost to sell
and what is a good price for a useful,
wholesome and pure commodity, and
last, but not least, the peddling of an
actual inferior article. Perhaps a little
personal experience, which is quite
vivid in my mind just now, may be of
interest. A farmer from whom I pur-
chased bees threw into the bargain his
three or four patrons to whom he had
been selling honey for years at lie per
pound. I went to these people and sold
them at my price, needless to say, by
my usual line of argument.

The citation of this little concrete
cage proves what was said in the fore-
going paragraphs. My experience has
always proved that the^thing to keep
uppermost in mind is, at all times, to
talk quality and to impress upon the
prospect that the highest quality al-
ways demands the highest price.

This line of argument has always
worked out most successfully to the
retail trade or to the house to house
trade, to which I usually sell in pack-
ages of the so-called two and one-
half-, five- and ten-pound pails at the
following prices: One 2% -lb. pail, 19c
per lb; one 5% -lb. pail, 85c, and one
10 2-3-lb. pail, $1.60; comb honey 23c
per lb. To the wholesale trade, I sell
little comb honey, but considerable ex-
tracted put up mostly in twelve and
twenty-three ounce paper bottles,
which I find very convenient and at-
tractive, being just the thing for quick
sales.

For a possible remedy, if this has not
already been gone into sufficiently in
the preceding paragraphs, I would sug-
gest a few don'ts: Don't sell honey
without first studying the elementary
principles of salesmanship. Don't talk
price until you have studied your cus-
tomer or prospective purchaser, and
don't talk price until the purchaser
wants the article, and above all, have
quality, talk quality and get a quality

P"*^^- JOHN KNESER.

Hales Corners, Wis.,

R. F. D. No. 19,
December 14th, 1915.

Mr. Stone — That is all very good but
who can be a salesman like that?

Mr. Bull — If there is a person in this
room who was a poorer salesman than
I six years ago I would like to shake

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

119

hands with him. If you want to be a
good salesman, put up an excellent
quality of honey. I show my goods
to people and, if they want it, all right;
if not, the goods will sell themselves.
You gradually work into it and find
good talking points; you gradually
work up to it.

Mr. Bruner — I dare say Mr. Bull or
some of the other members here, if the
bee-keepers were interested in the
problem of how to sell to the consum-
ers or retailers, I dare say Mr. Bull or
some of the other members would give
us some valuable pointers.

I know that it does not require, espe-
cially, salesmanship to sell honey. I
have order takers selling honey. They
happened on to somebody here and
there who wanted honey — but that is
not salesmanship. There is salesman-
ship in connection with selling goods.

The first thing is to have quality, and
J you can sell your goods; you don't have
to have salesmanship back of that, but
it will help you. You don't want to go
in to a party and say. "You don't want
honey today, do you?" I have a man
selling honey that will 'do that very
thing.

Mr. Bull — They all have one answer,
then, "no."

(Vice-President Miller takes the
Chair, Mr. France being engaged.)

Vice-President Miller — Has any one
any pointers on how to sell honey?
We will be glad to hear them.

Mr. Bull — You are looking to me, I
think, to give you some pointers: I
most always have one question I put
to the customer — but in the first place
you have to look neat and dress
neat; don't wear a dirty collar; or
sofnethina: like that: don't forget to
shave. The question I most always put,
first. 'Good morning, you folks like
nice pure honey?"

I don't care what the answer; they
may say yes, or they may say no, or
they may stand there two or three sec-
onds without saying anything, and I
make up my mind I am going to get
an order there. The salesman can tell
usually before the customer says one
word whether or not they are going to
get an order.

I can't tell you how to tell that, nor
can any one else; you have to learn
for yourself.

The first question they usually ask
is: What is the honey worth? What

have you? I always carry samples. I
open the cover and call for a spoon
and give them a sample; if they like
the honey and can scare up the price,
that is all there is to it.

Mr. Coppin — I usually make an ex-
hibit of honey at the State Fair and
whilst there I get a whole lot of visi-
tors who admire the honey. I usually
tell them there is nothing sweeter they
can take home than a cake of honey,
and I generally in that way induce
them to take some honey home.

Vice-President Miller — In my experi-
ence in selling honey I find it is fre-
quently well to give them information
in regard to things they don't know.

They have an erroneous idea about
bees and honey.

In this way you can get the confi-
dence of the buyer and it will lead to
a sale.

Mr. Bull — These are not the only ar-
guments I use; I have dozens of them.
You run across a customer — some one
that has been out on a farm and has
seen two or three bee hives and oh, yes,
they know all about honey. For this
person, you carry a few views of your
bee yards; pull these out and show
them the pictures, and you have them.

Mr. Ufman — I am not well acquaint-
ed with the honey selling end of the
game, but in other lines I have done
selling. If any of you know what it is
to try to sell books, go to the door
with a smile, and have some one shut
the door in your face: I have had
some such experience. If you can only
get to the people and get them to talk-
ing, that is the first thing.

A member — I would like to say that
most of the honey salesmen, while they
may believe the price they ask for
honey is worth it, they don't say it in
that way. They are asked the price
and they hesitate before they say 20c a
pound; and I think that anybody who
hesitates over telling you the price
is sizing you up and is ready to put on
an extra 5 cents per pound.

A little farmer boy came to my place
selling apples; I asked him what they
were worth; he said: "We are asking
25 cents, but we will take 15 cents."
' Some of you fellows selling honey are
going at it in that way and you don't
realize it.

I am looking at it 'from the buyer's
point of view.

Believe in what you have to sell; I

120

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

can sell anything on earth if I believe
in it.

Mr. Bull — Whenever you try to sell
to the consumer anything that you
don't believe in yourself he will know
it every time.

Mr. Ufman — There is another point
that comes out there about the price of
the article: Mr. Bull mentioned a little
while ago that the first thing a per-
son asked was the price:

Show people your goods — and then
tell them the price; never tell them
the price first.

Mr. Bull— If they ask the price too
soon, I keep on talking.

Mr. Smith — There is a difference in
the ability of men to sell goods. Today
I believe we should have the best ex-
pert salesmen for selling crops of honey
that are to be had, and I believe they
should devote their entire time to sell-
ing honey.

We may have a man who can pro-
duce from 20 per cent to 50 per cent
more honey than, if you will excuse me,
I will say, Mr. Bull can, but that same
man might not sell 10 per cent as much
honey as Mr. Bull; those two men
would make good partners.

If he can get a partner who could
produce more honey than he could
produce, but who cannot sell one-fourth
as much honey, it would be a good
combination.

We know an organization of men
who can sell the product.

It is -ciuite evident that the produc-
ers as a whole are not good salesmen.
It is a trade — it is a profession, and a ■
great many people could never really
acquire the ability.

Some men can sell honey and they
can sell anything while others can
sell hardly anything.

Mr. Bull — In regard to a bee-keeper's
selling his crop of honey or having
some one else sell it for him, I agree
with this gentleman perfectly.

As far as I, myself, am concerned,
I sell a very small percentage of my
crop personally; I don't have time; that
Is where most of us fall down; we have
not gone into the selling game and
don't know how much it will cost to
sell. We think we know how much it
will cost to produce. We want to put
some one out to selling honey for us.

Salesmen, I don't care what they are
selling, will not work unless you are

paying them. It costs as much to sell
honey as to produce it.

If your honey is worth 10 cents to
produce, it is worth 20 cents- to put
it on the table.

When you are paying a salesman to
do that work you can get a salesman;
you are not going to get much out of
that 10 cents. You have to give most
of that to a salesman.

Another thing: Don't send that
salesman out and give him a price of
13 cents or 14 cents on that honey,
and then go on selling by mail or any
other way for 15 cents or 16 cents in
the same locality he is selling in.

Right there is the whole thing in a
nut shell; you hold up the other fel-
low. You don't know what it costs to
sell honey until you go out to try to
sell it.

If you sell to your grocer so that he
has to retail it for 20 cents, and you
sell all around him for' 15 cents, what
chance has he to sell?

Protect the fellow who is working for
you, your grocer or salesman, and your
problem is solved.

President France— I think there is a
point that we, as producers, should
take note of.

In learning bee-keeping: We take,
as it were, a book, and learn it page by
page; after we master the first page,
we turn to the next and, after we have
gone through the book far enough, we
have pretty well learned how to pro-
duce. Some of us have learned how to
manufacture and put it in marketable
shape; a lot of us have not turned over
to the marketing proposition.

Many of us do not know whether we
are salesmen or not.

We have asked one or two to buy
honey and they do not buy and we take
it for granted we are not a salesman.
. I am sorry to say that in Wisconsin
— some bee-keepers are willing to sell
to some wholesale man and sell to
some one else at the same price. You
cut your throat every time you do that.

We are trying to get it all and have
the other fellow do the work for us.

President France^Marketing honey!

Could we have Mr. Dadant with us
who could handle this subject? But,
as I announced before, it seems that
sometimes calamities do not come
singly; they have illness at their home
and one of their family is in the hos-
pital, and Mr. Dadant cannot be with

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

121

^is. But he has done the best he could;
he has contributed his paper, and the
■Secretary will read it.

"MARKETING HONEY."

By C. P. Dadant, Editor American
Bee Journal.

The subject assigned to me for this
convention is one that has been so har-
ried over, and in which so little prog-
ress has been made that it seems diffi-
cult to bring up anything new.

But the addresses written for bee-
keepers' conventions are especially in-
tended to open each subject, with the
purpose of bringing out objections,
suggestions and experiences. In this
way something new may be brought to
light and I sincerely hope those who
hear this may help towards the solu-
tion of what has become the greatest
problem for bee-keepers.

Mr. F. C, Pellett, the Iowa State In-
spector, has recently brought to me
the suggestion that the neglect of
honey as an article of food is due to
the lack of official support to our in-
dustry. He says that honey is, to-
wards glucose and all corn syrups, in
the same relative position as butter is
placed towards margarine. But but-
ter is not neglected for margarine as
honey is neglected for glucose. In fact
no one, who can at all afford it, will eat
margarine in place of butter. Yet mar-
' garine is so much like butter that de-
ception is very easily practiced. I my-
self remember eating breakfast, side
by side with a drummer in margarine,
at a small country hotel and hearing
my companion exclaim. "I thought
they could afford butter in country
towns!" He had recognized the taste
of his own product. But, even after I
was told of it, I could not distinguish it
from common butter. With honey, it
seems to me, the case is different. Any
one, after tasting corn syrup and
honey, ought to be able to recognize
the difference in sweetness, the form-
er containing less than 30 per cent of
saccharine matter, while the other has
about 80 per cent. As far as the con-
tents in sugar are concerned, the poor-
est honey is worth about three times
as much as corn syrup; and when we
think of the substances used to trans-
form starch into sugar, in manufactur-
ing commercial glucose, we certainly
should figure honey at four or five
times the value of corn syrup.

But it is as Mr. Pellett says. There

has been no active official support of
honey against glucose. In the butter
industry there is an army of officials
representing the diverse interests of
the dairymen, in the State Agricultural
Associations, in the colleges, even in
the state governments and the United
States Department of Agriculture. The
farming interests are carefully fos-
tered, but the bee-keepers have thus
far received scant recognition and their
fights have been left in their hands.
We all know how little efficiency there
has been as yet in our Associations,
whether State or National.

Yet, I believe, every person who is
at all acquainted with the subject will
agree with me that the unhealthiness
of glucose, as compared to honey, is
greater .than that of margarine as com-
pared to butter. The fight, if it is made
for honey, ought to bring an easy vic-
tory. In this case what we need is to
have, in our colleges, on our Boards of
Agriculture, and in all official places
where the dairy interests are cared for,
men as active and efficient as those
who represent the farmers' main prod-
ucts.

But is this all and will that be suffi-
cient to secure an increased recogni-
tion of honey on the consumer's table?
It certainly ought to help.

A very good argument concerning
the food value of honey may be pro-
duced while the same argument does
not exist in comparing butter and mar-
garine. Those two substances have a
very similar food value. The food value
of honey has been sho'wn by an en-
tirely disinterested authority, W. B.
Barney, State Dairy Commissioner of
Iowa, and those of your members who
have read the American Bee Journal
for December have found out that, at
present prices, honey is one of the
cheapest articles of human food.

However, with all these convincing
arguments, we will probably be still
confronted, for some years to come,
with the problem of creating an in-
creased demand for honey. We must
then consider the principal require-
ments.

Marketing honey can properly be di-
vided under two separate heads, en-
tirely different. The first is packing
and preparing the product. The sec-
ond is seeking customers.

Many bee-keepers who are unfit for
drumming their honey market, or at
least consider themselves unfit, are

122

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

quite expert in putting it up for sale
in neat form. It takes cleanliness, and
judgment. Comb honey cannot bring
the value it deserves unless it has
been properly stored by the bees in
neat sections and is afterwards put up
in attractive cases. It must also be
offered in regular grades. The law
which compels us to sort out the sec-
tions of different weights, so the re-
tailfer will not run the risk of offering
a 10 -ounce section at the same price as
a 14 -ounce, is really a benefit to us,
though we did not realize it at first.
All that is needed to make sure of it is
to go out among the retailers. We
make them secure against the most
common complaint of the consumer,
short weight, when we offer them a
package in which each section has its
minimum weight marked upon it.

The careful bee-keeper, who has
supplied his bees with up-to-date su-
pers and good foundation guides, is
usually the one who also most care-
fully grades it. He is likely to put up
his extracted honey, without a moat
or a blemish, in neat tins or glasses.
He crates everything so that it may
travel without leaking. But he usually
is the man who does not like to go
from grocer to grocer, or from neigh-
bor to neighbor, begging for them to
try his product. I believe that, as a
rule, he may be easily persuaded to
advertise. This, of course, if rightly
conducted, will make matters much
easier for the drummer.

A very good advertisement, suggest-
ed by our old friend, the erstwhile
cowboy. Doctor Bonney, is the little red
slip, "Eat Honey," to be pasted upon
everything, everywhere, as "Sozodont"
used to be. It has been tried. The
American Bee Journal household alone
has supplied about a million of these,
not only here, but in foreign countries
as well. But that is not enough. Let
me ask the question whether any of
you have seen these slips in public
places, except where you have your-
selves pasted them? "Sozodont" was
painted on the walls of buildings, on
fences, on sidewalks, and I have even
seen it written in almost inaccessible
places, on rocky bluffs, along the Mis-
sissippi River, in letters ten feet high.
Our bee-keepers cannot do that with
"Eat Honey" stickers, but they can
each spend a few dimes to call peo-
ple's attention to a long forgotten
sweet, of which the most respected

authorities say: "Eat honey, my son,
for it is good."

I will never forget the reply I re-
ceived once from a good friend of mine,
now deceased, who used to sell thou-
sands of pounds of my honey, although
he was neither a grocer nor a drum-
mer. He was just an oflSce man, busy
at his desk almost from morning till
night. How do you succeed, I asked
him, in selling so much of my honey,
apparently without effort? His reply
was:

"My boy, there is no difficulty in sell-
ing honey. If I had to handle tobacco,
or whisky, among my friends, although
many more people use those articles
than honey, yet I would daily meet
people who would say to me: Aren't
you ashamed of offering such stuff for
sale? But honey? Why, no one ob-
jects to honey! Everybody knows that
it is good, sweet, healthy. Only once
in a while I meet someone who says
honey has made him sick and I answer
that he or she probably ate too much
of it. The funny thing is that it is
almost always true. The only ques-
tion people ask is whether it is r^al
honey, pure honey. And when I say
that the producer of this honey lives
in the country and is a friend of mine
and that I can guarantee his goods as
pure, I make a sale, especially if I can
give them a little sample to taste."

That is all the secret of marketing
honey. Make the people think about
honey for a minute. Then let them
know you have it and let them be con-
vinced, in an undoubted way, that it is
really honey from the bees, and your
sales are assured.

I said that honey marketing could be
separated under two -heads, packing
and drumming, but I have now mixed
them up. I have tried to convince the
careful producer and packer of honey
that he can also be a good drummer.
But it is out of the question to get
some of our best bee-keepers started
in peddling honey. One of our best
producers said to me:

"I can raise honey as well as any-
one and I can put it up in fine shape,,
but I am no good at offering it for sale.
If I make a trial at it and go into
a grocery, if they say no, I walk right
out without trying to argue the point
and I am ashamed to try the next.
When it comes to going to private-
houses, it is still worse. I always feel
as if they considered me as a book:

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

123

agent or a beggar. If I happen to have
enquiries, it gives me a little courage,
but, just as soon as I meet a refusal or
a doubt of the quality or purity of my
product, I want to be a hundred miles
away, as soon as possible."

There is too much truth in that state-
ment for the good of honey marketing.
The only remedy for that bashfulness
is the securing of a good talker, or
thorough advertising. However, with
a little self-reliance, a man can get
a start and, if he succeeds, he becomes
encouraged.

I cannot, too much, urge the selling
of our crop or as much of it as possi-
ble, in our own vicinity. Personally,
we have sold our own crops usually
without difficulty and we now sell
three or four times as much as we
produce. But, even with all the ad?
vertising that we do, every now and
then we find that other honey has been
supplied where we could have fur-
nished it, had we more thoroughly cov-
ered the ground.

This essay is already longer than I
intended to write. So let me resume
my views.

Cheap sweets, which can in no way
be true' substitutes for honey, are the
greatest hindrances to its sale, since
they apparently fill the demand,
through the positive ignorance of the
masses concerning the differences in
food value and healthfulness.

So we must openly and unrelentingly
fight the cheap sweets. We should
demand the help of our agricultural
officials and colleges in this fight.

To "Eat Honey" should be ceaseless-
ly urged upon the public. Those little
stickers are now offered by several
parties. They cost but a trifle and
ought to be posted wherever people
can see them. That they do an im-
mense amount of good cannot be
doubted. "We have received quite a
number of statements to this effect. Of
course larger methods of advertising
should be used whenever practicable.
I must here commend the A. I. Root
Co., for the wholesale advertising that
they have done. These things are for
the' common good of us all. If Mr. Root
is present at your meeting, I would, by
all means, ask him to say something
on the subject, for he knows a dozen
different inexpensive ways for bee-
keepers to push their product, without
taking the risk of being mistaken for
book agents or tramps.

C. P. DADANT.

While we are on this subject of mar-
keting and boosting honey — one, who
was connected whole soul and body
with our bee-keeping fraternity and
who has had a good deal to do with
the holding together of our National
Association, and who has volunteered
to get before us his idea of marketing
to the extent that he is going finan-
cially into his own pocket, is here with
us now, and we will hear from Mr.
Williams at this time; he can add to
this subject:

TEACHING THE FOOD VALUE OF
HONEY.

George W. Williams, Redkey, Ind.

I was a little bit at a loss to know
how to get at this paper. I had a little
intimation there was going to be a lot
of school ma'rms here, and they are
not bee-keepers, and so I came loaded
both ways, but I see I will have to
stick to the text that has been laid
down —

Ladies and gentlemen, I have one
apology to make for this paper: I have
been on the run for two weeks; I
started to typewrite it and my car
came along and I had to go; I can
read my own writing immediately
after I have written it, but not when
it gets cold.

I entitled this: "Teaching the Food
Value of Honey."

It is not my purpose at this time and
in this paper to enter into a scientific
discussion and analysis of the exact
food value of honey. It has a food value
of an exceptionally high order, placing
it in the front rank of all foods, both
prepared and otherwise. These values
have been exactly determined by scien-
tific men and are really attainable.

My object in presenting this paper
is to consider ways and means by
which this knowledge can be given to
the general public through channels
that will be efficient, and still be within
the financial limits of the bee-keepers.

I will endeavor, however, to give an
outline of the problem, for it is a prob-
lem and a vexing one for their consid-
eration.

Honey has ever been recognized as
a standard of excellence and luscious
sweetness, among all the delicate and
satisfying good things to eat. It is held
in the highest esteem, all down the
centuries, even to the times of our
grandfathers, who regarded it as a
necessity for sweetening, and a deli-

124

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

cate and attractive addition to the
table.

But our forefathers did not have the
need to consider the food value of
honey as carefully as the present gen-
eration has to do, for good food was
abundant and easily proctired, and, like
the fuel for the fireplace, was used
lavishly. The high cost of living and
the resulting care in selecting econ-
omical food did not enter into their
list of troubles, at all.

Hence it is only in recent years that
this surprisingly high food value of
honey in comparison with other things
has been determined an.d given to us
for our consideration.

Very many really well informed per-
sons do not know that honey has a
real, potential food value, easily as-
similated by the most delicate system,
as well as by the most rugged and vig-
orous, and comparing most favorably
with the best foods on the market, in
cost and energy producing units.

I am indebted to W. B. Barney of the
Iowa Food and Dairy Department, and
to the American Bee Journal, and to
the Indiana Entomologist office for the
data to make the following graphic
comparisons: I have reduced the units
of value to the terms of cents and
pounds, so that the significance may
be readily grasped.

The present retail prices of all the
articles are taken where prices are
compared.

I find that the average price of honey
is something less than 16 cents, so I
take that price as a basis of my com-
parisons.

Beefsteak is considered to be a ne-
cessity on most tables and we will
take that for our first comparison.

The actual food value of one pound
of honey costing 16 cents is fully equal
to 1% pounds of the best sirloin steak
costing 20 cents or more per pound, or
30 cents for 16 cents' worth of honey.

Eggs are universally considered as
the most nourishing of foods, yet 8%
ounces of honey costing as many cents
equals the food value of one dozen eggs
costing about 28 cents.

Even milk, which is usually consid-
ered a very economical food staple, is
slightly higher in cost than honey.

In the fruits and nuts, also deemed
wholesome, and economical, the com-
parative value is in favor of honey,
sixteen cents worth of honey equaling
48 cents worth of oranges, 24 cents

worth of bananas, and 29 cents worth
of walnuts.

These comparative tests could be ap-
plied ad infinitum with the same
results. Always we find the compara-
tive value of honey per food unit high-
er than that of all the staple foods,
and immensely superior to any of the
breakfast foods and other fancy prep-
arations.

The cost of advertising this class of
goods is so high that it leaves but
little room for any food value in the
product itself. There are good reasons
for the relatively small use in the
home. The honey producers are mod-
est, measuring people, usually with
small production per capita, and
not all in touch with modern busi-
ness method^, especially the great ad-
vertising proposition. They know, in a
vague way, that advertising sells
things, but they lack the special
knowledge that must be applied • to
bring success. If the average house-
keeper was asked to appropriate his
pro rata to an advertising fund, in the
extent that business men take as a
matter of course, he would collapse
with heart failure.

On the other hand, we see goods of
an inferior value widely and cunningls'
exploited and "boosted" in the maga-
zines, in attractive pamphlets and bill
boards and by subsidized writers and
dernbnstrators.

As a consequence, the price of honey
has declined so as to practically reach
the actual cost of production, leaving
but little margin for expensive pub-
licity methods.

In view of the high food value and
the comparatively low price at M^hich
honey is sold, it would be a great boom
to the buying public to have this knowl-
edge brought to its attention.

The public now buys the goods that
are advertised.

It is not now .bu5ang honey to the
extent warranted by its merits, be-
cause it is not advertised. The public
and the producer would both be bene-
fited by its freer use.

How shall it be brought about? In
this state and in most of the others,
we have a large number of earnest,
conscientious women whose serious
business in life is to teach the future
housekeepers the comparative value of
the different foods offered in our mar-
kets, and the economical preparation
for the table.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

125

I refer to the Domestic Science in-
struction in our public schools. These
earnest ■women are the ones who will
rnould the minds of the future genera-
tions of housekeepers, while they are
yet plastic and capable of vivid and
lasting impression.

These instructors are interested in
securing facts in regard to honey, as
well as all other foods, and will gladly
give to their pupils the truth in re-
gard to honey and its proper value in
the menu and cooking.

But these instructors are not famil-
iar, themselves, with these things. In
fact, the heads of the departments in
various states have expressed their
lack of accurate information on the
subject of the food value of honey. As
yet, no systematic effort has been
made, to furnish this to them in proper
form.

It is proposed to do this. Already
Indiana-, Illinois, Minnesota, and one or
two other states have appointed com-
mittees of their best men to interest
the proper officials and secure this co-
operation.

In Indiana, I am glad to say, the
educational department has gven us
assurances of hearty co-operaton.

It will be necessary to furnish the
facts and figures, and occasional bulle-
tins. And this will cost some money.

How^ever, it will not cost the one-
thousandth part of a newspaper cam-
paign of general newspaper advertis-
ing, and it will be more efficient and
lasting in its offices, and it will con-
tinue to grow with the growth of the
Domestic Science Department.

The principal expense will be to pre-
pare the proper literature for the in-
formation of the teachers. Part of this
is already available from the Govern-
ment Bulletin, at no cost to us, but
must be supplemented by others of dif-
ferent characters.

Step?: have been taken to meet this
expense and support the movement by
forming an organization, national in
its character, to carry out this and
other Fimilar policies that may appear
later.

The same literature can be used in-
terchangeably in the schools of the
different states.

A nv-mber of bee-keepers have been
api-roEched in all parts of the country,
and the appeal met with a general re-
quest for definite action, and a num-

her give assurances of financial sup-
port.

The results of the steps taken, both
in interesting the state officials in co-
operation and the general readiness of
the producers to support the move
when launched, seemed to indicate
success for an organization of this
character.

This is an opportunity that presents
itself only once in a decade. The
school system is now in its formation
stage.

The officials and teachers are recep-
tive. The methods have not settled
down into the ruts that will come later.
We have a product of sterling work to
present to the public at a moderate
price, and the public will accept it
when properly presented to them.

The cost to teach each housekeeper
will be nominal, compared with bene-
fits to be derived.

I have the assurances of a number
of housekeepers in this state who have
aJi-fady expressed their willingness to
join siich a movement.

I will be pleased to secure additional
Oiifs here at this meeting.

Mr. Stewart — He spoke of the food
value: The average consumer does
not care for food value as long as it
tastes good.

President France — There is one thing
we h.ave not had. I believe that some
of the best meetings ever held in Chi-
cago were where there was no program
but where the question box was the
whole, live proposition, and it has not
come to the front in this meeting. If
you will write some questions, we will
start things going. Let us not make
a long discussion out of any one ques-
tion. Here is one right here, along the
same line of thought:

Question — Kow shall the selling
price be determined?

Mr. Bruner — In that . connection I
would suggest there ought to be some
decided movement toward educating
the bee-keepers of the country as to
the difference between retail and
wholesale prices. This Convention
ought to appoint some committee to
see that the bee papers have printed
the difference between retail and
wholesale prices.

The average bee-keeper who does
not come to the Conventions takes up
a paper and sees the wholesale price

126

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

• and there is where one gets his idea
of price; he puts his honey in tin and
sells it for eight cents.

There is an opportunity to do some
real good work. Go after these bee-
keepers and hammer it into them that
they are knocking us by not telling
the people the retail prices of honey.
Ninety per cent is sold at retail and
there is nothing printed showing what
that 90 per cent of the crop ought to
be sold for.

Question: What constitutes a strong
colony of bees in spring, in summer
and in the late fall?

Can any one answer that? What
constitutes a strong colony of bees in
the spring, in the summer and in the
late fall?

President France — If you have an
old queen, and, in another hive, a
young queen, you will very soon de-
cide which is the stronger.

I am not satisfied when dandelion
bloom comes but what I have eight or
nine combs nearly full of worker brood
with lots of hatched bees, and I want
two hive bodies full when white clover
comes.

Mr. Stewart — Eight or ten frame
hives?

President France — Ten frame hives.
Eight is too small for extracting hives
for me.

Mr. Miller — It would be interesting
to tell us how you get two hive bodies
full of brood by that time.

President France — Primarily, a young
queen; a statement I made more than
twenty years ago. How much honey
do you consider necessary to winter a
swarm of bees? A little too much in
the fall of the best you have is
just right next spring; don't be afraid
to have too much. If we have any-
thing that is a miser on economy, it is
the little honeybee.

Mr. Allen, -Treasurer of our State
Association, questioned me. I said,
"Mr. Allen, when 5'ou go home, take
one of those combs that is full of
honey, out." He said: "I have hives
heavy with honey and still I can't
make them do as you say."

"Uncap a little of that they have in
store, if you please, unlock the door.
They would rather keep it as a bank
dposit than to go and get it You un-
cap it and see if they don't use it for
brood rearing."

He came back in another year. He
said he took the comb sealed, capped
honey, and uncapped it in the form of
making my initials, N. E. F.; there is
an illustration of how miserly my bees
were. Every cell I uncapped, the bees
took honey out for brood rearing, here
are the rest not touched.

Feed them; keep them warm; keep
them out of windy places.

We have lots of bee owners whose
bees are out in windy places.

If you take Doctor Phillips's paper
and digest that fully on the proposi-
tion of wintering, and keep that pack-
ing on as he says until warm weather
has settled, all will be well.

My old style hives had packing on,
the year round.

I want a hive that, if it were to
swarm at the beginning of the clover
bloom, I would have bees good enough
for a good half bushel full.

Mr. Miller — Do you use queen ex-
cluder between the two?

No, I don't want anything to hin-
der the queen going into both hive
bodies. I do everything I can to en-
courage brood rearing.

You go into the poultry line — (you
say there is no comparison). You
take early hatched chickens, crowd
those chickens, and get winter layers,
you have to develop in advance.

If you have crowded your queen to
that extent you have a good big
swarm of bees — you have over-crowd-
ed; her workers are there that are to
do the field work for you and she has
served her mission and her daughter
or some young queen has to suc-
ceed her.

Now then: Young Queen. That young
queen that takes her place, full of the
same kind of vim and ambition, does
not care to swarm; there is no need
of any swarming.

How do we run these outyards? We
go out and do what is necessary. In
all our yards we had four natural
swarms this summer.

I cannot afford to have my bees
hanging out in clusters in front of the
hive getting ready for swarming. I
want them to work.

Question — What is stimulative feed-
ing. Does it pay?

President France — I will say one
thing, I have made my artificial pollen
in the form of flour early. The bees
will carry home lots of it, but every

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

127

time I have a lot of combs full of that
stuff to melt later on; they will pile it
in wholesale.

Question — How can you liquefy
honey so it will remain in liquid form?

Mr. Bull — The only thing I have ever
found that will make honey granulate
is air in it. Take that air out and you
have to heat the honey thin enough
that the air will rise to the top.

Question: Can slightly soured ex-
tracted honey be safely fed after
spring opens? Assuming that the
honey is entirely free from disease?

President France — I would say, yes.

Mr. Bull— Heat it first, though.

President France — But let me cau-
tion you as to buying honey from un-
known sources for spring feeding.

One of the most extensive bee-
keopeis in the state of Illinois inocu-
lated his bee yard with American foul
brood by feeding honey that had come
from an unknown source.

He found it had come from western
Tioney from an infected yard in Utah.

Question: What rental is a fair
one for a bee yard?

Mr. Bull — Fifty pounds of honey.

President France — Well, now, that
will depend all on local conditions. In
some places that would be an abund-
ance; in other places your bees may be
more of a nuisance to the owner than
you think for.

Mr. Stewart — Then don't put them
there.

President France — Oftentimes the
•owner of the land will put up with the
bees if I will give him a little rental.

If you can get a permit for a long
term of years you can afford to put up
a building with a cellar to it.

$10.00 a year, whether the season is
good or bad, and have the use of the
larm buildings; again, he is looking
after my interest; at any time if any-
thing is of my interest to know he
can call me up by telephone.

Mr. Kildow — That lies with the in-
-dividual.

Some places you can get it for noth-
ing; other places you have to pay.

For one yard I paid $15.00; the next
yard, three miles from that one, I gave
the owner a little honey.

Mr. Wheeler — One thing in regard
to the amount you pay; that hinges a
little on the amount of trouble your

bees are, whether or not they are a
nuisance.

I have been a long time finding out ^
the best place for bees: It is in pro-
tected places where there are plenty
of trees.

Bees are more of a nuisance in the
prairie, in open places, than where they
are obliged to go up above the trees.

They will behave where they are sur-
rounded by bushes and trees and have
to get in the air before they start out
on the trip.

Watch it a little, and whatever yards
you have you will be astonished at the
difference there is among some of the
bees as to how they act in regard to
stinging and chasing.

In one yard I have a high fence. I
find that, with the trees and a high
fence, the bees never molest any one;
they have to go up in the air to get
their line and get off without ever com-
ing down to the ground; but where
they are in the open and can see every
object passing and moving about, they
chase after them. It makes a great
difference.

Question: Is co-operative buying
worth while?

President France — Let me give you
a little illustration:

In one corner of our state we formed
a little local bee-keepers' association.
The question came up on supplies. ,
Could we co-operate and buy supplies
cheaper? With larger purchases you
usually get a better discount. They
elected one of their number to do the
buying of supplies for all the members.

It proved so nicely they called a
summer meeting, and said:

Why not put some man now in as
salesman of our product?

The entire crop was disposed of at
one deal. All brought their honey by . ■
notice to the car and received cash for
goods.

All were so pleased that they wanted
to do the same thing next year, and all
would have been well had that con-
tinued, straight; but there came an
hour when that honey was sold and in-
structions were given to pay for it in
two checks.

Suspicion arose and we found there
was a profit going to this individual
party that had hot been agreed upon,
and the organization has gone and is
among the things of the past.

128

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

Yes, co-operation, if you will work
together, pays.

I believe your Northern Illinois
meets at Freeport and Rockford alter-
nately back and forth, Mr. Lee, its
Chairman; they group together and
co-operate; he is sent out to look
after the purchase of supplies and his
expenses are paid. He saves to the
individual, members over what they
could buy supplies for otherwise.

Look at Colorado! They buy sup-
plies in carloads and the members get
the advantage of it.

There is a boy working up in one of
the high railroad towers in one of the
suburbs of your state, working a lot
of switch levers; he said that 34 Cars
went by him last week of western
honey, sold through co-operation. ' So
we know it pays. *^

Question— How do you prevent bee^
drifting in an apiary?

Mr. Bull^Is that meant — When you
are taking them out of the cellar?

I would take them out at night, pref-
erably before a couple of cold days:
take them out in the evening, open 'the
cellar when dark; leave them an hour
or two and they will never cause you
• any trouble; I prefer to do the work
at night.

Mr. Kildow- — That has been my ex-
perience.

Mr. Wheeler — There is another point:
The drifting of bees during the sum-
mer: I have been astonished in watch-
ing them closely to see the bees when
they have nothing to mark their loca-
tion with; when they have nothing in
the shape of trees or bushes or high
trees; it is astonishing the way they
will mix up; it is surprising to watch
them.

I And the best way is to have them
among the trees and the bushes and
have something for them to go by. I ■
have had that brought to my mind
more strongly, than ever this past sum-
mer.

Drifting, of course, is caused by the
wind; sometimes when the wind is
blowing one direction they will drift
one way; another time they will drift
another way; in case there is any foul
brood or disease, they are apt to get
badly mixed, but, if they had any ob-
ject to guide them in finding their own
hive, they don't get confused.

Mr. Miller — Mr. Bull's suggestion has

worked; I have tried it a good many
times.

Mr. Wheeler — I find they drift to-
ward one corner of the yard, depending"
on the wand. They will get started go-
ing and will pour into one hive and'
keep pouring in. I have tried the plan
of carrying that hive that they drift-
ed in, into another part of the apiary;
after you get a lot of bees started go-
ing into the hive and you will divide
up those drifters, those drifters are
lost. By carrying the bees and scat-
tering them about in the yard as they
go into the hives, you will divide up
the lost bees until they are scattered
all through your apiary.

Mr. Coppin — I have never seen any
drifting of bees except in the spring
when I took them out of the cellar, and
occasionally it would appear as if they
would all go out of the same hives —
maybe two or three hives; if I took
100 out of the cellar, there would be
two or three hives where they would
swarm out together.

In regard to drifting: They always
drift back to their own hive, with the
exception of the first day I have taken
them out.

I practice taking them out in the
morning, when it was fine.

I have had few that would swarm'
out entirely and drift into some other
hive.

President France — I remember in
New York, at one of the State Con-
ventions, where we had these old ex-
perienced men, the question came up —
When would 3'ou take your bees out of
the cellar? The question was put to
each one, saving as the last ones, the
Cogswell Bros., Mr. Alexander and
those of large apiaries and a great
deal of experience: Mr. Cogswell's an-
swer was much as that of Mr. Bull's:
Preferably in the evening before one
or two cold days; he preferred to have
cold days following, so that the bees
will thoroughly settle down before they

fly.

There will come once in a great
while a year when those conditions
don't prove out.

Another point:

We are studying European foul
brood as yet in the dark and the cause
of the spread of it: I am more con-
vinced, the more I study this matter
and get results, that the young bees-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-ICEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

129

drifting from one hive to .another have
more to do with it than I give them
credit for. They are the nurse bees;
they are doing the feeding.

A man who was making a careful
observation had, on one side, Golden
Italians; on the other side, a little of
everything; to my surprise we could
find the young workers going in nearly
any hive; they were not brought up
there, but they were finding th«eir way
in and they will accept young bees al-
most anywhere.

Question: Does the production of
honey pay the producer?

Mr. Bull — I think the mere fact we
are here answers that question.

Mr. Stewart — Maybe it does. The
last thirty-five years, taking into con-
sideration the amount spent for hives,
appliances and time, it has not paid
50 cents a day to the producer. You
don't see a man, depending upon the
production of honey for a livelihood,
sending his boys to college; it doesn't
pay the producer.

Mr. Wheeler — I think Mr. Bull's an-
swer sounds well, but there are other
reasons leading up to our coming into
the bee business — other questions.

We find that the country is flooded
with literature telling how much
money people make producing honey;
that the bees work nights while they
sleep. The mails are full of it. This
induces people to begin to keep bees.
I regret to say that thirty or forty
years ago I was fool enough to go into
it.

When you get thousands of dollars
invested, your lines drawn, your work
laid out, you have to stick to it;
you keep looking for a better year, and
you continue from one year to the
next.

It is the sorriest day that I ever had,
when I started in to keeping bees as a
business; this I can say after an ex-
perience of forty years, keeping bees.

I think this idea of Mr. Bull's sounds
well and is true, in a way, we would
not be here unless it pays. I am one
of the fellows who has gotten in so
deep I cannot get out.

Mr. Kindig — I believe it would be an
unprecedented example of business
that was 100 per cent a success. The
history of the business of the United
States 95 per cent failure.

Now if you are going to say: Does it
pay, it looks to me as though you had

to compare it with some other things
that pay, or don't pay.

My experience and observation is —
although I am very glad to have peo-
ple think it doesn't pay — it is all right
with me; my experience and observa-
tion is that bee business pays ;is well
as any other business; it pays for the
amount of capital invested and labor
employed.

Mr. Miller — The bee business, like
every other business, does not pay 95
per cent of those who go into it; the
other 5 per cent are' making good. It
is the 5 per cent who study the busi-
ness and have executive ability ciiough
to make it pay. It is a cold day when
an efficient bee-keeper can't make from
§10.00 to $25.00 a day, or more.

Mr. Williams — The question is a
vital one and we ought to take it seri-
ously. If bee-keeping does not pay,
why doesn't it pay? That is the ques-
tion. If it can't be made to pay, we
had better quit; if it can, let's go
ahead and find the reason why it is not
paying and make it pay.

Question: How do you blend honeys
of two colors so the streaks will not
show or the heavier honey settle to the
bottom?

Mr. Bruner — Don't try to blend the
light honey with anything; don't try
to put it in with the heavy honey.

Mr. Coppin — Is the dark honey heav-
ier than the light honey?

Mr. Bruner — That is the way the
question reads — "the heavier honey."

I think, by that question is meant
light colored honey; light colored
honey and dark colored honey; they
will mix pretty easily if you blend
them hot.

Mr. Kindig — In, regard to trying to
blend honey, cold; my experience is,
you go up against that granulation
proposition right away; blend it cold
if you want to have it granulate. It
brings in bubbles of cold air.

Question: Is honey stored for food
next spring fit for that purpose if there
has been fermentation?

President France — It is possible we
may feed honey that has slight fer-
mentation in the spring. I would ad-
vise not to do it.

I would want to warm it and get the
fermentation out of it.

Mr. Wheeler — ^What is the use of

130

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

feeding honey at any time? What is
the use of running the risk of spread-
ing disease by feeding at any time? It
will always bring as much as sugar on
the wholesale marlvet. I don't see why
we run that chance of feeding it back.

President France — Up in Wisconsin
(not so down hei*e) — our bee-keepers
are miserly and they figure that honey
is money and they rob the little fellow
that gathers it, too close, consequently
they have to feed back again; it is poor
economy; but after I have wintered
them over and they have too much in
the hive, that is the time I want to
uncap it; unlock the door and make
them use what they have in bank.
They won't do it if you don't uncap.

I have seen bees, wintered outdoors,
starve to death with thirty pounds of
honey in that hive.

Question: Why don't you bring your
wife to the Conventions?

A member — I can answer that; I
haven't any.

Convention adjourned, to meet at
7.30 p. m.

EVENING SESSION.

Meeting convened December 17th, at
7:30 p. m.

President France: Our first topic —
The Painting of Comb Foundation, by
Mr. E. Hassinger; we will now hear
from Mr. Hassinger.

WHY AND HOW I PAINT COMB
FOUNDATION.

Edward Hassinger, Jr.

My experience with painting comb
foundation with wax is limited to two
years, and 3,000 Langstroth frames for
brood combs and extracting combs.
Why I Do It.

First: To secure as nearly all per- .-
feet worker comb as it is possible
to get in Langstroth frames.

Second: The bees will enter ahd
occupy whole supers of this painted
foundation as readily as they do sup-
ers of all drawn combs.

There is something about it that is ^
very alluring to them; they will draw
it into comb in the smallest kind of ^
a honey flow, and will fasten the foun-
dation to the end bars before drawing
the comb.

In a heavy honey flow I have re-
peatedly seen whole supers drawn into

comb 3-8 inch in length, in less than
24 hours, and some honey stored in the
cells. If any one claims that the bees
would not take time to thin down the
base of the cell walls in a heavy honey
flow I should say he had a freak col-
ony of bees under his observation.

Third: I have reason to believe
that it pays in dollars and cents. More
definite statements could be made on
this subject, if some one will deter-
mine just where the dividing line may
be drawn between the voluntary and
involuntary secretion of wax in the
average colony of bees.

Can any one prove that a colony of
bees with all drawn comb in the hive
will produce more wax INVOLUN-
TARILY than is required to seal the
ripened honey. If they do, what do they
do with it? If they deposit it all in the
hive in the form of brace comb, then
I am satisfied that it does not amount
to much, finding wax scales on the
bottom board does not prove that the
bees had no use for them in the supers,
the question is, would the bees carry
their own wax scales outside of the
hive simply because the combs were
all built in the hive?

A drawn comb, Langstroth size,
contains about five ounces of wax. A
sheet of medium brood foundation con-
tains two ounces of wax. A sheet of
light brood foundation contains one
and three-fifths ounces of wax.

It takes no more time to paint a
sheet of light brood foundation than
it does to paint the mediuni brood
foundation; therefore, the advantage
is in favor of the light brood founda-
tion.

I add not less than one ounce of wax
to each sheet of light brood founda-
tion; this would make the sheet two
and three-fifths ounces in weight or
one-fifth ounce m'ore than half the
wax required for a full drawn comb.

125 pounds of wax would make 1,000
sheets of medium brood foundation at
a cost of 11 cents a pound, or $13.75.

As it takes only 100 pounds of wax
to make 1,000 sheets of light brood
foundation at 13 cents a pound, or
$13.00, the balance in favor of the light
' brood foundation would be 75 cents in
cash and 25 pounds of wax, not count- .
ing the labor of painting this wax on
the foundation, but, as it is assumed
this work would be done anyhow and
enough more wax added to equal one
ounce per sheet — assuming that it

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION-

131

takes 10 pounds of honey to
produce one pound of wax, and,
if honey is worth ten cents a
pound, then it costs $1.00 to produce
one pound of wax. Then, by buying
wax at $.30 a pound, a saving or gain
■of 70 cents a pound is made.

1,000 sheets at one ounce per sheet
would require 62 1-2 pounds of wax.
Same at $.30 a pound would be $18.75.
It would cost $62.50 worth of ten cent
honey to produce this wax; the bal-
ance in favor of buying the wax ajid
painting it on the foundation would
be $43.75 plus 75 cents that it costs
less to have 1,000 sheets of light brood
^' foundation made, and have it better
liked by the bees than any lighter or
heavier foundation made by machin-
ery.

The price of labor deducted from the
above mentioned figures would still
leave a favorable balance. It takes
from 1 1-2 to 2 minutes to paint one
sheet of foundation, Langstroth size,
with one ounce of wax.

This work should be done in the
winter when time is not worth much;
in fact it must be done in cool weather.
The foundation should be cold and the
Tvax hot for best results.

I have my foundation made to order
and have it fit the frame less one-
, eighth inch from each end bar, and
one -fourth inch from the bottom bar.
The most perfect all worker comb is
secured with a space of three-six-
teenths inch between the foundation
and the bottom bar, but they must
be drawn in the supers. I have
ceased using foundation in the brood
chambers entirely.

The frames should be all wired, and
the foundation should be fastened and
the wires imbedded in same before
starting to paint same with wax. I
•do not want any combs without being
wired, and I believe no argument
should be advanced in favor of trying
to get along without wires.

I use a small two burner oil stove,
and a tin pan about eight by eight
inches and three inches high. A wire
screen is fitted into the bottom of the
pan in such a way that the screen
•does not touch the bottom of the pan.
This is to hold up the brush. Then
wedge a square stick in between the
sides of the pan at the top. The
"wedge should be in the center of the
pan and nailed through the pan into

the stick. This to brush the surplus
wax out of the brush before using it.
The brush is an ordinary paint
brush, three inches wide, with the hair
or bristles of the brush four inches in
length.

About half way between the top and
the bottom of the hair, are placed two
sticks, one on each side of the brush,
crossways of the hair. Each stick
should be four inches long and three-
fourths of an inch wide, and three -
sixteenths of an inch thick. Same are
nailed together through the hair of the
brush, tight enough to force the hair
brush on<^ inch wider at the bottom.
To keep the sticks from slipping down,
fasten same to the handle with a tack
and wire or a crate staple.

With the brush fixed in this man-
ner, much better and faster work can
be done and no danger of closing the
bottom of the cells with wax if the
proper amount of surplus wax is
brushed from the brush before using
it. If many cells are closed with wax
at the bottom it may result in drone
comb being built on that spot.

After using the brush for some time,
the bottom of the brush will form into
a curve. This curve is an advantage
in applying the wax, by brushing
against the curve with the first stroke
or two and then reversing the brush.

Use the same form to hold the
frames with the foundation that you
use for imbedding the wires into the
foundation.

Only practice can teach you just
how much pressure to use for a uni-
form distribution of wax over the side
walls of the foundation.

The temperature to keep the wax
at depends upon how fast you use it
and the temperature of the room you
are working in. The colder the foun-
dation and the warmer the wax, the
better it works. Have the wax broken
in small pieces and add to wax pan
continually as needed.

Mr. Hassinger — I have the brush
here so that any one may look at it,
and I have samples of a painted light
blue foundation.

President France — My first experi-
ence, together with that of my helpers
at home was, that we got too much
wax on the brush. It takes a little ex-
perience to get it on as it should be,
but it is an easy matter, and we have
entirely abandoned the use of any more

132

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

brood foundation before it is first
painted.

I promise myself to put about 1,000
sheets through the painting process
and get ready for next season's work.

If you will put to use what you have
heard read here, from this paper, that
alone will pay you for your trouble of
coming here.

If you want to ask Mr. Hassinger
any questions on this painting proposi-
tion before we take up other subjects,
I am sure he will be glad to answer
them.

Mr. Wheeler — How many sheets can
you paint in an hour?

Mr. Hassinger — That would depend.

Mr. Wheeler — You paint both sides
at the same time, before you let that
sheet go out of your hands?

Mr. Hassinger — Certainly.

. Mr. Wheeler — Can it be used for
comb honey?

President France — It can be done,
but there would be no great amount of
gain. I believe Mr. Hassinger has tried
that.

Mr. Hassinger — The wax is all on
the side wall, not any on the bottom.

Mr. Coppin — By painting the brood
frame after they are wired, and put in
place, after the wire is imbedded, it
would make a more perfect job of
brood comb; it covers the wire nicely.

President France — Anything further
on this?

Mr. Bruner — Is there a tendency to
get too hard, if it is put in too early?
Would there be any advantage in de-
laying painting until April, say?

President France — Two or three
years ago I had promised myself when
I came home from the Sioux City Na-
tional Convention, I would go to work
painting. I had too many irons in the
fire; I overlooked it until a few days
before we wanted to take the founda-
tion to my outyards.

Mind you, that was along in the fore
part of June, but we painted about 500
combs, though it was warm, and I was
well pleased. Since then we have
learned to do it when our time is not
so valuable and there is a difference in
temperature. Wax is quite sensitive
to heat and cold.

Although this last season caught us
again in need of more frames than we
had expected in making the increase,
I think it was about the 12th or 15th of

June, but we painted them although it
was late.

President France — We have a paper
on the "Efficiency in Manipulation of
Bees and Production of Honey," by Mr.
Miller.

EFFICIENCY IN MANIPULATION

OF BEES AND PRODUCTION

OF HONEY.

E. S. Miller, Valparaiso, Ind.

Mr. Miller — I ought to offer an apol-
ogy for this sort of paper. It is some-
thing different from the ordinary pa-
per given at this sort of a meeting. I
see a great many people start out in
other lines of business; and I think a
word or two in this particular industry
would give us encouragement and point
the way and might be of use.

It is a w^orthy thing to be a suc-
cessful bee-keeper.

It is more worthy to be efficient in
one's work, to be able to organize one's
forces, to accomplish the maximum re-
sults with the least expenditure of
energy. The prime purposos of ad-
vanced education are the development
of character and efficiency. Both are
essential in order to accomplish the
. highest purpose in life.

In mechanics we are taught that the
efficiency of a machine is the ratio of
useful work gotten out of the machine
to the work or energy put into the
machine.

For example: For every 100 units
expended upon the electric motor, ap-
proximately 95 units are returned in
useful work, being an example of
greater efficiency. So it is with hu-
man workers in every field. There
are too many of ten per cent efficiency
and too few who approximate 100 per
cent efficiency.

We hear much, nowadays of efficiency
— of system — of scientific management
as applied to mercantile business — to
manufacturing — to transportation and
other lines of human effort, doing
away with an enormous amount of
wasted energy.

In a small way efficient, scientific
management is being applied to agri-
culture, in many cases with excellent
results. Can the bee-keeper profit by
these examples?

Looking about us we see in apiaries
a great waste of time, energy and ma-
terial. We find men giving their full
time to caring for less than 100 col-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

133

onies when a competent man with
proper methods and equipment should
be able to handle 1,000 or more with-
out undue effort.

As an illustration: I knew a bee-
keeper giving his whole time to about
sixty colonies. He was a man of long
experience, well-read in all the current
bee literature and of more than ordi-
nary intelligence. His successor
handles 400 colonies and spends on an
average about two days each week in
a systematized mode of manipulation,
his remaining time being given to
other business. Furthermore, his
average per colony is greater than that
of his predecessor.

We see men working with odd sized
hives and in poorly constructed build-
ings. "We see them climbing trees for
swarms and we find them examining
one comb at a time, looking for cells
in order to prevent swarming.

Sometimes we see three men en-
deavoring to remove honey fronn the
hive, one to lift out the combs, an-
other to brush and a third to hold the
smoker. A fourth should be added to
pull out stings. Such processes, al-
though prevalent in some of the larg-
est apiaries in the country, mean only
a ten per cent efficiency.

For the purpose of discussion, effi-
ciency in bee-keeping map be con-
sidered under the following heads:

1. Personal efficiency.

2. Efficiency in system of manipu-
lation.

3. Efficiency due to proper equip-
ment.

Personal efficiency comes through
education. It presupposes not only a
knowledge of all phases of the busi-
ness but also the ability to plan, to or-
ganize one's forces, to arrange a defi-
nite system of procedure, and to
execute with promptness and dispatch
the work in hand.

An efficient manipulation depends
upon the individual manager. It re-
quires a thoroughly worked out plan
of procedure based upon a thorough
knowledge of the business. It requires
the handling of the business in larger
units, and the elimination of processes
which are wasteful of time and labor.

Efficiency in equipment demands the
use of the very best, though not neces-
sarily the most expensive, equipment
that can be obtained. It seldom pays
to be handicapped with a poor outfit.
The beeman's time is his most valu-

able asset and it is often wasted in an
attempt to save expense.

Efficiency requires uniformity in size
and style of hives.

If your frames do not fit all your
hives and your cover won't go down,
and your floor boards were made to fit
something else, the result will be loss
of time and money.

Proper equipment includes bee-tight
hives, bee-proof and mouse-proof
buildings. It includes a good work-
shop with its various necessary tools,
benches, tables, shelves, etc. — with a
place for everything and everything in
its place.

Lastly, but not least, every apiary,
whether for comb or extracted honey,
should be equipped with an adequate
extracting outfit. Of course the be*
ginner may not be able to provide all
these. His time may not be of much
value at first, but, if he continues to
follow this vocation, he should strive
to better his methods and improve his
equipment.

To the oldtime bee-keeper I have
little advice to give, but to the young
man entering this vocation, expecting
to make it a lifework, I would say,
go to the top. By all means get as
thorough an education as possible and
apply it in your work. A university
training is none too good for a bee-
keeper. It pays. It pays not only in
greater accomplishments in your par-
ticular line, but, also, it leads to larger
things in life. It places you upon an
equalitj^ with big men in other walks
of life.

Is there any reason why a beeman
should not be the equal of a lawyer, a
banker, or the manager of a railway?

Go to the top, but remember that
among the greatest factors of your
success will be efficiency and char-
acter and the ability to organize the
forces you control.

Mr. France — Any discussion on this
subject of efficiency?

I think it was two or three years ago,
in September, I was, as I had been do-
ing for several years, on my way to
Minnesota to be at the State Fair; I
took my son, now instructor in the
University, with me, that we might
learn something about the methods of
a certain bee-keeper, before we got to
the State Fair at Minnesota.

We reached the most extensive bee-
keeper of the state, who was a man
shorter and lighter weight than my-

134

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

self, but whose systematic manage-
ment in the handling of 400 acres of
land to a profit and 400 swarms of
bees, with two hired hands a little
while in the summer, was of greatest
interest to me.

I said I want to learn something; I
went there as a student and did learn
a good many things. For instance:
When we reached his station, about
six o'clock in the evening, he was there
to meet us. He immediately telephoned
to his home some little distance from
the city: "I have caught the birds, we
will be home about 9:20."

My boy looked at me and said: "Do
they live so far out?"

I said to him. "We are gu6sts now,
never mind."

He took us out to the restaurant,
and as we had nearly finished he said,
"I had better go out and feed my
horse a little before I start out. I have
a new horse." He took a gasoline can
and went out and was back by the
time we were through our meal. He
had just bought an automobile, and
we had to go to all his outyards and
reach his home at 9:20.

He wanted that we should see what
we could, though it was lamp light. I
saw System demonstrated, proving
that Time is Money, and management
means Saving of Time. It taught me
something; he had system made prac-
tical; he had an engine — an extract-
or — we went to each of the outyards.

A half hour from the time we land-
ed, he had the combs going through
the extractor. System: When that one
man can handle 400 acres of land and
400 swarms of bees and have over
50,000 pounds of honey in his bee house,
it is worth while that we pay atten-
tion to system.

In one of the bee houses, I noticed a
large can with the uncappings there,
with some bees crawling around in
the cappings. Although we had only
an automobile flash light, I said: "Mr.
Hoffman, what do you have those bees
here for?" He looked in surprise;
"that is one on me," he said.

He started with his light to go
around the edges of the room — "where
did they get in?" He found the spot.
"They didn't put that window up, did
they?" There was a cluster of bees
inside, and he made a note of this on
a slip of paper.

All that season's extracting combs
were in the supers, cross-piled in the

bee house from floor to ceiling, doors
wide open.

I said: "Mr. Hoffman, are you not
in danger of getting bee moths in?"'
He replied: "No, we open the doors
to let the bees dry the comb, and then
we will kill all life by sulphur fumes."

"Say, do you fumigate this room
with sulphur?"

"Sure we do."

"It must take some sulphur! Where
do you do the burning of the sulphur?
I am getting a little curious. Is there
a chance of ever having a bonfire?"

"Well." he says, "we have had a fire
twice."

"Why don't you use carbon-di-
sulphide? You will be sure of one
thing then, you will have no fire after-
wards."

He said to me: "I have had that
suggested before. Where will we get
it?"

I told him where to get it, and be-
fore we reached home he had bought
two little pint cans in a drug store
we passed and he ord'^red a 5 gallon
can. In short, the next morning he
called one of the two hired hands and
told him to get ready the horse and
go over to such and such a place.
"You will find a window was left down,,
and there are things there to be done;
put a cloth over the uncapping can
to keep the bees out. Put a little of
that carbon-disulphide into that room;
and you don't want to go in there
with a match or anything with fire in
it because Mr. France says that stuff
forms a gas and is explosive."

He had his horse ready; it was one
of those motorcycles — and you ought
to see that fellow go off around the
lake.

He telephoned back and said to tell
that Mr. France that he has played
mischief in ' your yard. "V\''e knew
there were rats — now we can see
them; they are all dead."

The point is this: When that man
can manage »as he does, it is system-
that enables him to do it.

He went with me up to the Minne-
sota Fair. He was busy taking in the
exhibits andN studying them, when a
lady, a stra5i|;er to me, came up and
said, "There is a lady who wants to
speak to you."

And to my surprise it was Mrs.
Huffman; she said to me: "Where is
Mr. Huffman? The hive on the scales-
shows six pounds gain. Where is he?'"

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

135

"Spanish needle and heartsease right
in bloom and he left the queen at
home watching the scales."

He said to me, "Good bye, lYance,
I must attend to business."

The queen was doing the work in his
absence; the scale told the condition
of the weather, that it was changing,
and that meant home, and he got a
bigger crop in September than through
the rest of the reason.

He is another crank on young
queens every year.

(Applause.)

I believe that is just as practical
and just as applicable to bee-keeping
anywhere. If we learn to manage
bees we will learn how to save ex-
pense.

Say, let us learn how to sell our
goods and pocket the money.

President France — I would like to
bring up a different line of thought.
We have had it on the bee-keeper as
. an individual, his make-up and man-
agement, and these conveniences; now,
there is the grand good social factor;
it is hard to get it in any other way
save at these meetings.

The social feature — that of coming
together and exchanging ideas and
experiences. I have attended a good
many conventions in the last few years
and I don't believe I ever attended
one but I feel I have learned some-
thing that paid me for making the
trip.

Although my father was a bee-
keeper before me, and I had his ex-
perience to begin my learning, — as I
go abroad and get the experiences of
others I begin to find I am a beginner
and can learn every day something;
and I find there is one up in Wiscon-
sin who knows all about the business.

Now the social feature has another
side that has not come to your atten-
tion here.

In New York they hold two bee-
keepers' meetings — winter and sum-
mer conventions — and they bring their
better halves. They think more of the
summer field meet as social meetings,
and every housewife does her duty;
she is going to the field meet in the
summer; they have a basket picnic
dinner together; that is where your
time is worth as much in the social
building up and getting together as
these winter meetings; and we can
learn from those eastern states that
have been holding field meets with

profit, what they are doing. Let Mi\
Kildow bring out this point.

THE ADVANTAGE OF FIELD
MEETINGS.

Mr. A. L. Kildow, Putnam, 111.
Mr. Kildow — I think the Secretary
made a mistake in his program when
he selected me to talk on that topic;
I did not know it until yesterday morn-
ing; I did not know that I was on for
anything.

I was somewhat surprised; when I
first got a letter from the Secretary I
told him I couldn't come; I got his sec-
ond letter, and I thought I could come,
I would like to hear some one else talk
on this subject. I am a poor talker. It
is not in my line, and I will make only
a few remarks.

In regard to these field meets. I
think it is one branch of bee-keep-
ing that is very important; if any-
thing it is better than these meetings
in the winter time, although these
meetings are good, but in our sum-
nier meetings we bring out things that
we cannot do here; for instance: We
can have practical manipulation of the
bee hives and show the different work-
ings of the inside of a colony of bees
that you do not get here and that a
good many do not know much about,
especially the novice. Of course the
practical bee-keeper knows all about
this.

We get the social feature in the bee
yard that we do not get here.

Now, for instance, our meeting at
Hamilton: I think any one who went
up to that meeting would say that ix
paid them well to go clear across the
state to be there.

If you have seen a picture of the
Wisconsin meeting you will get some
idea of what our meeting was in Ham-
ilton. There were about 100 of us, or
more, in the picture.

To hear the different ones talk, it
was worth the time it took to go there.
And our meetings at Rockford! They
have been good. We have a little gath-
ering there every year, and those meet-
ings are well worth the bee-keepers'
time who is in reach of there, to go.

We have been having meetings in
eastern Illinois ; for some reason this
fall, we failed to have one there.

We have been having good meetings
there; and I want to say if there is
any neighborhood in the state wfto
will get up enough interest to furnish a
place of meeting — some bee yard.

136

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

somewhere, the State Association will
furnish good speakers and pay the ex-
pense of that trip, if they will get up
enough enthusiasm and interest to
have such a meeting, an-d find the place
to hold the meeting.

I cannot say more than this. I can-
not talk when I get up; when I am
down home I can think of a hundred
things to say, but here I am no good.

President France— I want to say one
thing in behalf of these field meetings.
Do not forget that they are for the
ladies as well as the gentlemen, and
that you take along the picnic lunch.

Now I realize, as perhaps some of
you may not, that a field picnic meet-
ing, where there would be more than
there are here, coming by surprise
upon some bee-keeper, and no provi-
sion for dinner — what this would
mean.

If you please, imagine that this
crowd would, next summer on the 20th
of June, pop up at your home for a
field meet, and your Mrs., not know-
ing they were coming, and no prepara-
tion for dinner! Worst of all, to im-
pose upon that good housewife with
our coming there as boarders. Don't
do it! Have field meetings, but have
a picnic lunch brought with it.

We had a convention of over eighty
that continued three days in succes-
sion, but my neighbors turned in and
there was lots of baking being done,
but it meant a lot of extra work.

It is more easy for each of us to
bring our own share and the picnic
feature of it is enjoyable.

Why, in New York, they figure that
it is worth more than the winter meet-
ings.

So far as furnishing the place of
meeting: I believe there are lots of
places that want field meetings in this
state. I know there are a good many
in my state.

I am going to ask an expression here
— ^who would like the field meeting in
your neighborhood?

Mr. Kildow — The President of the
Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association
is figuring on having five field meets
throughout the state this summer, if
they possibly can.

We are going to have this tri-state
meeting of Missouri, Iowa and Illinois,
and I think it will be in the northern
or northwest corner of the state.

We want one on Fox River, some-
where near Aurora.

Mr. Damon — I want to say for Fox
River: We are going to do our best
to have one this coming summer.

Mr. Kildow — We want another one
close to Chicago. We have enough
bee-keepers here to furnish members
enough to beat anything in the state if
they will come out — if we can get a
bee-keepers' yard where we will have
a little room.

The Rockford Convention is a year-
ly concern — the day is not set — that
is left with the committee.

If they can get these field meets
throughout the state it will boost bee-
keeping and put it on a pretty high
plane.

Mr. Brunner — If there are members
living in Chicago and vicinity who are
interested in field meets and who want
a field meeting there undoubtedly arc
others.

I would like to have it settled that
we are going to have a field meet in
Chicago, either under the auspices of
this Association or independently.

I would suggest that now is a good
time to begin to plan for that. If we
want such a committee, let us have a
committee of three or five or what-
ever is necessary, appointed now to
make arrangements to plan for that
field meet.

There is more of an opportunity for
field meetings here in Chicago than
anywhere in the state; we have such
transportation facilities that we can
get anywhere; any of us who are
keeping bees 50 miles from Chicago
can get to field meets here in Chi-
cago conveniently.

I would like to see it arranged for
right now, and have a committee ap-
pointed who will give a little time to
look into it, to get notices to people
likely to be interested, and all other
work necessary in connection with it.

Mr. Kildow — It would be a great
help to the State Association if these
meets were planned ahead, so that it
will give them time to pick out men
to go there; it would be of great ad-
vantage to the State Association.

Mr. Kildow — They have monej- to
spend for this; all we want is the
place.

Mr. Bruner — What time would such
meetings best be held so far as you
know, here in Chicago or vicinity?

Mr. Kildow — I don't know as it

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. :.

137

"makes any difference. There is no
meeting' set — any day.

Mr. Bruner — What is the custom?
We don't know anything' about field
meetings; what is the eustom — what
is the general rule, June or July?

Mr. Kildow — The best time, any-
where from June to as late as the
middle of September.

Mr. France — Before or after your
honey harvest?

Mr. Kildow — July and August seems
to be the best time.

Mr. Bruner — Most of these bee-
keepers in Chicago are situated so that
they could attend a field meeting al-
most any Saturdaj^ afternoon during
the summer, I take it; Saturday would
be the best day in Chicago.

Mr. Chairman, I move the Chair be
■empowered to appoint such a commit-
tee to make those arrangements. A
•committee of five. «

Motion seconded and carried.

President France — I believe, Mr.
Secretary, it would be well to appoint
Mr. Kildow at the head of that; he
can confer with the other committees,
to get outside men.

President France — I will appoint:
Mr. Kildow, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Bruner,
Mr. Bull, Mr. Smith.

President France — One part of that
committee ought to be for publicity,
to look after the advertising in your
various daily papers as well as notices
to individual members — whom can we
get on that?

Please bear in mind, the naming of
a committee is only the beginning; a
committee cannot do it all; they will
do their best to make this field meet
a success, but in order to make it a
success you must not only bring the
Lunch, but come with a spirit of friend-
liness, and try to get some neighbor
bee-keeper to come along with you.

Mr. Wheeler — I think that our Presi-
dent ought to be on that committee.
He has done so fine this time, I don't
believe we can do without him on that
committee, Mr. France.

Mr. Smith — I think it is generally
understood that the President is a
member of all committees, ex-offlcio.

Mr. Kildow — I think you better let
me off that committee and have some
one from Chicago. I think you ought
to have a committee of men close

around Chicago. I do not know the
people around here nor places.

I will do all I can to help them out.
Your members of that committee
ought to be in and close around Chi-
cago; I think you had better let me
off and put some one else in my place.

President France — The only reason
I put you on that committeee — this
committee wants to work in conjunc-
tion with the others; you are in a
place to know the conditions better
than any one.

President France — We have on our
program — "Consideration of Display of
Honey, and Cooking and Baking with
Honey."

If any one has something good to
eat — show it.

My wife put in the better part of a
day getting ready for this; then I came
off without it.

We appreciate the fact that honey
is worth in many ways the value cf
honey in baking and candies, which
has not been generally known.

It is time we educate the consumer
and sell our honey faster. May I say
that one of the things that has helped
to sell my honey product has been to
furnish to each new customer one of
those little booklets giving recipes for
the use of honey jn cooking.

Then there is the follow-up system;
after a person has had that honey for
a short time, say to them — have you
tried any of those recipes? How do

you like Bakings No

and Candies Xo ? We. at home,

think they are pretty good. If you
have not tried them, do so. Say, there
is one which my wife says is so nice;
just add a little more flour in the
making and see if you don't like that
one.

Follow this up; get them to use it.

The first thing you know they are
out of honey, and they will tell you,
"I want a five-gallon can."

As an illustration of how to use
those books — may I give one other:
There was a fund put in my hands for
advertising the use of honey; I came
here to your city and made a display
of honey at the Pure Food Show which
costs, by far, too much, our floor space
in the Coliseum costs us $350 to begin
with, and because of the good gener-
ous hearts of some of your best bee-
keepers, especially Mr. Wheeler, we
made a display costing us $800; and
all we got was a piece of paper — a

138

I^IFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

diploma; there was left $600 unused of
that fund. How could we use it to the
best advantage to get people to use
more honey?

I was three years holding that fund
before I decided how I was going to
use the balance of that $600 to do
somebody some good.

I was requested to use it for an-
other display of honey in Chicago; I
could not see that the display that wu
made sold any honey. I was censured
for not using it. Finally I took it
for these honey booklets. I figured
that, if they had helped me in my sales,
why not buy $600 worth of those book-
lets and give them to the producers.

I submitted the proposition to the
publishers, to learn what they would
furnish me those books for, until I got
the price down very low, and I bought
nearly $600 worth of them, to be given
to bee-keepers if they would pay the
postage on those books from me to
them.

Another thing: Some of us were
anxious to get our portion and have the
books distributed right — so that when
I made that offer I asked, when they
applied for books, that they give me
the number of colonies of bees they
had.

One of the first letters I got was
from a business firm from this city —
with $25.00 included, and they didn't
own a swarm of bees. They wanted
$25.00 worth of those books.

In a way it would look wrong and
unjust to send a man $25.00 worth of
those beeks when I was not going to
allow anyone to have very many of
them.

I at first thought, he cannot have
any — wherein will it do good?

But — he is selling more honey than
any producer I know of; I guess he
had better have part of them, so I
sent him a few books, and the rest of
his money back; I divided the rest out
among the bee-keepers. To get down
to an individual case: A man in Iowa
received twenty-five copies. He wrote
me and said: "I have those books —
and I have all my honey; I cannot sell
it."

"Oh," I said, "Mr. Strong, you put
your light under a bushel. Do your
neighbors know you have those books?
You have not done your part."

'Say, at the suggestion of my bet-
ter half, I am going to say something.
She says, let your family take on page

so and so; and on page so and so, and
try that recipe in their baking. Try
recipe on page so and so in putting up
fruits and preserves with honey; try
making candies sweetened with honey.
Let your wife make those and invite
in your neighbors and have a social
evening, and, if you don't do anything
else, you will have a bigger social
neighborhood — and feed them honey
and baking made with honey."

The result? Seven 5-gallon cans of
honey went out of that house and a lot
of small packages. But the best of
all. He had the Sunday School su-
perintendent there, and the next week
was Christmas week. The superin-
tendent of the Sunday School asked:
"What will you charge to cut a lot of
honey up in square tubes — one for ev-
erybody at the Christmas tree?" And
this he did and he was cute enough to
put Mr. Strong's name with it. He fed
the whole Sunday School — and others
said: "We want some of that," and he
sold' out his honey and wrote to me —
"where can I buy some honey?" That
was sold out, until he bought 8,000
pounds besides his own product.

When we educate the people that
honey is worth something, and demon-
strate it by producing the actual goods,,
then they will want some.

Just along that line — I want to get
home, if ^-ou please, take the after-
noon train tomorrow and be in time
for a meeting of the agriculturists,,
where France will furnish a bush(>l of
apples; I will gladly donate them be-
cause I expect to sell about 20 bushels
afterwards.

Mr. Miller — I appreciate the talk
that the President has made abovit
educating the people to eat honey, but
it seems to me that, while these in-
dividual cases sell lots of honey, there-
are not enough of them.

It seems to me that the most .ef-
fective way to do that is to commence
at the head of the educational de-
partment and work down through all
the people.

I don't believe that my paper was
clear enough about that.

I am going to tell you what we are
going to do:

There are a thousand school teach-
ers that teach cooking in all its de-
partments; they teach the relative
food values of all of these articles
that go into the high schools and
graded schools of the state. Each one

ILLINOIS STAT:^ BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

139

of those schools has a class of any-
where from six to forty young- ladies
who are just beginning to think about
cooking.

Now, all these teachers have a
course of study laid out for them by
the State Superintendent of Public In-
struction and State Superintendent of
Domestic Science, and in that coursa
of studies is laid down what they
should teach that year, and they are
very friendly to teaching something
about honey.

A gentleman said this afternoon that
people would eat what tasted good,
but it is true, too, they eat things that
don't taste very good.

I would like to see a man who says
that breakfast food tastes good, but
they eat it. I would like to see break-
fast food eaten without cream and
sugar. There are a whole string of
breakfast foods, about forty different
kinds, and there are some families
who make a breakfast of it.

Now, then, why do they eat break-
fast foods? Because they are health
foods; then why not eat honey be-
cause it is a health food, and it Is a
good deal better than breakfast foods.

These schools also will teach the
use of honey in cooking if you give
them recipes and instructions.

The Superintendent of Domestic
Science told me she did not know of
any honey recipes being presented to
them, but she did know of hundreds
of other products, for instance: corn
syrups.

If school teachers will teach the
uses of corn syrup, they will teach the
relative value of honey. The beauty
of that is it costs them practically
nothing. It is done by the state for
the benefit of the citizens of the state,
and the instructor is paid by the state.

We do not have to pay for expen-
sive educators and demonstrators;
these teachers will do those things.

Now, our Association sent greetings
to this Association by Dr. Phillips; I
don't know whether he has read them
or not.

This Association is asked to co-
operate with Illinois, Michigan, and
Indiana by appointing committees to
take this matter up with the state
authorities and start the thing going
in this state and vicinity and have
the use of honey placed on the course
of instruction for the Domestic Sci-
ence instructors, and then let these

committees co-operate with one an-
other in the different states.

Next year Indiana will take up the
teaching of the use of honey in her
schools; and, if you will do the same
thing, and Michigan will. Prof.
Yaeger tells me that Minnesota has
appointed him. He delivers one lec-
ture a week before some body of
teachers right along that line, and it
seems to me like that would be one
of the best propositions and best spent
effort that can be made.

Mr. Smith — I believe we ought to
correct the impression that was made,
if there are people who do not know-
all about honey, here.

As brother "Williams said that a
gentleman said this afternoon, people
ate other things because they liked
them; because they liked the taste.

I do not know of a more palatable
food than honey, yet we are leaving
the impression that it compares with
breakfast foods and other things of
that kind.

Mr. Kindig — If it pleases the As-
sociation, I would like to present a
communication from the Indiana Bee-
Keepers' Association:

"Indianapolis, Dec. II, 1915.
"To the Chicago -Northwestern Bee-
Keepers' Association — Greeting:
"The Indiana Bee-Keepers' Associ-
ation in session assembled sends its
warmest greeting, and wishes for
future success to the Chicago-North-
western Bee-Keepers' Association, and
invites their co-operation in a general
effort to have the food value of honey
and its value in cooking taught in the
Domestic Science Departments of the
public schools of the various states."

Mr. Kindig — In that connection, I
do not want to appear to do an ad-
vertising stunt; that is not my in-
tention at all.

But right along this line of cooking
and using honey in food — in cooking
in particular. The idea was conceived
of perfecting an organization which
would look to the advertising of honey
and the furtherance of its uses, leav-
ing out the question of honej' produc-
tion and those kindred subjects that
ordinarily come before a Bee -Keepers'
Association.

This idea has crystallized itself in
the organization in Indianapolis last
week of what is called the United

140

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

Honey Producers of America. That
object is, as stated, to place these mat-
ters before the State Departments of
Instruction or other places where this
information may be properly placed,
with the idea of issuing bulletins
which these departments request, in-
asmuch as they have no definite in-
formation along these lines.

This has been referred to incident-
ally several times today, and I could
but wonder whether many people knew
what was being- talked about when it
was referred to.

I am making these remarks in ex-
planation of some of those things that
are being said.

I am intimately connected with that
Association. I would not for a second
lend my influence or support to an or-
ganization that I- didn't believe had
for the real purpose of its conception,
the benefit of every bee-keeper in this
country.

I believe the time is here for an or-
ganization along those particular lines,
because in an ordinary Bee-Keepers'
Association the scope is well exempli-
fied by our program of today, is to di-
versify. I believe the organization
along these particular lines has a wider
scope. I believe it is something the
larger bee-keepers in particular need
and have needed for a long time.

It is my hope that this organization
may prove to be that which is most
desired by so many.

President France — Shall we have the
Question Box, or what is your pleasure?

Mr. Bull — Let's have a few questions
to wake us up and get things going
well.

Mr. Miller — I would like to ask a
question: When you put that queen
excluder in between the bottom hive
and the next one, as I understand it
you give them two hive bodies early
in the season. When do you separate
the two?

President France — I never separate
the two; I raise the two up and put
the other below and put the excluder
there, putting all but one above the ex-
cluder. The queen is below at the time
I make this transfer; she is put down
below the wood and wire excluder.

Just a word in behalf of that wood
and wire excluder: the more wires j^ou
can get and the less wood you have,
the better.

If it were not for the cost, I would

like to have that whole excluder wire,
with that cross bar to hold it the prop-
er distance.

The more wires there are the quick-
er the bees go down and out through
them the better, and the more hind-
rance we have through that, the less
profits the bees make; and if you
please, come back to the old perforated
zinc, it is the best thing I ever heard
of to create swarming; it will create
swarming quicker than anything I ever
found in manipulating a hive of bees.

Now with the new ones, they will go
up so quickly, they hardly realize there
is anything in the way, and your honey
goes above leaving the queen below.

A member — About what time in the
year do you put that excluder in?

President France — About the time the
first clover is beginning to yield a little
honey.

Mr. Wheeler — Do you get wire the
right size to permit the workers to go
through without the queen?

Mr. President — As made by our sup-
ply men; the more wires you can get,
the better; make seven wires, a little
strip of wood, then seven more wires,
with cross bars to hold those wires the
proper distance apart.

The old one was three wires, then a
strip of wood, then three wires with a
strip of wood; I let those go to the
neighbors.

I wish I could get those that are all
wire; they are still better.

Mr. Kildow — When you put that ex-
cluder between and brood above and
the queen in one comb below, do you
have to watch queen cells?

President France — Not over ten days
after this transfer, go through one and
remove the queen cells.

With my yards away from home;
they are all away from home (I gave as
a wedding present 150 swarms and the
use of my home apiary). I think we
have had three swarms in the different
yards this summer in that way of man-
ipulating, and only going to them a
few times.

We had an ideal year for rain, but
not for honey. The flowers cannot
yield very much when we have rain
and cold weather.

If you will remove the cause for
swarming, before the swarming fever
has taken place, there ought not to be
any swarming; if you wait until the
queen cells are well developed and the

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

141

swarming impulse already pregnanted
through the whole hive, I don't know
as you can in any way eradicate it in
that last hour.

Mr. Wheeler — Could you not set
those two upper hive bodies off for a
few days and on new bottom and let
them destroy the queen cells?

President France — We could but we
don't know whether it would be of any
advantage to us; we want to do the
work of the whole yard that day and
go home.

Mr. Wheeler — Are you sure of find-
ing the queen cells in those upper
stories?

President France — That is why we
had a swarm; two queen cells were
skipped.

Mr. Coppin — You put the queen i'a
the lower chamber?

President France — Yes.

Mr. Coppin — Does that not cause the
bees to build queen cells above?

President France — Generally; a big
colony of bees; not as quick if you
have wood and wire as they would if
you have zinc.

Mr. Coppin — I have had them, es-
pecially with wood, we had queen ex-
cluder a number of years ago of wood,
I have had them stop it up entirelj\

Mr. Miller — My experience this past
season has been different than for-
merly; the bees do not do the same
thing one year that they do the next.
I found the queen below one franie of
brood the early part of June; it was
only three or four weeks before they
were ready to swarm again.

I fixed them up in July and in the
latter part of August they swarmed
again.

I thought I had them fixed so they
would not swarm the rest of the sea-
son; they fooled me.

Mr. Wheeler — Probfably had the old
queen.

Mr. Kindig — I would like to ask you
a question about producing extracted
honey.

Do you find it of any particular ad-
vantage, and worth the extra work,
to try to keep your extracted combs
free from ever having brood raised in
them ?

Just keep them for nothing but
extracted? Never let the queen in?

President France — I have often
thought I wished I could but I don't.

Mr. Kindig — Do you think it is
worth while for a real practical bee-
keeper to try it?

President France — We have one man
in our state who has taken, I think,
as many, if not more, first premiums
at our State Fair, who is a man of
careful manipulation, w^hof has hun-
dreds of combs that have never raised
any brood in them.

They look better than mine which
have had some brood in, but I have
just as good honey, but I do think that
if we take old combs, or combs that
have been used repeatedly over and
over for brood, you will not get
as ideal choice honey as combs that
have never had brood in at all, and,
by raising one or two sets of brood in
them, that cocoon lining will
strengthen that comb by which it will
stand rough usage in the extractor.

Mr. Wheeler — I have six or eight
hundred supers made out of the old
Heddin comb honey super 4 1-4 inches
deep inside the frame. They are the
nicest thing I ever used for extracting
honey. I put one on and raise it up
and put another under it and keep
building it up. It makes a very nice
comb to get extracted honey in.

I w'ould not use a wide frame at
all because j'ou get more or less brood
unless you use the extractor. A queen
seems to like a frame 8 inches deep
for breeding; a four or five inch frame
they very seldom brood in.

Mr. Bull — In my extracting combs
I never have much brood; use the 8
inch frame and 10 inch super over
excluders. I prefer those combs to
those that have brood in; I don't
have any trouble with uncapping. I
have a spacing arrangement — as fast
as they come out of - tlie extractor I
put them in the super; I nail a cleat
across the frames on either end; a
spacer 3-4 inch.

I never touch those frames again
until they are filled with honey; never
take them out of the supers.

I load those supers on the truck
and take them out and put them on,
and when they are full I take them
back in again and never take the
frame out.

Mr. Wheeler — I am in the same boat
with Mr. Bull; I use the excluder and
there is no chance for brood above.

President France — Mr. Bull, in re-
gard to that spacing on the sides of

142

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

the frame, you have these strips nailed
that hold it a proper distance?

Mr. Bull — My spacing is on top.
Nail two strips across the top of your
frame, brood frames and extracting
frames the same. In ordinary hand-
ling those frames will never budge;
I use strips of strong enough wood.

I take those strips off at once "With-
out pulling any nails; it is tough wood,
it won't break.

I can extract honey as fast as a
boj- can take those off.

President France — In the moving of
your bees to and from the yards, do
you put something oyer the entrance
to keep your bees from flying?

Mr. Bull — No, sir, I leave my en-
trance wide open; I prefer to move to
the outyard the last week in April, the
fewest bees and less honey in your
hive just before a new hatch of bees
comes in. Three weeks after you take
your bees from the cellar. Then most
of your old bees have died off and the
young bees have not hatched; there
are very few bees in the way.

I have my bottom boards fastened
to the hive; I use 5 -penny nails on
each side and nail that cover down on
the hive; use a little smoke at the en-
trance; get on the truck; crank up, and
away I go. If cool enough weather, if
around 40 degrees, I move in day-
light; the same way in moving the
bees home in the fall in November, 40
degrees F. ; go to your yard, nail on
the bottom boards and cover, smoke
a little bit at the entrance, put them on
your truck — and as long as you keep
moving those bees will not go out.

You can drive where you want to go
and set them off.

Mr. Wheeler — He must have quieter
bees than I have; I tried that and I
had all sorts of experiences. Neigh-
bors along the road on each side got
stung for days afterwards. I cannot
keep them in the hives that way — and
a stray bee that has gotten out of the
hive and lost along the road is the ug-
liest critter.

Mr. Bull — If you use not enough
smoke, the bees will go out; and if you
use too much they will go out; you
have to use it just right.

Mr. Miller — I use a little cotton and
it saves any of the bees going out. I
prefer to move in the daytime.

President France — You close the en-
trance ?

Mr. Miller — I put a little cotton in the
entrance. I buy a roll of cotton for
ten cents, take a hive tool and push in
a little cotton I usually close them up
before moving.

President France — Do you use that
cotton dry or damp?

Mr. Miller — Dry; I have moved them
like Mr. Bull does, without anything,
but sometimes, if strong colonies, they
will come out. It takes about an hour
to move fifteen miles.

President France — In California,
where the weather is quite warm, they
move there three and sometimes four
times in the season, for change of pas-
ture, in the valleys, up in the flats, and
have a few hills, and back again; it is
a warm climate; they have rough roads,
and have to be shut up a considerable
length of time, and they have to put
something at the entrance so the bees
can't get out; they use a screen, leav-
ing plenty of air space. (Illustrating.)

We find that it is an excellent way
to move bees; you can slip that on
there when there are no bees in or out
of the entrance, and we use three-
penny nails.

Although we may be a long time on
the road, moving from one outyard to
another, sometimes it has been done
later than Mr. Bull does; we give them
no chance to leave and no chance for
smothering.

Mr. Bull — I don't want te move any
bees in hot weather. I use a two-
story hive and leave the super on and
moving screen on top of that and close
my entrance tight and get my ventila-
tion from the top; if the ventilation is
not enough' and they are on the road
any length of time, I use water.

The entrance block I use is different
from anything I have seen; I guess
it is not complicated enough for sup-
ply dealers. It is a board or block 15%
inches long and thickness of entrance
% inch one way and 15-16 inch the
other. Slip that in the hive and slip
the hive head on your bottom board
% inch; in that way you will have
enough projection to hold that cleat in.

Mr. Wheeler — I have a way of my
own of shutting my bees in. I use a
4-inch rim with ac screen under it.
When I set them in the wagon or auto-
mobile, I have a strip .% inch thick
under the screen. I cover everything
over with a thin cloth; I don't allow
a bee to escape from the time I leave

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

143

home until I get to where I am going.
That is my system; summer or win-
ter; I move all times of the year.

Mr. Bull — I never use a cloth and
don't want to. I want something pretty
solid; I use a screen made of double
lath, nailed on with either four- or
five-penny nails — four nails.

Mr. Bruner — Would you undertake
to move more than four or five miles
w^ithout the entrance being closed, and
how long would it be safe to stop under
ordinary conditions at 40 degrees tem-
perature?

Mr. Bull — Leave your motor run-
ning; stop as long as you please.

I would not want to even start the
machine without going around and
smoking these colonies, not for one or
two minutes, and start again.

When you get into your yard, ready
to unload, you have to handle those
hives carefully before you get through.

I would not attempt, with open en-
trances, to ever stop my motor from
the time I start until the bees are
ready to unload.

Mr. Wheeler — What if your motor
stops?

Mr. Bull — You will have to smoke
them.

Mr. Coppin^ — My idea is that it is the
best way to fasten up the entrance
with screen wire like you were repre-
senting there. When the weather is
hot, a screen over the top as well. We
are liable to get accidents on the road
and the bees would be let out if the
entrances were left open.

A number of times by the time I
have got away on the road I have
found bees enough out without leav-
ing any out.

Question: What is a first class up-
to-date bee-keeper?

Mr. Kildow — One who makes a suc-
cess of it.

Mr. Wheeler — One who can keep
bees without doing any work.

Question: What are the advantages
and disadvantages of the Pearce sys-
tem of bee-keeping?

President France — Has there any
any one here used it?

Mr. Kildow — That means queen
rearing, does it not?

Mr. Kindig — I never tried it and I
am not going to either. I find it costs
enough to buy equipment for ordinary

bee-keeping equipment. If you are
going to keep two or three hundred
colonies of bees, what an outlay you
would have to have, all those build-
ings, all that would have to be estab-
lished in connection with this Pearce
system of bee-keeping.

It seems to me that any one in
business for a financial profit — the fact
you have got to build a cow barn in
order to hold them, looks to me as
though that would discount it on the
face of it.

Mr. Bull — In regard to that Pearce
system of bee-keeping: That was
discussed pretty well at the Michigan
Convention. Nobody had much to say
for it except the inventor of it.

President France — I don't know
whether it is possible to bring up more
subjects or not, when we are tired.

To make tomorrow a successful
meeting, and in order to be home to
another meeting at the last hour to-
morrow night, my only show will be
to leave on the four o'clock train,
getting home at 10:30, pretty late hour
to go into an assembled body.

I want to make tomorrow's meeting,
if you please, a hummer; something
this is worth our while. We have fired
at random todaj'; some thoughts 1
hope will land where they will prove
worth something to us.

Various subjects have been taken
up. My crank idea this year has been
to advocate better brood — young
queens; if that is worth your while
to think of that subject later on, all
right.

This idea of painting comb founda-
tion. If you have not tried it, do so.

If you have not tried the wire
screen bee escape, do so.

When a man like Mr. Holterman
will lay aside all the others — in its
favor; and others say it is worth
three of the old ones — it is worth pay-
ing attention to.

Some of these new ideas may not
meet with our approval, but let us
not go back on them if they will im-
prove our conditions.

Prove them out in your locality and
surrounding conditions; our pasture,
our forage, the condition surrounding
our individual yards, is what we must
be guided by.

I hope that no one would under-
take to imitate my methods until thej'
have proven that those things were
practical in their own home locality.

144

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

I believe it would be better that we
hold these Questions, and make to-
morrow's meeting begin early. I am
one of those unfortunate fellows who
was brought up on a farm and get up
early. Let us stand adjourned, but
come early in the morning.

MORNING SESSION.

December ISth, 9:30 a. m.

President France — The business por-
tion of our meeting need take but
little time this morning. If our Sec-
retary is ready with his report we will
hear it at this time.

Mr. Bruner:
Received from the former Sec-
retary $ 5.36

Mr. Charles Becker, for stamps
and other expenses that the

state paj's 17.75

Dues from members to date.... 42.50
(That includes those received up
to this moment.)

Total receipts $65 . 61

Of which $3.00 have been trans-
mitted to Mr. Stone for dues in the
National; the balance still in my pos-
session.

There has been nothing paid out; I
have the bills:

For stamps $21.01

For printing $23.50

President France — Just a Avord in
explanation:. How much dues per
member are you taking?

Mr. Bruner — $1,50, of which I under-
stand $1,00 goes to the State and $.50
is retained by the Chicago-North-
western.

President France — No dues for the
National?

Mr. Bruner — This is as I understand
it.

Mr. Kannenberg — We have not de-
cided what we are going to do about'
joining the National or State.

Mr. Bruner — It is for the members
to say what they are going to do with
the dues that have been paid in; I
have the dues, $1.50.

President France — These series of
meetings — State Conventions: There
have been within the last two weeks
Conventions in Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and the
Illinois State and the Michigan; they
have all withdrawn from membership
in the National.

They do not seem to be much in
sympathy with continuing membership.
We are really a part of the Illinois
State, yet we have been an independ-
ent branch of the National, sending'
delegates from he^e direct to the last
National meeting.

Mr. Wheeler — My dues run out in.
February for the National, so I am
really a member of the National yet, I
suppose.

President France — So long as you
are paid up to —

President France — The report as
read will be turned over to the Audit-
ing Committee, who can look it over
and report before the close of the
meeting.

Mr. Kannenberg — Mr. Coppin — Mr.
Wheeler — Auditing Committee.

President France — A letter from
Doctor Miller, which has come in, in-
cludes $1.50 to pay his dues — so you see
he is not a National member under
that condition; $1.00 to the State and
50 cents to the Chicago -Northwestern.

He says: "Until today I had not
given up the hope that I might be
with you. I am just getting over three
weeks' siege of the grippe and I don't
dare to go. Greetings to the crowd.
How I would like to see you all.

C. C. MILLER."

President France — I would suggest
that our Resolution Committee remem-
ber Dr. C. C. Miller in their report.
Also the Dadants. They would have
been here but there is sickness in their
family and they cannot get away.

One other thing that has come to
us that perhaps it would be well at this
time to consider:

When better living — more economic
living — is being given consideration,
and the manufacturers of our different
food products are taking advantage of
these conditions; and are seeing that
their line of food is among those which
are considered by our economic in-
structors : I don't think there has been
any effort made to bring to their view
the fact that honey should come into
that list.

Syrups of different types — ^breakfast
foods and other articles of consump-
tion are being pushed and attention
to them is being brought to bear on
these economic instructors.

I believe the time is ripe when honey
should have its place among and in

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

145

that class of foods — and there is no
better way to bring this to bear that
I know of, as an Association, than to
have a committee.

I believe that, as long as Indiana has
taken the pains to pass these resolu-
tions and have a committee of three
from Indiana, the Chicago-Northwes-
tern should appoint a committee to
operate with them, and that this is our
duty.

Now I would like expressions from
any one here in regard to this mat-
ter.

Mr. Smith — It seems to me that that
is one of the best things that has
been advocated since I have been at-
tending these meetings.

There is a chance to see some ef-
fective advertising — advertising that
will last for almost all time to come,
and advertising that will mean some-
thing to the consumer as well as to
the purchaser.

We are benefiting everybody; we are
benefiting the teacher by giving her
a broader knowledge of food products.
We are benefiting the person who eats
the product so I think whatever steps
are necessary for this Association to
take should be taken.

Mr. Stewart — What are you going to
do without money to do all that? You
want a committee to work for noth*
ing? They won't work very well un-
less you pay them for their time and
their outlays; you have to have money
to do it or it won't work very well.

Mr. Kannenberg — If the committee
is appointed to see these teachers in
the high schools and in those schools
where the teaching is taught I think
the committee don't need much print-
ing and such things as that as long
as they are acquainted with the high
school teachers and those who do the
teaching.

Mr. Smith — Tou don't need to know
a single high school teacher in the
city of Chicago; all you have to do
is to reach the man, the Superintend-
ent, and lay the facts before him, and
it will go to the teachers. If we can
convince that man that we are all
right, he will soon convince his em-
ployees.

It requires but ten cents car-
fare and a half hour's time to go down
and see the Superintendent.

This Association should put in the
bands of such a committee as they

—10

appomt, reliable information that is
printed on the subject, so that they
can take it home any evening and get
it together in readable and present-
able form; get an audience ■with Mr.
Shoop of ten or fifteen minutes and
present their proposition to him, and
the work is done.

Mr. Bruner — So far as this concerns
the schools of the city of Chicago,
there is a supervisor of Household
Arts who happens to be a lady. The
Board of Education have practically
nothing to say as to what is done in
these different courses of this sort ex-
cept to iO. K. what is recommended to
them. The Supervisor of Household
Arts has nothing to say, except to O.
K. or turn down what is recommended
to her.

That whole thing is in charge pri-
marily of a committee of teachers.

It is that committee that must be
reached. Not the Supervisor of House-
hold Arts, the Board of Education, or
the Superintendent, but that committee
is the prime mover of anything that
has to do with the changing of courses
as it is laid out in the schools.

We have to get to that committee — ■
to the Supervisor, and then to the
Board, but primarily the essential
thing is the committee that has charge
of what shall be done in this course.

So much have I been informed by
the teachers in the machine, and, be-
lieve me, the machine of the Board of
Education of Chicago is a wonderful
organization.

We have, in this city, about 350 pub-
lic schools — in the city of Chicago. In
each of these schools there is any-
where from, say, two teachers to three
or four dozen; there are thousands of
teachers in the city of Chicago; they
spend millions of dollars every year;
perhaps millions of dollars every
month, I think they do. It is a won-
derfully big organization; and it has
to be systematized and specialized, and
this committee has to be seen, that will
handle the getting of this on the
course, and I believe that is something
aside from the school board of the
state. The Chicago School Board is so
large it does business practically for
itself.

One to take care of the city of Chi-
cago and one to take care of the state
as a whole. I am not sure of that.

Mr. Smith — Of course they are two

146

, FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

entirely separate bodies, the state
schools and the city of Chicago, but
the city schools of Chicago are con-
trolled by one man. You get into poli-
tics and you go still back of Mr. Shoop
to find the controlling force. You can
waste weeks, working on committees
where you can accomplish, in ten min-
utes, your purpose, if you can reach
the man who controls that committee.

If the man who appointed that com-
mittee will give you a letter of intro-
duction, or will call the principal mem-
ber of that committee and say: "Give
this committee an interview," it is all
done; that is the way politics are
worked.

Mr. Bruner — That is correct, but we
have to get to that committee.

Mr. Kannanberg — That is only meant
for Chicago. In the suburbs, they are
not managed by the Chicago Superin-
tendent; they have their own Super-
intendent and teachers for their cook-
ing and such things as that.

When the committee is appointed,
there should be one for here (Chicago)
and one for the suburbs; the suburbs
should be taken care of. It is more ad-
visable to have the suburbs coming in
than Chicago; both should be in. I do
not think it would take so much effort
In the suburb to reach the head as in
Chicago, because it is more politics in
Chicago than in the suburbs.

President France — I will ask our
Secretary, Mr. Bruner — Mr. Miller — Mr.
Smith to act on that committee. Then,
to go out in the suburbs, for that side
of it, Mr. Bull — Mr. Coppin.

As I understand, the committee from
Indiana are ready to confer with this
committee as to what action to take;
and I think it should be wise for these
two committees, before leaving, to co-
operate and get some system by which
you can put this thing into movement.

Mr. Miller — I would, very much, like
to have you put some one else on that
committee in my place, because it
would be impossible for me to take
care of that work. There are others
who live in the city. I am not per-
sonally acquainted with conditions in
the city; others, who live here, can do
more and give more time.

President France — The reason I se-
lected you was for outside of the city
element. We are trying to cover more
than just Chicago, if possible.

President France — The next num-

ber on our program: The report of the
Delegate of the last National Conven-
tion —

By the way, let us make that Ques-
tion Box a hummer!

This other subject: How to make
our Association more valuable to its
members. I don't know but I am going
to impose a little:

When we take a subject of this na-
ture, and reflect back to what our Chi-
cago-Northwestern Conventions have
been — what they are — and what they
possibly are going to be — may I say, it
looks like there is a decline. That real
enthusiasm and house rousing, full of
good spirit and interest that was
shown in the former Conventions. It is
not the fault of the few, who are here,
but it is the man who does not come.

I really feel lonesome in that many
of the old faces I used to meet year
after year, though age and fatality
have taken some away, will never be
with us — but the young and coming
generations are not here. The old heads
are few indeed whom I used to meet
when I came to the first meetings in
Chicago. Now it is up to us — how can
we make this Association of more
value to its members?

Mr. Baxter has just come in, and I
believe in putting every one to work.
Mr. Baxter, can you tell us — how can
we be of more value to one another?

Mr. Baxter — I don't know how we
can; I surely would like to be with
you more often than I am, but circum-
stances prevent it.

I am all alone at home.' I just hap-
pened to get here today, although I
got up at four o'clock this morning to
get my train, which was late,

Mr. Dadant is detained at home on
account of illness in his home. The
Dadants asked me to give their regards
to this Convention.

I do not understand why it is that
bee-keepers don't attend these meet-
ings more often, because it is to their
advantage and to their interest. These
meetings are held for their special
benefit, and I do not care how much
they know or think they know they
cannot mingle with other bee-keepers
or with horticulturists without gain-
ing some knowledge of some kind.

It is to their interest to attend these
meetings, but somehow they don't
seem to realize it. Some say, "I know
all about this and don't have to at-
tend the Bee-Keepers' Conventions to

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

147

learn" — those people are self-satisfied
and the result is, they never make
good; that is the long and the short
of it.

Mr. Stewart — I think one reason Is,
because you do not make it interesting
to the rank and file of bee-keepers. It
is more interesting to somebody else;
the rank and file do not come.

Mr. Miller — How would you do it?

Mr. Stewart — I don't know.

Mr. Bruner — I do not know anything
about Association work or about As-
sociation work in particular, but I did
find that I was made Secretary of this
Association when I was not here; I
did not know about it until the meet-
ing was over. I found that we had
about twenty men that were paying
dues into the Chicago -Northwestern
Association, and a list of 150 men that,
at one time or another, paid dues,
about half of whom had been deceased
or had moved to Colorado or Michigan
or somewhere else.

That is the basis that I found when
I got time to do a little work here;
about twenty men, who always came
and could always be depended upon,
and the rest, about half of them de-
ceased or gone to other parts of the
country.

I did not get started at this; I have
two businesses to take care of. I got
a list of men I presume is fairly ac-
curate, or was ten or fifteen years ago,
of bee-keepers of northern Illinois,
northern Indiana and southern Wis-
consin, who ought to be interested in
this movement.

I sent part of those men notices of
this meeting too late; I could not 'get
to them earlier. I had a girl work-
ing with me; we worked pretty faith-
fully getting out notices and putting
up copy for the printer about three
weeks.

What is the result? Mr. Stewart is
right; it is not made interesting
enough for these men; how can we
make it interesting, until we know the
men?

I mailed to 1,000 bee-keepers, in-
quiries asking them to give me the
names of bee-keepers in their district;
I got one card out of that lot up until
yesterday; yesterday I got a list of
about forty men; some of them may
be new names.

We have to have co-operation, gen-
tlemen, and we cannot do anything

as a Convention and as an Association,
unless we get together and do some-
thing. No one man can handle this
thing.

See if we cannot make this Chicago-
Northwestern Association worth while.
Chicago is a marketing center for all
honey that cannot be sold at home.
There is a field for work here for the
Chicago-Northwestern such as no other
Association has. Do we want to do
that work?

It is not a question of how we can
make the Association a benefit to our-
selves. The biggest field for any As-
sociation in the country is ours, out-
side of the National.

Do we want to do anything; that is
the question.

We can help each other and help
ourselves, if we will only get at it and
do it.

If we want to help locally the bee-
keepers in this vicinity, let us have
their names.

It is proposed that the Field Meets
are going to help the members and
those who ought to be members of this
Association.

There are other things that ought to
be done, the educational proposition is
a good one.

The Chicago dailies are read all over
this territory for 500 miles around Chi-
cago. There is no nationality any-
where but what has a daily paper
printed in Chicago besides the Eng-
lish papers.

Is anybody doing anything to keep
honey before the public here, such as
can be done without any cost? The
newspapers and reporters are looking
for news. Each paper has a page de-
voted to how to cook things — how to
keep well; every little while an article
could be slipped into any or all of these
papers; there are brains enough in this
room to write up those articles and
get them to these papers every month,
or to the press association They are
looking for these things — and are put-
ting the opportunity up to us.

An Aurora Association is just being
formed; a local association of bee-
keepers. I cannot imagine what they
are forming an Association there for,
unless it is because the Northwestern
is not doing anything.

Mr. Williams — ^In the last two years
I have had occasion to have extensive
correspondence with bee-keepers over
the United States. This condition has

148

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

been very forcibly brought home to my
observation — lack of attendance in the
association meetings in particular.

Now we will have to realize one
thing. Conditions are changing — they
are changing from the older conditions
to the newer; the older bee-keepers
and their policies and practices and
ideals are dropping out of sight with
the disappearance of the older bee-
keepers, which is occurring now very
rapidly, I am sorry to say.

The younger bee-keepers, who are
to be responsible for the policies in the
years to come, are mostly untried, and
the old ideals do not appeal to them.
I will tell you why: In the first place
the older beekeeper can make a liv-
ing They use bee-keeping as a side
line to some extent; and the income
was sufficient at that time from the
bees to keep them comfortably and
they did not require so much money
to keep the famil3'.

At the present time the income re-
quired is larger, and it seems to me it
is lack of constructive work that will
appeal to these younger bee-keepers —
I believe, if some constructive lines of
w^ork are taken up, it would appeal to
these younger bee-keepers.

I have analyzed the matter pretty
thoroughly; I have thousands of let-
ters from bee-keepers all over the
United States.

I think it is the change in the con-
ditions that is making the attendance
slim and the lack of constructive poli-
cies that is keeping the younger peo-
ple from taking active part; 1 think
that is the solution.

Mr. Damon — One reason for the lack
of interest in the Association is be-
cause we meet only once a year.

I am a member of a new Association
— the Fox River Bee -Keepers' Associa-
tion; we have fifty people in the vicin-
ity of Aurora who are keeping bees.-
Well, we have gotten a little dose of
American foul brood, and, by the way,
that is one of the things that brought
us together — to fight it.

Another thing, we formed this with
the idea of meeting once in two weeks
or once a month, to keep up interest. I
think, in the different small places
around where a half dozen get together
and form a social association of this
sort, that it will keep up interest in
the larger organizations.

I think it rests more with the indi-
vidual. People say, "There is an offi-

cial appointed to take care of that
work" — where, if the individual would
do more of this work and help them,
I think it would help a good deal.

Mr. Baxter — I can't let the remarks'
of brother Williams go unchallenged.
I have been attending these meetings
for thirty- five years — I met here thirty-
five years ago with the Northwestern
in the fall of 1883, and the interest in
that day was far greater than it was
today, and a great many more mem-
bers were here.

Those were the days of Heddin and
Miller and a host of others.

Mr. Baldridge, I met him the first
time then.

Those were live days. We made prog-
ress, too. I believe in progression; but
I believe the methods of today are not
much ahead of those days.

I made^'alCi much money thirty-five
years ago, wei- ^colony, as I do today,
and I have made some pretty good
crops, I tell you.

Take the National: The National
was a National in those days.

Under the management of Thomas
G. Newman and our President, we had
a different National than we have to-
day.

If you want to build up your so-
cieties j'ou want somebody at the head
c^f t-iiem that will work, because it is
lots of work —

Not only must those at the head
work, but each and every member must
work. We must try to spread the mem-
bership as much as possible.

In- addition to having your annual
winter meeting, it is necessary, I be-
lieve, to have summer meetings, to
arou§e enthusiasm and show the mem-
tmrs what can be done.

Many of these bee-keepers, although
they c^.re bee-keepers, they don't know
the possibilities of their vocation. I
believe that is the only true way of
getting at it.

Mr. Williams — I believe Mr. Baxter
misunderstood me. I did not want to
cast any reflections. We know the
meetings of twenty or thirty years ago
were better. The old bee-keepers were
full of enthusiasm and had big meet-
ings, and they deserve the credit. They
were progressive, but, as I say, and it
if! a fact, not a theory, that the older
bee-keepers are missing; a great many
of them are not with us; and we miss
them. We have not anybody to take
their place, yet. Those who are with

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

149

us are all right, but they lack num-
bers, and our new bee-keepers, now, are
not the men — we do not have the men
we had thirty years ago.

Policies are changed; people are
changing; times are changing, and,
with this change, the younger people
have not found themselves yet. When
they find the right policies I believe
they will take up progressive, con-
structive policies that will arouse en-
thusiasm anri increase the attendance
3) tiiese meetings.

The old bee-keepers: I take off my
hat to them; to such men as Doctor
:«^.ijler and all those people, and they
have been faithful and all that, but
time will conquer all of us eventually.

Mr. Burnett — It seems to me that, if
the bee-keepers would make a sort of
school of their bee yards and invite
their neighbors to come in, and manip-
ulate colonies for their interest, it
would create much interest in bee-
keeping.

At my yard, in Lake Geneva, when I
was there, I had at least 100 every
summer, who came to my yard to see
me handle the bees, and they became
very much interested, and, at times,
I almost felt as though I would deplete
my yards in selling colonies of bees,
they were so interested in bee-keep-
ing.

Such individuals would become mem-
bers of an association like this very
soon.

I think if bee-keepers generally'
would invite their neighbors in to see
them work among their bees, it would
create more interest all over the coun-
try in bee-keeping.

Mr. Stewart — 35 years ago bee-keep-
ing — bee-keepers were just learning
and every man had something to tell
and was glad to tell it; he was chock
full of it. Today if he learns some-
thing about bee-keeping, he keeps it
to himself; he doesn't tell anybody
ataoiit his business any more.

Mr. Smith — I think that is because
he has gotten old and selfish. Young
hlood I believe will be glad to impart
the knowledge they can get, if we can
get them here. I do not want to re-
flect on old men — the color of my
beard will excuse me in anything I
say.

I find one of the hardest things we
have to do in life is to keep ourselves
in sympathy with young people. I

never come to one of these meetings
but what I get enough information to
pay me for a week's time, and I don't
use it in the bee yard, either, I use
it simply as a matter of knowledge.

Whenever we get a spare dollar w^e
have to spend it somewhere. Some
buy furniture, some buy a suit of
clothes, while others put it into knowl-
edge; we all have to put it some-
where, and eventually we have to
leave it all; but the education I get
at this meeting is worth more to me
than ten times the cost.

I could name five or six points of
information of scientific value, enough
to pay me for a week's time.

All we need to do is to get this in-
formation out to the young bee-keepers
and get them to come here, and then
we will get more information — they
are learning.

A boy twelve years old stud5ang
bee-keeping for a year may tell us
something we do not know.

We have learned that we can can
our food and thus keep it.

Men observed the bee doing that
thing for 5,000 years before he had
sense enough to understand what the
little bee was doing.

I can remember when my grand-
mother didn't know anything about
canning fruit, and, when they learned
it, they learned it from the bee; they
took the material the bee manufac-
tured in order to can our food to keep
it; beeswax and rosin, and sealed it
up.

There are a number of other lessons
that a twelve-year-old boy, if he is a
student, might happen on to one of
those discoveries.

It seems to me we might fill a room
three times this size if a little ad-
vertising was done with the nature
study class of the city of Chicago.
Thousands of dollars are spent by
nature study teachers. No field is so
rich in nature study as the study of
the bee.

Mr. Kindig — I would like to take
issue with Mr. Stewart as to the bee-
keeper not telling what he knows. I
have run across lots of them, and I
have yet to find the man who really
knew who would not tell. The fel-
low that does not know, he hides the
little light he has under a bushel, and
he tells you that is his secret, but the.
man who really knows, if you go to
him and ask him, he will tell you.

150

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

I don't think we ought to come to
this meeting with pessimistic ideas;
we come here to learn.

President France — The discussion
on this subject is all well, but the
question is — are we going to do any-
thing? Are we going to make an ef-
fort to make the next Chicago-North-
western reflect back on the good old
days?

What can or will we do? It may
be a long way to reach it, but I be-
lieve brother Whitney has one good
suggestive idea — we should get our
vicinity interested. Some one will
say, hold on, you are going to get
new bee-koeners. Somebody has
to follow in line, and, although there
is a good deal to be studied and
weighed out on the proposition given
us yesterday by Dr. Phillips, that
future day when we will have more
bee-keeping, more bees, more honey,
and nearly double the price for the
product — there is a whole lot between
now and that condition.

And I assure you that Dr. Phillips
has not made that statement but what
he has thoroughly weighed it.

The fact now is that we are loading
up people with honey; we are trying
to get them to buy all they will take
— to consume all they can; there is
the danger point. We are liable in
many cases to overload an individual
stomach; nature rebels against taking
an overload, and what is the result?
Lack of taste for that article for some
time to come.

W^e better do as Mr. Baldridge is
doing; he will not allow- a customer to
have over a certain amount of honey,
and the result is, those same custo-
mers are sticking j-ear after year, and
paying him the same price for comb
or extracted honey: take your choice.

I have been offered, by wholesale
men, to. take my entire crop of honey-
for the same price as I sell to the
consumer.

They are my customers, who will
stay by me. It is convenient some-
times to unload your whole crop at one
time, to the wholesale man; he is look-
ing only at the business end of it; next
year, if your price is low enough to
suit him, he is your customer — but the
consumer who gets in the habit of us-
ing a certain grade ^f honey, a cer-
tain grade of good goods, and he knows
where he can get it, year after year —
they are the market.

But to go back to this topic. What is
this Association going to do, as an or-
der or individual members, to bring it
up in its meetings; to bring it to the
point of actual business? If anyone
has any method w-hich they can sug-
gest that would bring about this re-
sult, we would like to hear it.

Mr. Williams — I was to the Michigan
Association this week.

They had 150 members there. I asked
the Secretary how they man-aged to get
that number. They were enthusiastic.
They had a table the full length of the
room. Doctor Phillips was there, and
he, probably, can tell you more of the
particulars than I.

I saw three medals — one gold, one
silver, one bronze.

Those medals were given into the
keeping of three people that brought
the best exhibits there. I do not know
exactly what the exhibits w^ere, but
the facts were, they are very nice ex-
hibits and created a great deal of in-
terest.

I understand that any one, who gets
permanent possession of those medals,
has to earn them for three years in
succession.

But the idea is: It keeps them go-
ing after it, not only this year, but
next year. One man suggested that
each member bring a ton of honey.

At any rate, they had the assurance
of a great big show of honey next year.

They propose to get out on some of
the business places and have a public
demonstration; have two nicely dressed
ladies, and perform manipulation and
show honey to the crowd that will be
there, and make those plans for pub-
licity.

They are expecting a big attendance
next year. They are taking up some-
thing new that is progressive.

The women brought their cakes — the
boys brought their wax — the men
brought their honey — and I don't know-
all what they did not bring. It w'as not
extensive in amount but quite exten-
sive in variety of number of exhibits.

Doctor Phillips can tell you more
about it than I.

Dottor Phillips — I would like to say
something about that. It was a tre-
mendously interesting innovation in
Conventions.

The number of classes — fifteen.
There were, I believe, two awards on
each class, and then of those who got

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

151

the largest number of total awards, the
three medals were given out, to remain
In the custody of these bee-keepers
for a period of one year.

This is the first time the medals
were given, and really it had a remark-
able effect on the members. They
realized they wanted to get these med-
als, and they brought their exhibits,
and excitement ran very high when
they were given.

The object of the exhibit was pri-
marily educational, educational to the
bee-keepers themselves because the
exhibits were very carefully judged by
three excellent men — Mr. Holterman
and Mr. Woodman of Grand Rapids,
and another.

The bee-keeper could see from the
awards how he ought to fix up his
honey for exhibition purposes and for
grading purposes, in order to put it
into the highest class.

I don't know how many men went
away from the Michigan meeting de-
termined to get that gold medal next
year.

The exhibits were arranged primar-
ily for educational purposes — that of
the education of the bee-keepers there.

In regard to the cost: I cannot tell
exactly what those medals cost. I be-
lieve the cost to the Association and
those who helped with that was about
$80.00. That seems like, perhaps, a
considerable sum; however, that $80.00
is going to last quite a while before
somebody takes those medals away.

Perhaps it would be interesting to
say something about the medals. They
were hexagon in shape, and the face
of the medal had a bust bar relief of
Langstroth; and it was very excellent,
beautifully executed; on the reverse
side engraving; and, when some one
takes the medal three times in suc-
cession, his name goes on.

Think of the advertising value in
having that medal in your possession
for one year!

Let it be known you took the gold
medal at the Convention for the best
honey, or the best something, or the
be.st total exhibit; it is a fine adver-
tising scheme for bee-keepers.

Mr. Bull — I was at the Michigan Con-
vention and was very much pleased
at the idea of putting up those ex-
hibits. As Doctor Phillips says: Those
medals do not represent what they ac-
tually cost. The value of those medals
is in advertising..

The man who feels he wants that
gold medal could not buy it for $500.
It is the honor that goes with it that
counts. While the medal probably
costs $50.00, the extensive bee-keeper
feels that it is worth about $500 to
him as an advertisement.

President France — Do the members
here suggest anything for the coming
year? For another year, as instruc-
tions to whoever you may elect as
Secretary. What are you going to do
to make our next meeting a hummer?
If Michigan can bring so many people
together, and give these awards — and
the beauty I see in those awards is
that the party who is holding it today,
until the next annual meeting, is not
going to be asleep; he may lose it next
year; he has the whole association to
coriipete against if he holds it over
two years — and then there is one more
year.

This series of years of competing;
I believe this is a grand good propo-
sition and will awaken interest.

It brings an exhibition of goods to
the Convention.

It is educational to those who are
in attendance, and then the advertis-
ing is for every one's benefit.

The onlj^ point I care to hold on
this at all is: Does this Association
want to take some system by which
there is an inducement for the coming?

Mr. Coppin — I would suggest that
they do take it up and do something
along that line for the next annual
meeting.

Mr. Bruner — I would suggest that
this thing be put in the hands of a
committee; it is too much work for one
man. The officers are scattered here
and there, and that is the proper way
to have it; but you cannot get men
who are scattered that way together
on this sort of work.

In the matter of correspondence: It
takes time — and this Convention
proposition, and the advertising in
connection with it through these
papers, and any other advertising,
should be in the hands of a commit-
tee of several, who can get together
and go into the details and get it
worked out in a practical form and
submit it to the officers, if you wish,
for their O. K.

This is not one man's job; it Is too
much; you cannot depend on any one
man to go ahead and do the work as

152

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

it should be done. Each one of us
should be a worker.

I move a committee of five be ap-
pointed to take care of our next Con-
vention, and that the officers be
authorized to take any action they
may see fit as to what shall be done
in the way of offering premium prizes
or anything else in connection with
the next Convention. I move you that
such a committee be appointed to take
care of that part of it.

Mr. Kannenberg — All right to ap-
point a committee to look after those
things and say what they are going
to give for premiums — where are they
going to get the money to buy prem-
iums?

Either we have to pay more in this
association, get more money in the as-
sociation, or else it is no use to go> to
work and select a committee to decide.
We want' to give some present for the
next exhibition, and have no money;
there is no use to start anything of
that kind unless you have the money.

Mr. Miller — I don't believe it is
quite ready for discussion.

The Michigan boys tell me that they
raised the money for those themselves.
There are three medals: The gold
medal was donated to the Michigan
Association by the Supply Manufac-
turers of the United States.

A silver medal was donated — the
money to buy it — by the Supply Deal-
ers of Michigan — the jobbers of Mich-
igan.

The third medal — the bronze one —
cost but a trifle, comparatively. All
made with the same die. That was
furbished by the Michigan Associa-
tion themselves, and consequently the
total cost to the Michigan Association
I would judge would be a trifle.

These were furnished willingly — an
advertising possibilitj' in business.

President France — Are you ready for
this committee?

Mr. Smith — This committee acting
in conjunction with the officers?

President France — I am fearful yon
are not going to have the thing in
shape to bring it to pass for another
year; I want to look forward to next
year's Convention as offering bee-
keepers an inducement to come here.

Dr. Phillips — Have a committee of
three good, strong men, and put two
of them in bed seriously ill, and you
may get something done.

(Applause.)

President France — As an expression
of the house here — do you favor in-
dividually such a move as having these
medals, or some other way of offer-
ing a premium?

Raise hands; If there is any objec-
tion to it, raise hands.
(None raised.)

Mr. Baxter — I did not vote one way
or the other; I am not a member of
the Northwestern any more and I can-
not become one; I cannot come here;
I am President of the Illinois Associ-
ation and have all I can attend to be-
sides my other work, but I believe
that if you will appoint a committee
of one — it is not necessary to have
three and put two to bed — one live
wire, who will devise some plan — you
will have something.

I believe that is the only possible
way to do it.

Five are too . many; three men
might do; two is better, and one is
still better.

Mr. Bruner — I will accept the
amendment.

Mr. Coppin — I favor the amendment.

President France — The original mo-
tion then will stand, amended to read,
a committee of one. The chair ap-
point a committee of one to report to
the officers of the Chicago-North-
western in time that they may act for
the next annual meeting.

Mr. Damon — I wish to amend that
nomination and nominate Mr. France.

Mr. Williams — I second that nomi-
'' nation.

Mr. Wheeler— All those in favor of
that motion, say Aye; those opposed.
No.

The nomination was unonimously
carried.

President France — The old saj'ing is
that he who has no time; whose time
is all taken, sometimes is a worthy
man.

I have more irons in the fire than I
can handle and I promised my better
half that I would come down to this
meeting as it was my duty in promis-
ing that I would be with you for a
few meetings. I have to be in a
meeting of several hundred yet to-
night — and I will be there when the
hour comes — nevertheless, if you will
stay by me, I will act as a committee
of one to report to whom you may
elect as officers.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

153

And, if I make that report in time,
I am g-oingr to involve all w^ho are
here to do something.

This committee of one cannot do it
— the committee may suggest, but
there will be labor back of it on your
part.

You can see what success they have
made in Michigan by their awards.
The way they have worked to receive
those medals, without expense, direct-
ly, to their association. Those things
can be accomplished, but the indi-
vidual members have to back it up
with exhibits.

If you can have a series of these
tables, such as are here today, going
■down this side of the room here, with
displays, and you will bring in your
instructors in economic teaching, that
thej' may see the goods here, and the
way in which it is created — 'and teach
the bee-keepers how to better their
market conditions and produce a
better grade of honey, you will have
an exhibit of great educational value,
and it will create an interest. Com-
petitors will compete for awards.

Dr. Phillips — One point I think ought
to be considered in fairness to the
members of the Association.

If there are to be certain classes
next year, the members should know
previous to the production season
what they are going to have an op-
portunity to exhibit.

They might dispose of, or not pro-
duce the thing they would have to
exhibit to be in the first prize class.

The members should be given an
opportunity to know what the classes
are to be.

Another feature: Whether they are
allowed to put more than one article
— more than one entry in each class.

In Michigan they decided to limit
all exhibitors to one entry in each
class; that man might take first, sec-
ond, third prize in each class. Those
things should be announced to the
members in abundance of time previ-
ous to the honey season next year;
perhaps not later than May first.

Mr. Williams — The question was
asked here — Why the ladies do not at-
tend the meetings more. In the cook-
ing department, this would draw at-
tention of the ladies. The ladies
could furnish fine recipes for cooking.
In Michigan the ladies were intensely
interested. The exhibits of cakes

were patronized and attracted much
attention.

Then the boys — they had a class
for their exhibits; that interests them;
and in this way all were interested.

President France — I would like to
say: Although this preparing for an-
other year is well worth the time
taken ' this afternoon, yet we are
spreading out here and not getting
down to practical things. Some of us
have to.be away before the entire daj'
has gone.

I do not know but that it would be
advisable to take part of the after-
noon program this morning, that we
may not have to hurry through the
afternoon.

Mr. Bruner — I would suggest we
have a five minutes recess.

President France — A recess for five
minutes may now be had.

(Convention convened.)

President France — We have one
number left. To hear from the dele-
gate of the Northwestern to the Na-
tional last year. The report of our
delegate will be in order.

Mr. Bull — I think there is not much
to report in addition to what you al-
ready know, especially if you take the
Bee-Keepers' Review.

A year ago we recommended here
that the National be incorporated; it
seems that the year before at St. Louis
the same thing had been done; the
delegates there instructed the Presi-
dent to incorporate. The result was, six
weeks previous to the December meet-
ing of the Association, the National
had been incorporated. Then the Con-
stitution, as in the Review, you can
look that over and understand it much
better than I can explain it.

The dues were raised 50 cents; prev-
ious dues $1.50; that wasi for the Re-
view and for our local Association and
for the National Association, 50 cents
to the local; $1.00 for the Review; noth-
ing for membership in the National.
Had no money in the treasury for the
last two or three years; so the dues
were raised 50 cents to go in what is
known as the general fund; the dues
were $1.50 whether you got the Re-
view or not; if you got the Review it
would be $1.00 for the Review, 50 cents
for subscription fund; 50 cents to the
general fund; if you did not want the

154

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

Review, the whole $1.50 would go to
the general fund.

The Constitution, as it is, will not
be amended this year because there has
been no notice of amendments given
out; so the Constitution, as it appears
in the Review in December, is the Con-
stitution of the National as it now'
stands.

I think most of you have seen that
and understand it as well as I do; I
do not know that there is much else to
report.

President France — What was the ac-
tion of the National, as to when and
where the next ■National would be
held?

Mr. Bull — There was no definite ac-
tion taken; as far as I can recollect,
the sentiment seemed to be for the
east; Washington, I think, was men-
tioned as one place; that was left to
the Board of Directors to decide.

The next meeting will be in Chicago
February 22d, 23d and 24th, I believe,
are the dates.

What becomes of it remains to be
seen; I leave that to you to judge. Are
there any questions you want to ask?

President France — If the Chicago-
Northwestern decides not to be affiliat-
ed with the National, does the North-
western Association care to have a
delegate at the National meeting?

I understand it is proposed now to
hold it the days Mr. Bull has an-
nounced, here in Chicago.

Mr. Bull, as a delegate from the
Northwestern to the National the last
meeting, what would be your sugges-
tion as to a delegate being at the Na-
tional meeting this year?

Mr. Bull — Michigan and Indiana have
dropped out, and I understand several
other states have withdrawn their sup-
port from the National; if they all drop.
out, that means there is no National.
The National is made up of several
affiliated associations; if the associa-
tions do not affiliate, that means we
have no National, and I don't know
of any that have affiliated.

I think Doctor Phillips could tell us
something about that; he has been on
this Convention tour for about a month
now.

Doctor Phillips — I have nothing to
say on that, Mr. Chairman. I would
assume that if the associations were
affiliated they would remain in that

condition until they withdraw, and in
that event there must be a number that
are still affiliated. Mr. Williams ought
to know; he is a Director. I should
assume that a number of them were
still with the National; of course some-
have withdrawn within the last few
weeks.

Mr. Williams — There is another
member of the Board of Directors here
who is probably better qualified to an-
swer that than I am. My understand-
ing is: You know the old National
Bee-Keepers' Association was not in-
corporated, was composed of various-
local Bee-Keepers' Associations, but I
understand, having become incorpo-
rated, this is changed somewhat, and
is now composed of separate individual
members and also various associations
that wish to be affiliated. Am I right,
Mr. Baxter?

It is a rather mixed up affair in my
mind; I would like to hear from Mr.
Baxter, what his idea is in the matter.

President France — Mr. Baxter, can
you unravel this tangle?

Mr. Baxter — What do you want to
know ?

Mr. Bull — Who are members of the
National?

Mr. Baxter — According to' the new
Constitution, all of the old affiliated
Associations that apply for re-instate-
ment are members; and provision
made for direct membership of indi-
vaduals.

In regard to the point Doctor Phil-
lips raised: Those who did not with-
draw would still remain members; that
depends on the Constitution of that
Association. Now, Illinois would not,
because Illinois is an incorporated As-
sociation, and they can only affiliate
by resolution and if they fail to re-
affiliate they are out; but the Illinois
State decided, by direct vote of its
members, that they would not affiliate
any longer.

That Constitution and By-Laws were
published in the Review.

I question its correctness. I have a
copy of the proceedings that were tak-
en direct out there; and I think that
there have been errors made; I do not
believe that is exactly the way it should
read, but that is the provision made
for membership at least.

Mr. Bull — I know Mr. Baxter is ex-
actly right; it is up to the Associa-

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

155

tion; or rather, when the National
Association was incorporated, they
put the old National out of business,
and they have a new Association,
and they voted through the delegates
to accept all the different affiliated as-
sociations into the new Association;
those that were already paid for. If
I understand it right, they are affili-
ated as long as they pay their dues.

The different Associations have to
vote as to whether or not they will
affiliate, but any individual member
can come in and be a member of the
National. The entire Association will
not be members except they vote to
affiliate and pay. their dues, which is
to be $1.50 in addition to their local
dues.

Mr. Baxter — The $1.50 was supposed
to be $1.00 for the publication fund
and $.50 for the general fund; that
$1.00 was supposed to go to the Re-
view; those who wanted to join for
$.50 and not receive the Review, it
was optional with them; it would be
$.50 in addition to their local dues.

Mr. Bull — This point I raised at that
Convention and tried to get an under-
standing but I failed. I confess I
don't know.

That Constitution — it would take a
Philadelphia lawyer to interpret it,
and no two would get the same mean-
ing out of it.

Mr. Kannenberg — That means the
National wants an extra $1.50 per
member if we stay with the National.

I make a motion that we do not
join the National again.

Motion seconded and unanimously
carried.

President France — I have been re-
quested not to take up the subject
of Bee Diseases until after dinner.
When we get on to that subject of
bee diseases, there is no end to in-
terest and discussion of it.

Mr. Bruner — I move you that we
join the State Association as a body
as we have done heretofore.

Motion seconded and carried.

Mr. Wheeler — Do we pay $1.00 extra?

Mr. Baxter — Is it $1.00 extra? I
don't believe that is correct, Is It?
$.50 for the Chicago-Northwestern
and $1.00 more to the Illinois State,
making $1.50 total dues.

Mr. Kannenberg — We pay $.25 to the
National and $1.00 to the State As-

sociation; that left us a quarter and
we were always without some money.

President France — Retain $.50 for
the support of the Chicago -North-
western and $1.00 for the Illinois State
Association; that will entitle you to
the Annual Report of the State As-
sociation and the Chicago-Northwest-
ern; that book is worth what it costs.

President France — I will appoint Mr.
Bull and Mr. Kildow tellers for elec-
tion.

Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Chairman, I name
Mr. N. E. France.

Nomination seconded.

Mr. Wheeler — I move that we make
the nomination unanimous.

Mr. Wheeler — It has been moved
and seconded that Mr. France's nomi-
nation be made unanimous.

Motion carried.

Mr. Bull — I move the Secretary be
instructed to cast the ballot for this
Association unanimously for Mr.
France for President.

All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Motion unanimously carried.

President France — Who is j'our
Vice-President nomination for next
year?

A member — I nominate Mr. Bull for
Vice-President.

Nomination seconded.

A member — I nominate Mr. E. S.
Miller.

Nomination seconded.
Votes cast— 19: Mr. Miller, 13; Mr.
Bull, 6.

President France — For your Secre-
tary and Treasurer.

Mr. Kannenberg— Mr. President, in-
asmuch as our Secretary for the last
year has done so well, I think he
should stay in office for another year.
I name Mr. Bruner.

Mr. Bruner — I nominate Mr. Bull.
I have about all I can swing. This
Secretary job is a little strenuous; I
don't think Mr. Bull is quite as deeply
in as I am; he has been at Conven-
tions and knows the proceedings; I
don't. This is the first Convention I
have attended regularly. Mr. Bull is
the man who would make you a good
Secretary.

Mr. Bull was nominated as Secre-
tary-Treasurer and elected.

156

FIFTEENTH ANNUALr^REI*ORT OF THE

President France — Do you see this
map here with all those dots on? That
means something. This afternoon we
will take up the subject of Bee Dis-
eases — our Inspector's report, and con-
ditions; and I want to say I am liable
to make a statement right after dinner
that will surprise you.

Mr. Coppin — Will you wipe all those
spots out, Mr. President?

President France — No. Say, I will
tell you what I said in Wisconsin last
week at our State Convention.

"European foul brood in Wisconsin
is a blessing," and I believe it is true
In Illinois. You may think I am a
crank; I don't want to take up this
subject of foul brood until after*
dinner but I do believe from the depth
of my heart that there is nothing
that has come to American bee-keep-
ing that has been better for the coxin-
try, for future bee-keeping, than
European foul brood — as serious as it
is.

A member — You would advise men to
introduce it into their communities?

President France — I don't know but
what it would be the best thing possi-
ble. We don't wake up to these condi-
tions until they get into our posses-
sions. I have yet to find a man in Wis-
consin who has a siege of European
foul brood who will own to it he is glad
he has had it; but he does not fear it
any more; and he is a better bee-
keeper.

President France — Do you elect a
representative to the State Associa-
tion?

Mr. Bull — I don't believe we ever4
have.

Mr. Kildow — I think it would be a
good thing if you did.

President France — I think it oug'ht
to be; I think this Association ought
to have something to do with the State
Fair premium list. Wisconsin wants
us to name a judge. Get a practical
bee-keeper as the Judge of Bee and
Honey Department.

The Illinois State Board want to
make their Fair better, and when you
co-operate together you do make it
better.

President France — Are there any fur-
ther delegates or representatives to be
appointed?

Mr. Baxter — One thing I would like
to have this Association do, is to pass

a resolution asking the State Fair
Board to/erect a building exclusively for
bee-keepers. A resolution passed by
this Association would help us mate-
rially. The Illinois State passed a reso-
lution asking the State Superintendent
of Public Instruction to exact the
teaching of" the uses of honey in the
Domestic Science Department in all
the schools under his jurisdiction. We
would like a resolution passed, here,
for that.

Mr. Coppin — The space that is allot-
ted to us for an exhibit at Springfield
is always filled to its full capacity, that
is around three sides — in the center it
is filled with vegetables, which is an-
noying to bee-keepers.

So we want those vegetables taken
out, and the whole of that space given
us, or that we be furnished with a
separate building, that we can make
better exhibits than we have been do-
ing so far.

There are some things they have cut
out that we did have — the extracting of
honey at the Fair; they took the prerii-
iums off on that.

And the manipulation of the bee. At
the Fair that was taken away this last
time; we want to make it of more in-
terest along that line. We appointed
a committee for that purpose. I am
one of that committee. I should think
it would be a good idea for the North-
western to do what they can towards
helping that committee — so that we
may have more premiums, more space,
and make it more interesting; if the
Northwestern could pass some such
resolution, it would be a help.

President France — The first year I
went to the Minnesota State Fair as
Judge, they had a wing of a building
for Honey Exhibits.

There was a space left in the report
blank for suggestions from the Judge
for the betterment of the Fair for the
coming year. I filled nearly a page in
with suggestions; and one thing was,
I advocated a separate building.

The next year I was back as Judge,
and I put it on again — a separate build-
ing — you need it.

The State Association took the mat-
ter up and made application for a sep-
arate building. The result was, they
have a building that is about 60x120 —
just for bees "nd honey alone. They,
have raised the premiums to corre-
spond with the building and may I say.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

157

there is no other state I have been in
that has the display of bee and honey
exhibits they have: A cage for demon-
stration work, owned by the State Fair
and housed out of the rain during the
year, except Fair days, all under good
management. They don't allow all
kinds of things to get in there to take
up space.

By your continuous application —
though you may not gain it at first, you
will succeed; Illinois exhibits should
have more space; and your exhibits
can be added to by other states — but
now there is no room.

Again, I question the advisability of
your revising the premium list by

which premiums are awarded only to
Illinois goods.

Michigan and Wisconsin and Minne-
sota have for several years narrowed
their premium list to Wisconsin, Min-
nesota or Michigan goods respectively ■
to their state. In a way that gives
local men a chance, but it cut out the
outsider.

The older people know how Mr.
Hutchinson used to make a display
which cost him more money to accu-
mulate than his premiums, so that
when he made the circuit, though he
had won the greater part of the prem-
iums, when he got home he was finan-
cially out — yet the satisfaction to him
of those awards, he said, more than
paid him for the money he had ex-
pended.

Mr. Wheeler — How about the other
fellow who didn't get the awards and
didn't get his pay even in awards?

Mr. Bull — He probably didn't have
as much expense.

President France — The local man
does not have as much expense as the
man from abroad.

But the question is: Do you want a
big display?

If you have a big building — don't
narrow it down to Illinois.

Mr. Coppin — It is not narrowed down
now to Illinois; it is open to the world
and has been all the time, as near as I
know. .

Mr. Bruner — I suggest that this be
left to a Resoultion Committee in con-
nection with Mr. Baxter.

As Chairman of that Resolution
Committee, I would ask Mr. Baxter or
any one else that has any resolution
to prepare them and send them in.

President France — We will leave it
then with the Resolution Committee.

Now, so far as I know, our program
has been worked off with the excep-
tion of this all important subject —
Bee Diseases.

Mr. Kannenberg — Was it not sug-
gested to have a delegate to the State
Convention appointed? '

President France — Do we want a
delegate to the Illinois State meet-
ings?

Mr. Kildow — I, for one, would like
to see this Association here send a
representative direct to the State. I
believe it would be a good thing.

Mr. Bull — I believe that would be a
good idea. We have been joining the
State for a number of years — for the
last 12 years I have been here. I
think it would be a good idea to send
a representative to the State.

Mr. Baxter — We will be very glad
to have you there.

President France — Is it the sense of
this meeting that we as the Chicago-
Northwestern have a delegate at the
Illinois State meeting?

Mr. Kannenberg — I move you that
We elect a representative to the Illi-
nois State Convention.

A member — I second the motion.
Motion seconded and carried.
Mr. Kannenberg — I nominate Mr.
Bull.

A member — I nominate Mr. Stanley.

President France — Just a word of
explanation in behalf of this delegate
going; does he bear all his expense,
or part of his expense, or what is the
consideration of your representative
there ?

A member — I don't see how we can
pay the delegate's expenses. It will
cost considerable money to send you
to Springfield.

I think the honor of being elected
should be sufficient in this case and
let the delegate pay his own expense.
Let that be understood.

President France — If the delegate
lives a considerable distance he has to
be pretty generous.

President France — You have two
nominees.

A member — I make a motion that
this Convention be called to order at
1:15.

158'

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

The result of the ballot for a dele-
gate to Springfield:

Mr. Stanley, 5; Mr. Bull, 17.

Mr. Bull was elected delegate.

Meeting adjourned until 1:15 p. m.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

Meeting called to order at 1:15 p. m.

President France — Let us take up
the question of Bee Diseases and, as
I said before dinner, I made a state-
ment in our Wisconsin Convention last
week I believe honestly that European
foul brood in the state of Wisconsin
had proved a blessing to the state, and
on the same basis I believe it is to
all the states.

Because, wherever I have found
disease, and the bee-keeper has be-
come aware of the seriousness of the
diseased conditions that are surround-
ing him, he has set to work to clean
house, and when through with it I
have repeatedly, over and over again,
said "I am glad I have had foul brood
(European); I don't fear it any more"
— and he is going to be our coming
bee-keeper.

I would prefer to take this subject
up this afternoon — American foul
brood — how to know how to treat it.

I don't know any better wa5- than
to have your Inspector of this state
to take it up. How to know American
foul brood and treat it, Mr. Kildow.

Mr. Kildow — I would rather see
somebody else take that up. While I
am the Inspector of the state, yet I
am not a talker in Conventions.

I think the best way for a man to
know it is to get his fingers burned
with it and he will know it. You have
all heard of it; you may not have seen
it, but I don't know as I can describe
it better than you have seen it de-
scribed in bulletins and literature ori
the subject.

I don't see how I can describe it
any better.

If you ever see it in the real stuff,
you will know it.

If you have not seen it, I would ad-
vise you to go to some place where
they have field meets, or where it is,
and see the real thing.

The treatment has been given so
much it has gotten to be worn thread-
bare.

I would rather answer questions

than to try to tell you a lot of stuff
that many of you have heard time and
time again.

President France — May I inquire
how many here have never seen a case
of American foul brood?

(Three.)

President France — Well, I am glad,
indeed, we have three who have gone
free so far, and I hope you always
will. It is something there is no joke
about.

Just for half a moment, for the
benefit of three:

W^hen the brood comb shows a dark-
ening in color with sunken cappings,
ragged hole in cappings — turn that
comb so that the light will shine into
it, so that you can see into the comb
on to the lower side wall, provided
this was retained in individual cell;
on the lower side wall, part way from
the front, dried down larvae — In some
cells you will see the earlier stages,
brown chocolate or coffee colored ma-
terial; if you will insert a match into
that dead larvae it will draw out ropy
matter. i

Once in a while a larvae, in its last
stages of life, will throw out the tongue
with that force that it will strike the
upper side wall and remain so that
after the larvae has dried down there
is a tiny thread of that tongue still
adhering across.

That is not general, but you may find
those in combs. Then, there is the
odor. I don't know how to describe it;
it smells just like American foul brood.

Mr. Kannenberg — It smells like old
carpenter's glue.

President France — ^With those condi-
tions, if you find it in your hive, then
the treatment is to be looked after;
but here is one point: Whether we
have had the experience or not, it is
folly for one man, having the disease,
to go ahead and clean up unless his
neighbors will do likewise, if they are
infected.

About two weeks ago I sent out a
little more than 1,000 circular letters to
Wisconsin bee-keepers, getting sta-
tistics, and asking them would they
give me the names of bee-keepers
within eight miles of them, making a
little mark, if they suspicioned any
disease.

I received several hundred new
names, some of which had that mark;

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

159

that check of suspicion of disease, and,
in corresponding with some of them
later on, I found they had the disease.

Who is to blame? The men who
owned the bees didn't know it; the
neighbor kept it still to himself; and
I was censured for not cleaning up foul
brood; it was only a few days ago I
had heard of it.

We have to co-operate in the
eradication of bee diseases — but as for
this topic, American foul brood, is there
anything further on the description of
or the treatment of it?

The treatment of it has been re-
peatedly, over and over again, written
up.

Mr. Miller — In recent modern cases,
what has been the mode of treatment,
any different?

President France — Perhaps Mr. Phil-
lips can give us a better reply on be-
half of' something more modern in the
treament of American foul brood.

Doctor Phillips — Still recommending
the shaking treatment as usual. It can
be modified in various ways.

Get the bees from the combs and
start anew. Mr. Walrus has taken them
out through a tube, which is all right,
also.

President France — Some experiment
has been tried, getting the bees off
from infcted combs by gradually
drowning the bees out by water; in a
good many cases it proved a success;
in some cases it did not.

So that, whatever the method may be,
we want to get the bees as quickly as
possible away from the infected combs;
and look out, in getting them away,
that they don't fill themselves with in-
fected honey and carry it.

The Baldrige method is allowing the
bees to go out undisturbed and they are
not likely to carry disease.

Mr. "Wheeler — ^What objection have
you heard to the drowning out meth-
od? Do they stay on the brood?

President France — No, the bees had
to get out or be drowned so that any
that didn't leave went with the infected
combs, but the bees, when they were
put on other quarters in two cases, I
have known the disease appeared
again; evidently they carried it with
them.

Mr. Wheeler — They always do when
-shaken out.

President France — In Minnesota, Mr.

Leonard, I believe, was the originator
of following out Mr. Baldridge's plan
in a modified way.

• The new hive was connected with a
tube and the bees went through this
into their new quarters. There is a
man owning bees in six different
states. His method has been to put one
dry extracting comb in the center for
twenty-four hours that the bees com-
ing there would undoubtedly deposit
infected honey they had into this
comb; and then, quietly remove that
one. That has worked well.

The idea all the way through with
the American foul brood is to get the
bees away from the infection and then
get the infection entirely away from
the bees thereafter. I was told this
morning that a party had very care-
fully gone through all of this; had
taken the brood away and cut out the
comb and rendered it into wax, and
then threw the frames which were
more or less soiled with honey, out
where his bees could clean them up.
Some little detail like this, not taken
care of, spoils the whole thing.

I tried, a few years ago (it was the
year we had our annual meeting in Los
Angeles up in the center of the state)
to treat a yard for American foul
brood where the infected combs were
submitted to a treatment of formalde-
hyde gas.

I went to a lot of expense; had the
carpenter make double-walled wooden
box, lined in a tinshop by a tinner,
making the inner case; put in there
the infected combs and fumigated
them; put in the center so that they
had ample space some healthy brood,
just at the point of hatching.

After leaving them in the proper
amount of time, upon inspection, I said,
"we must double the dose." On open-
ing the box I took a piece of brood
comb and removed the cappings. With
a pair of tweezers, I took a bee out of
the cell and it crawled more than the
length of my hand; and, when the
fumes will not kill the life of a bee,
it will not kill germs it cannot get at.

I took those infected combs and put
those into a hive body and put a col-
ony of bees that never had the dis-
ease on to them.

I went on to the National Conven-
tion, and, on my return a month later,
new brood nicely being capped ov^r
showed early stages of American foul
brood.

160

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OP THE

I let it remain until' long enough
to be hatched; to satisfy the owner,
the treatment was not a success.

We may credit McEvoy, of Canada,
for introducing the practical method
of treatment for American foul brood.

The principle involved is to get the
bees away from the infection and to
be careful and get the infection where
they never will get to it.

A word of caution: Don't buy
honey from unknown sources to feed
your bees. I believe the largest bee-
keeper in your state inoculated his
yard with American foul brood by
feeding honey that had come from
outside the state.

I know of- another case where
American foul brood combs had been
sent to a supply house to be ren-
dered into wax and the bees con-
tracted the disease at the receiving
station.

If you have infected combs and
want to render them into wax; send
the wax to your supply man to be
Tirade into comb foundation but don't
send the refuse in any way to injure
others.

I think your state law will prac-
tically forbid that.

I wish it were possible, and I came
near making it possible in our state
two years ago, that the salv^ of second
hand honey cans would be prohibited;
can which come from infected terri-
tory and are liable to be thrown
premiscuously outdoors where any-
body's bees have free access to same.

Less than a month ago I said to a
bee-keeper: A man at the hotel says
that your bees swarm every day and
stay over there about an hour and a
half and go home. You had better go
over there; and he came over. I said:
"I want to show you something in the
back lot. During the noon hour,
while the bees had their best flight,-
they come over here into this back
yard and have taken possession until
the ladies from the house are afraid
to go back there to throw out their
waste because your bees are here in
great numbers and are going into
these tin cans."

Here are 52 tin cans right here; all
but one with the screw top off and the
bees helping themselves. Fortunately
it was a lot of maple syrup cans, but
it would have been the same had it
been honey.

President France — Is there any one

who wants to bring out anything
further on the subject of American
foul brood?

A member — If honey is merely
heated, will that carry disease?

President France — Unless it is
heated to the boiling point and kept
at that point for about 15 minutes.

A member — Half an hour would be
safer.

President France — After you have
boiled that honey for 15 minutes, who
wants it?

Mr. Bruner — Three minutes is long
enough.

Dr. Phillips — Minimum time is ten
minutes.

Mr. Wheeler — What is it good for
after it is boiled?

Mr. Stewart — Good for feed.

Mr. Brinkerhoff — Don't you think
there ought to be some stress made on
the early symptoms of the disease? I
doubt if you will get an odor in the
early stages of the disease; surely it
will not have the scaly appearance in
the early stages.

Mr. Bull — In regard to the early
symptoms: The symptoms are always
the same. I think he means to treat
the colony before it is badly diseased;
there is no difference whether there are
three or 3,000 cells; the symptoms will
be the same. The idea is to see those
cells before they get too thick.

The quickest way is to go to a colony
near the center of the brood chamber
and take a comb of brood that is hatch-
ing bees, say commenced to hatch four
or five days or a week before he looked
at it; so the center in the comb will
be hatched out and re-flUed with eggs.

If you find a cell in that batch you
have looked over, you had better look
out.

Mr. Kildow — One great trouble with
our bee-keepers is they do not look at
the brood; they think a colony is com-
ig round all right; they ought to ex-
amine their brood; that is where you
will find this stuff.

Open your hive when the weather is
all right and pick it up and examine
it; don't say, "that is all right" and
pass on.

That is where you miss out so often.
Examine that thoroughly and carefully.
As far as the smelling is concerned, you

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

161

will get the odor when the larvae is
half decayed.

Mr. Wheeler — I have held to the point
for a good many years: That I be-
lieve the colony was diseased long be-
fore human e5'es or sense could detect
it. I believe the bees claen out and
destroy for a long time before you see
the symptoms of the disease; I think
it is when they have begun to give up,
like the human system gives up to cer-
tain diseases — w^hen they begin to find
the operation of resisting it so strong
they give up — then you begin to de-
tect those cells. I have never seen
anything that made me believe any-
thing different yet. I think the disease
is lurking there a long time before
there are any pin holes in the brood.

Mr. Miller — I would like to ask:
How long it takes, from the time you
first notice the symptoms, to develop
until that colony begins to go down
hill. Or in other words: How long
the disease usually runs, one or two
years, or six months or six days?

President France — According to the
individual who is taking care of it;
it varies.

Mr. Miller — I mean, run its natural
course in the colonj^?

President France — It would develop
if the season was not over good foi
honey crop; that makes a difference;
and you might get rid of the disease in
the course of the season; with a good
bee-keeper, he notices conditions in
time and takes care of it quickly.

Mr. Stewart — I would like to ask:
How long, from the time the larval bee
dies, until this characteristic ropiness
is evident or pronounced enough to
distinguish? Is there any possibility of
one being confused as to that distinc-
tion, in the early stages? If one is
working for comb honey, going through
the hives from week to week and cut-
ting out cells, and notices dead brood,
is there any possibility as to one be-
ing mistaken as to whether it is Amer-
ican foul brood, if you depend on the
test of ropiness?

Mr. Kannenberg — I had an experi-
ence in a case that way. I found that
when you have a hive where the brood
is coming out and you watch it close,
those that the brood is not coming out,
you open those cells; it is ropy al-
ready.

It takes twenty-one days for the

—11

bees to mature and when the bees ma-
ture that other that is foul brood is
gone into ropiness. I think every-
body, who opens a cell then, will
find it is ropy. It rotted away in
twenty-one days.

Mr. Bull — The idea is this. As soon
as the capping of the cell shows any
indication of disease there will be
ropiness there;' when there is the
slightest indication of disease on that
capping. I don't remember seeing any
disease, but that it is sealed over first.

Mr. Kildow — Not always.

Doctor Phillips — In the early stages,
almost always. There may be a case
occasionally, but very rare^

Mr. Coppin — I found brood in the
hive lots of times, dead, without being
sealed, and others sealed and little pin
holes in the cappings and ropiness
there; and at the same time there
were other dead bees not sealed.

President France — It formerly was
sealed and the bees are trying to re-
move the capping. I question if the
bees can remove dried down Ameri-
can foul brood, but they will remove
the capping. So we may see many
cells apparently w'ithout any capping
on.

Mr. Wheeler — Don't you think they
have removed that brood?

President France — Not if dried down.

Mr. Kannenberg — I think I had the
same experience and the bees had not
removed this foul brood because it is
dried down so solid they cannot re-
move it; they lay eggs right in it and
have foul brood over again.

Mr. Kildow — After it is dried down,
they can't remove it, but, before it is
dried down, they don't want to get hold
of it.

The bees w'ill back away from it; if
you punch one in with a tooth pick
and after it is dried down, it is very
much like glue on wood. I believe it
is impossible for the bees to remove
it; when it is rop3% they won't get
into it.

Mr. Brinkerhoff — I would like to ask
Doctor Phillips if he knows what its
period of incubation is.

Doctor Phillips — It is very variable.

Mt. Wheeler — I don't think you can
tell by that scattered brood test. A
great many old queens will scatter
their brood through the cells that are

162

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

left. I watch that pretty closely; I
don't believe that is a test. Try those
cells that are scattered and you will
find good, healthy brood there. I have
found, a great many times, the queen
deficient and the brood will be scat-
tered.

A member — We ought not to have
that kind of a queen.

Mr. Bull — If you find a cell there,
don't think there is going to be Ameri-
can foul brood; but that is the place to
look for it.

President France — Let us draw a
comparison between American and
European foul brood so that we may
know the difference.

Who will take the description of
European foul brood, compared with
the other?

How many have ever seen European
foul brood?

Mr. Stewart — If they have not, they
have not learned their trade as bee-
keepers.

Mr. Kannenberg — They may have
seen foul brood and maybe it was
American foul brood and they thought
it was European. I do not know how
European foul brood looks.

President France — There is as much
difference between these two diseases.
Let me try a comparison of the two.
With American foul brood we have
that coffee color, ropy stage; with Eu-
ropean, we do not.

With the American foul brood, pref-
erably, all workers bad in the hive be-
fore the queen cells are infected and
seriously bad before the drones are in-
fected.

With European: There is no dis-
crimination; the queen, worker, drone
or all brood may be infected. \

There is one decided difference:
That peculiar smell of American foul ^
brood is not the same with European. Jj
In fact it is only in serious, severe
eases where there is any noticeable
odor of European foul brood.

I have had some yards where they'^
Imagined they smelled something; th^^^
said they did, but my nostrils had not
found it yet, not that noticeable odor,
but the larvae is attacked much earlier
in its life with the European. A yel-
lowish streak upon the white larvae
with the head somewhat dried and in-
stead of taking that drop out of shape
a flat, brown mass, it settles, as it

were, straight back into the cell and
It is not ropy.

If you would take a toothpick or pair
of tweezers and get hold of that lar-
vae it will come right out; use an old
comb and you can jar it out. American
never loose.

Those decided differences ought to
determine whether we have it or not.

European will go through the entire
hive much faster than the American
does.

I don't know whether I have given a
comparison, one with the other; per-
haps Doctor Phillips can, more plainly,
describe those conditions.

Doctor Phillips — I don't believe that
I would add anything to what you
have said. The yellow color and po-
sition and age and infection of drone.
It seems to me, are the characteristics
of European.

There is quite a pronounced differ-
ence between the two.

Mr. Kannenberg — You said, how to
cure it; put in young queens. Is that
the way you mean?

President France — That is one of the
stepping stones; don't put in young
black queen and call it cured. The
more disease resisting the strain is,
the better.

One of the first cases I had to care
for in our state: We sent to the cen-
tral states, to one of our best queen
breeders, for the choicest golden queens
he had, regardless of price. We wanted
to cure that yard; we did it.

One treatment and it was through
with, and that man today swears by ^
Goldens, and says there is nothing but
Goldens for him.

We did it by requeening, but the
more I study the importation of bees — ■
like in poultry — we produce new strains
by the crossing of others, and I fancy
this Golden Italian queen is an Amer-
ican fancy; we don't find it the
tronger strain; it is one which will
ive way to spring or winter condi-
tions. With me they are beautiful to
look at, but they are not the honey
gatherers.

There is just as much indivdual dif-
ference in bees as in any other animal
life.

Some of the queens that have been
sent to our state have, when intro-
duced in the same yard where others
have been introduced — some would

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

163

show a scattering, here and there an
occasional cell of disease; and later on,
perhaps, get rid of it; others never got
rid of it; still other queens, they would
clean out and remain so, and, so strong
was the resisting power, her daugh-
ters failed to show the disease.

I call to mind in one county, I re-
ferred to a while ago, where, on my
way to Minneapolis, I was, for three
days, in that county visiting several
yards and failed to find a yard but
what European foul brood was there.
That was the county where they did
not believe in outside blood.

In one of those yards of 200 colonies,
several queens were introduced from
different localities, and, it was found
in one shipment, not a queen there in-
troduced but what they were through
with European foul brood.

A few miles (about four miles from
there) to another yard of eighty colo-
nies, all but one infected with Euro-
pean foul brood. He had purchased
queens from some of these same queen
breeders; he found this one peculiar
individual strain was disease resist-
ant; he said, "I would not take $25.00
for that queen today."

I question if the whole cure of Eu-
ropean foul brood is by requeening,
because we have the experience of
Doctor Miller in our neighborhood, who
takes a queen and cages her for a time
and lets her go back again in her
same hive; the. idea is, if a strong col-
on3% we must induce them to clean out,
and they will do that better in a
queenless condition.

Mr. Stewart — When you introduced
those queens, how long did you let her
lose, after the first queen was taken
out?

President France — How long were
they queenless? Ten or twelve days.

On that point of how long to be
queenless: Take Mr. Alexander with
600 colonies; foul brood struck him;
he decided he wanted three weeks,
queenless, but experience since then
has taught us a shorter time seems to
accomplish the same object.

There are other conditions which we
don't know of. I own I don't know how
European foul brood spreads. I am
like Doctor Miller, I don't know; I
wish I knew of some one who did posir
tively know how European foul brood
spreads, but we don't know.

In many instances, the requeening
has been our great salvation. Until we

can develop something further, let us
hold to that which we have already
learned.

Mr. Miller — Inasmuch as I have had
considerable experience with European
foul brood and have succeeded in get-
ting rid of it entirely (about 400 colo-
nies, altogether), it may be of interest
for me to tell how I did it.

One of the principal factors in the
success was requeening with strong
Italian stock.

About seven years ago it first struck
my yard. First, the first yard; then
the second, then the third. I cleaned
out two of those yards almost entirely.
I cleaned them up and I fought it for
a number of years.

At that time my mode was the shak-
ing method, but not very successful.
It would not. stay cured.

I kept to work. At that time I de-
stroyed combs. Since then I have
found out that is not necessary — to
burn up hives and bees is foolishness.
I have thought the way the disease is
transmitted is by the feeding of the
dead larvae to the live larvae by the
bees.

If we can make a break in that
brood rearing for a sufficient length
of time, until that larvae can be
cleaned up or become so old it will not
be fed to the young bees, then it will
not be readily transmitted.

One factor to suggest is this: The
fact that I was very careful in exam-
ining every hive when I had foul brood
once in two weeks or more often.

The last method I used (I have tried
every known plan suggested on the
subject) but the last method used was
simply this:

I find that hive that has a number
of cells of European foul brood — I kill
the queen. Later on I destroy all cells
started. Two weeks, put the queen ex-
cluder on every other hive and set it
on top; that is very simple and easy
and it has been successful.

In two yards, I have not had any Eu-
ropean foul brood for three years —
and this present year I didn't have a
single case in any of the five yards,
and if I should run across a hive or
two next year, it will not worry me.

In one or two operations it is done,
and nothing more to look after.

President France — You note one
thing with Mr. Miller: He is watch-
ing, and when he has only a few cells,
while the colony is still strong, he

164

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

makes this treatment. There is a very
important subject.

Mr. Stewart — If there is a shortage
of food, does it not increase it?

Mr. Miller — If the bees are storing,
are getting a good deal of nectar, and
any dead larvae in there, they are apt
to cover it up and it is hard to And it;
when they eat down to it, they come
down to the disease and transmit it
again.

Mr. Stewart — I want to know how
they start it.

Doctor Phillips — That is what I
would like to know. There is one
thing with the theory that Doctor Mil-
ler suggests, of feeding the juice of
the dead larvae to other larvae; that
will explain a good many things about
European foul brood. Here is one that
has not been explained. How does the
disease come to the first colony in the
spring?

Mr. Stewart — Starvation?

Doctor Phillips— No.

Mr. Wheeler — I believe there is
something in that starvation business;
the more I watch them I think there
is something in that starvation busi-
ness; they get short of stores — of
honey, and the bee is a very economi-
cal fellow; he eats up eggs when he
does not have any use for them, and
I think he eats up larvae in the same
way; it might be possible; it is ques-
tionable in my mind.

Mr. Kildow — I can't take any stock
in that starvation business; we had
lots of colonies that starved to death
before European foul brood was dis-
covered.

Bees, for ages back, before this Eu-
ropean . foul brood appeared, have
starved to death every year. If that
had been the case, it would have de-
veloped years ago.

Mr. Stewart — I am taught that
germs are in the air all the time in this
climate; and, if our system gets in
proper condition, we get disease; who
knows but what the bees, feeding their
brood on that, starve — it weakens them
down and puts them in that condition.

Mr. Wheeler — This point we have
noticed: That, in a poor season when
very little honey is coming in, foul
brood, European foul brood or Amer-
ican, either one, is worse in a season
when honey is not coming in plenti-

fully — when the bees are short of
stores.

If they are short of stores, they re-
sort to other food, like pollen and
possibly to the other larvae.

If they can't get honey enough to
feed the brood they may resort to-
making a jelly of bee food. Diseases
are worst during honey drought.

A member — I have had bees running
for twenty years and never had Euro-
pean foul brood. Always give bees
penty to winter on, two frames of
pollen and requeen every year from
some part of the country.

President France — There is some
wonderfully good advice. Requeens
nearly every year, with best of food —
new blood, and with all this number of
colonies, and yet, to find the first case
of disease. Foul brood within walking
distance, all around.

A member — The statement was made
that insect or any animal life are in-
clined to succumb to disease if they are
not strong, but so long as they are
strong, and in a healthy condition, they
can resist those germs of disease; they
can expel them from their system; but
as soon as they get weak they lose that
strength — that power, and they are, be-
fore long, gone. That it is with every-
thing like that; so if we keep our bees
healthy and strong so that they can
expel all disease they will not be ex-
posed as weak colonies are; therefore,
keep the colonies strong; all these
things, requeening and so on: If we
get strong colonies and healthy, the
disease will not attack the healthy,
strong colony.

Doctor Phillips — It may be correct in
theory but there is one difficulty in
observation which has to be overcome:
It is the strongest colony in the yard
which gets American foul brood first
in almost all cases; and I seriously
doubt whether the organisms which
cause American foul brood can enter
any colony without the disease appear-
ing. The organism is a most tenacious
and tough proposition, and, if a strong
colony gets out and succeeds in robbing
from a diseased colony in the neigh-
borhood, the disease will appear.

With European foul brood, the con-
ditions are different, but American foul
brood is no respecter of size, of age, of
race or of anything else that I have
been able to find out; and while I don't
believe that diseases originate through

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

163

weakness, these specific diseases, they
are as different as our human diseases
that are produced by bacteria; at the
same time I think for European foul
brood, a weak colony may be overcome
more readily than a strong one, but not
for American.

Mr. Williams — I have had rather an
extensive knd expensive experience
with American foul brood, although I
have never been bothered with Euro-
pean. I have this to say: I have the
first colony to see yet that 'would rid
themselves of the disease; if the dis-
ease had once entered the hive, that
liive is a dead one if left to its own
resources; I never saw one recover.

Mr. Kildow — I will tell you of a little
experience: A neighbor of mine: He
is a crank. He had American foul
brood; he wanted to test it to see how
it would spread; he took a tooth pick
and stirred up the honey; one of these
dead larvae fed to a healthy colony,
and watched the development after
feeding it to the bees.

It was only a short period before that
colony showed it.

He is a crank. He does not take any
guess work.

That shows how quickly it will de-
velop; just feeding those two or three
bees from a tooth pick.

Only a matter of tvro or three days:
It showed the sunkenness.

A member — I have had a similar ex-
perience as Mr. Kildow explains there.
An Inspector came into my yard when
I was having some trouble, and I didn't
know what it was; at that time I was
corresponding with Doctor Phillips, and
trying to get the Department of Wash-
ington to tell me what this trouble was
I had.

This Inspector came along and said
it was European foul brood.

I never had anything to do with the
other. I was somewhat worried when
I first discovered what the trouble was.
But I thought — as long as I have got it
— the bees might as well all have it.
So that colony went from bad to
worse, and I took it away finally and
the honey from it, and fed that honey
to every colony in my yard — 36 at that
time. I destroyed that one colony —
and I didn't see anything more .of
European foul brood; I fed all the
honey from that colony to every colony
in my yard; was practically rotten

with foul brood; but I didn't develop
any more cases from feeding diseased
honey.

Doctor Phillips — What time of the
year was it?

A member — July.

Doctor Phillips — European foul brood
is an early spring disease.

Mr. Bruner — ^There are two questions
I want to bring out. When we should
begin to look for European foul brood
— and how long should we keep up the
inspection?

President France — I should say: Be-
gin- about the time the first brood is
hatched. The statement I made, that
I believe European foul brood is to
many of us a blessing: Is that we
will know hereafter what is the con-
dition in the brood chamber.

Repeatedly I have had the bee-keeper
say: "My bees are all right; they are
working fine." Does he know they are
all right? Has he been down in the
brood chamber? I find sometimes
when I open the hives and examination
tells me they have not been there for
more than a year, I begin to question.

One point, as to endurance or vitality
in resisting germs in American foul
brood:

A little north of here I stopped at
a farm house for dinner. "Yes, we are
bee-keepers. While you are here you
might as well pay for your dinner by
inspecting my bees. We know they '
are all right; they are working fine. A
swarm of bees came here and my wife
hived them in a cracker box while I
was up in the field; and then I put
them in a new hive; I turned the box
wrong side up; took the privilege of
cutting out two of the best combs of
brood; he said, "if that is all right, the
others cannot help but be."

I said to him — "Where did you get
this hive; this is not a new hive?"

The moment I raised that lid — I said
to him — "You raise that and take a
smell. I know what is in those
combs;" it was there in abundance —
American foul brood.

"Where did you get this hive? And
these combs have not been built by this
new colony." ,

He said: "I brought it down from
the granary; we have a whole lot of
them."

I said to him : "You have been in
business before?"

166

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

"Yes, and they all died; we had bad
luck."

I went up there and I examined 15
hive bodies; he formerly was a stone
mason by trade, and, as soon as a
colony had died, he had sealed it up
tight.

There were all the stages that have
been described here: The sunken
cappings, in abundance. He had taken
one of those hives in that condition and
put this new swarra into it.

I asked him: "How long ago since
you had bees?"

"A long time." His wife said: "Don't
you' know when we had the last
swarm? It was when our boy was
born and he is eight years old."

Now, it had been lying there idle, and
when the opportunity came it de-
veloped.

McEvoy, of Canada, said that he be-
lieved, so long as that comb existed,
those germs would be waiting for a
favorable opportunity.

On the other hand, it is said, that
freezing evidently would kill the dis-
ease. If freezing would do it, those
had been there eight winters, in a
building without heat.

In our experimental station work,
we have tried . a temperature below
frp"7ins: point, and it is surprising th-^
resisting power of American foul
brood. There is only one thing to do:
Boil it. Get it away from the bees,
and, if enough of it, boil the combs;
you can sell that beeswax to be made
into foundation. I do not believe it is
possible for foul brood to spread
through the use of foundation.

Mr. Wheeler — There is one point that
still ranl<'lps me a little: I run up
against Mr. Kildow and Doctor Phil-
lips on it.

Anybody, that has a case of foul
brood, can test it for himself all right,
but I have held, for a good many years,
the bees clear out American foul brood
before you see any pin holes — any dead
brood. I still hold to that. From what
has been said, you would think the
bees would not touch the disease; the
proof for which is: You take a tooth
pick, and you And that ropy cell; you
take and stir it up with a tooth pick
and draw the ropiness out; go back
there in twenty minutes and the bees
will have cleaned it out.

If they will clean out one ropy cell
they will clean out hundreds of them.

The bees, until they are overcome by
disease, continually clean, clean, clean,
' as their nature is to keep the hive
clean.

When they are overcome by it, they
hang back and the larvae is left in.

Mr. Bull — I w^ould like to ask a ques-
tion in regard to treating for Ameri-
can foul brood — shake on starters or
full sheets, which?

President France — That will depend.
If a beginner in the business, I would
say, take foundation starters; but, if
an experienced bee-keeper, who is
careful in watching these things, he
can use a larger amount of wax and
full sheets.

The advantage in the use of start-
ers: > The bees have to draw out their
combs and are more liable to make a
perfect cure, but unfortunately a large
percentage of that new drawn-out
comb is drone comb, and you are in a
bad fix again.

Mr. Bull — Is it not a fact, the amount
of disease in the hive makes it a large
factor?

For instance, if, in a colony here and
there, a cell — would you not consider
It folly to shake that colony or colo-
nies?

President France — Certainly, if you
have an extra strong colony.

Mr. MaCkeim — I have tried a modi-
fication of the McEvoy treatment, by
shaking them into an empty hive and
putting on a queen excluding board
under cover. There is always bur comb
sticking to the queen excluding board;
they will build down and use honey
taken with them and there wuU be very
little in the cell.

Take that same hive — take the cover
off, and raise up the queen excluding
zinc, with bees hanging to it — to comb
•that they have built. I hold that while
I put in frames of full sheets; then
shake the thing on top of frames; put
cover on and it has cured it; I take
away the bur comb that they have
built.

Mr. Bull — While you are taking your
cover off, raising that excluder with
those bees on it, you have to smoke
them. The other way, ypu can pick up
that hive and set it on to another hive
and the bees will not know you have
touched them; it can be done in twen-
ty seconds; gives them no chance to
get any honey; when I shake a colony,
to start with, I see that those combs^

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

167

before I start, are in shape to handle
rapidly; the idea is to get the bees off
the comb as quickly as possible.

President France — There is one thing
.1 would like to inquire: Are these
committees ready to make reports —
the Committee on Resolutions; and the
Committee of Auditing?

REPORT OF AUDITING COM-
MITTEE.

We, the undersigned Committee,
have examined the books and found
them correct. Balance on hand, De-
cember 18th, 1915, $62.60.

C. F. KANNENBERG,
AARON COPPIN,
J. C. WHEELER,

Committee,

While this committee is busy: We
have heard a great deal of talk on foul
brood; we have had expressions from
some of the members as to what con-
stitutes foul brood, and the different
kinds of treatment.

I have had experience in foul brood.
I have had it twice and have been suc-
cessful in my treatment of it. I do
not want to give my experience when
we have our President here who is well
versed in the treatment of foul brood.
I would like for you, Mr. President, to
tell the members how to treat foul
brood, so that, if they have foul brood,
they will know how to treat it; and
they know, when hearing from you,
they are listening to some one who
knows what he is talking about.

President France — European or
American, or both ?

A member — Any kind of foul brood.

President France — You have had the
difference between European and
American described. Now as for
treatment: When we see those pin
holes, those sunken cappings, that ropy
condition, and we get that peculiar
odor, I decide I have American foul
brood.

I would say: Find this out as early
in the season, in the brood-rearing
season as you can. Look for it — but I
hope you never find it. But, in case
you do, if it is only a few cells, then
prepare a clean hive with full sheets
of foundation, and if you have an ex-
tracting comb that has not much brood
in it, put that in the center and place
full sheets on either side.

Get your bees as quietly as you can
from the infected combs, into a clean

hive. And one of the poorest methods
is to shake them.

Mr. Baldridge's plan: Reverse that
hive for a time; the field bees will go
out the next day to work, and, return-
ing, go back to the old stand into a
clean hive.

Remove the queen from the infected
hive and put her in the clean hive, and
you practically have all the bees in a
clean hive.

I would say: Let us get all those
bees out of the infected hive into a
clean hive.

The chances are that any infected
bees, or bees from an infected hive,
are all into the clean hive. Some of
them have carried infected honey;
they will deposit a large percentage
of it in the dry comb in the center.

If you can, the next day, open that
hive and gently remove this one conib,
and insert in its place a sheet of
foundation, getting the bees from that
one comb, you ought to be through
with it.

But don't think the old infected hive
is going to be where the bees will see
it again. We are liable to say: "I
would like to save that." Look out —
you are standing in your own light.
Hives are not bee tight.

The principle of treating American
foul brood is to take away all the in-
fection. Give them clean quarters;
about twenty-four hours afterwards
take away any comb they have had for
the deposit of some of that.

When it comes to the treatment of
this other — European — If it is only here
and there an occasional cell of it show-
ing in your colonies that are fairly
good and strong:

Take aw9.y their queen. Inside of
seven to nine days, remove all queen
cells; and during this time you have
either queens from your very best
stock that is not infected, or from out
of your own yard, a good queen on the
way coming, that you can introduce
into that hive.

It is not necessary to remove all of
the combs. You will help colonies th.at
are really bad with infection to take out
those center combs. I would remove
those; I would not ask the bees to be
burdened with so much work.

Mr. Wheeler — What about shaking —
for European foul brood — is that suc-
cessful, into empty hives?

President France^No, I think not;

168

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE

it is wonderfully good if you can afford
all that — but if you have retained the
queen — though we don't know the why
of European foul brood — but if we have
kept the queen, in a large percentage
of cases we have kept the cause of the
trouble.

In one of the counties in our state a
man decided he had European foul
brood. He had cleaned up American
years before.

European broke out and in about two
weeks he had over 80 colonies showing
it. He had ordered a big surplus of
foundation; filled combs with sheets of
foundation, shook his bees from in-
fected comb on to sheets of foundation,
melted old comb into wax; shipped
that off to supply man.

When I got there he had hatching!
brood on these new drawn out founda-
tions and I found in nearly every one
European foul brood again. I said, the
cause has not been removed; let's now
order new queens and take away the
queen, but not the combs. I did not
remove anything but the queen. The
new queen arrived, I think, about be-
tween two and three weeks after we
had taken these queens away; cells
had been removed that had been
started, and these new queens were in-
truduced, and he has had no trouble
since. The queen was largely at
fault; he had not removed the queen
and he had not removed the cause.

Mr. Stewart — Did you cage those
queens in that colony that had foul
brood?

President France — No, we killed
them. Doctoor Miller has caged the
queen from ten days to two weeks and
returned her.

President France — I will give you my
experience of a few years ago; I went
to a convention; I wanted to have ex-
plained how can you stop swarming.
A man who had quite a lot of bees
said: Kill the queens and let them
raise new ones. All right, I said, I
had some queens I prized and it was
with much regret that I pinched their
heads. After killing about 200 I swore
off. I said I will cage that queen and
keep her at home in my own hive and
then release her. When released she
went on with her work. I did not have
swarming. I had 285 swarms the next
spring, queenless.

Now let me draw an illustration:
You buy of me a choice fresh cow. She

is three days on the road in transit
with nobody to milk that cow. 'She
will never produce for you what she
would if she had remained at home.

A queen laying eggs, then caged —
that queen when I went to remove the
queen there was a wad of eggs in the
cage.

Do. you wonder she failed me when
the right hour came? I would rather
pinch her head than to ever cage her.

President France — We will now listen
to the resolutions.

RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, That the Chicago-NortM-
western Bee-Keepers' Association ex-
tend their thanks and appreciation to
the Great Northern Hotel for- their
courtesy in extending to this Associa-
tion the freedom of this Hotel and
Room 138 for this convention.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the
Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers'
Association be instructed to convey to
the families of the Dadant's the deepest
regret that sickness has prevented
their atendance at this convention, and
the sincere hope of the members of this
Association is that all may very soon
be restored to health.

Whereas, The Chicago-Northwestern
Bee-Keepers' Association have learned
with sorrow of the decease of their
brother and co-worker, Mr. H. C.
Ahlers, of West Bend, Wisconsin; be it

Resolved, That this Association ex-
tend to his bereaved family its deepest
sympathy in their hour of sorrow and
that a copy of these resolutions be
transmitted to his family and also be
entered in the records of this meeting.

Resolved, That the Chicago-North-
western Bee-Keepers' Association
present and support the matter of hav-
ing the food value of honey and its de-
sirability as a table sauce presented
to the proper city officers and ask
their recommendation for having it
placed on the course of instruction in
the Domestic Science Department of
the public schools.

Resolved, That the Chicago-North-
western Bee-Keepers' Association pre-
sent and support the matter of secur-
ing a large and separate building for
the annual bee and honey exhibits on
the State Fair Grounds.

Resolved, That the Chicago-North-
western Bee-Keepers' Association pre-
sent and support the matter of having

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

169

the food value of honey and its use in
cooking and its desirability as a table
sauce presented to the proper state
authorities, and ask their recommenda-
tion for having it placed in the course
of instruction in the Domestic Science
Department of the public schools.

Resolved, That the members of the
Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers'
Association express their delight in re-
ceiving and acknowledging greeting
from Dr. C. C. Miller, and regret that
he could not be with us at our meeting,
expressing the hope that we may have
the pleasure of his presence with us in
the future.

JOHN C. BULL,

EDWARD HASSINGER, JR.,

HENRY ROHRS,

Committee.
A member — I move the adoption of
these Resolutions.

Motion seconded and carried.

President France — ^I wish, if it is
possible, that suggestions from the dif-
jferent members reach me at my home,
kvhile the matter is fresh in your minds
; — as to what we can individually do to
make 1916 Chicago - Northwestern
meeting the best ever known.

When you put this up to a commit-
tee of one, to look after, I shall im-
mediately take this matter up, early
this coming week, with the Michigan
people to learn what has made the
success of that premium department
— that we may consider that. It will
not do to wait until the next meeting.
If there are to be exhibits you should
know in ample time that you may
have the whole summer to prepare for
it. If we wait until the last hour,
some of our choice goods will be gone.

There is another factor: I would like
to see borne out, skill and art in the
line of designing, either in wax or in
_ honey.

In some of the State Fairs that I have
been to, they have had real original
designs. They are attractive and they
are beautiful, and they attract much
attention and comment that is favor-
able.

Take last year at the Minnesota Fair
— a bell of about 18 inches in diameter
of beautiful white comb — the center-
piece of dark comb. It was a piece
that was very attractive. By its side
were designs made of wax that were
well worth the premiums that were
there awarded.

Do not get the idea somebody else
has designed something that we can
adopt, make it in wax and bring it as
our design; that can be entered in
honest competition.

I am only giving out suggestions; it
is up to you to make this coming Con-
vention next year possibly better than
we have had for years.

I cannot guarantee that I will be
here; I will work in earnest up to the
time of the meeting; you have a splen-
did Vice-President. We can individu-
ally make this next meeting a suc-
cess; each of you come and bring
some one with you.

Mr. Kildow — This contemplated field
meet near Chicago this summer: I
would guarantee to have a comb of
American foul brood there, if there is
one to be got anywhere near, for the
benefit of those who have not seen
American foul brood; they can have
a chance to see the real thing.

Mr. Bull — In regard to that field
meeting: If it is possible I would sug-
gest that we do have a hive of Amer-
ican foul brood and also of European
if we can get it, or two or three hives
of American foul brood — and show
what treatment is necessary for that
hive, that it may be seen before the
eyes of those who do not know it.

Mr. Kildow — It would be a good plan
to have this meeting where they have
the disease.

Mr. Wheeler — I was contemplating
giving you an invitation to my place;
I believe I will have to withdraw it.

Mr. Kildow — Wherever we are, if
there is no foul brood in that apiary,
there had better be brought a frame
of each kind. If we go to a place
where they have the disease, we might
clean it up for them.

A member — Would it be just as well
to divide up Cook County into sec-
tions? There are hundreds of people
who have one or two hives of bees who
never would go to a Convention. Can
we not have "Visiting Committees who
will go and talk to bee-keepers and
help some one?

President France — I will appoint:
Mr. Kildow — Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Bull —
Mr. Smith — Mr. Bruner. on this Com-
mittee, to select a place for the field
meet and make necessary arrange-
ments.

They, of themselves, cannot make

170

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

this a go; it is only possible by youf
co-operation with them. Individually
consider yourselves a part of this
committee.

President France — Just a word, in
summing up: "What have we gained
or learned by our coming here to-
gether? Have we learned something
or more than one thing that to us has
been worth soroething?

Is this worth our consideration — this
fibroid felt mat cut the size of the
hive body? It js absorbent — will hold
nearly a pail of water. You cannot
use it under fiat roof, but with tele-
scope cover it will retain heat during
the winter in a colony of bees, if out
of doors or even in the cellar. In the
summer season it will retain the heat
above and not heat the colony below.
A man who lives near LaCrosse thinks
they are worth more in summer wea-
ther. So far as the cost is concerned:
The manufacturers charge me 7 cents
apiece, cut to fit my hives. They are
in no supply agency I know of, except
the Minnesota Agency has taken it lo-
cally for their honey market.

It is made to go in new dwelling
houses to go into the wall, as a non-
conductor, by which is saved a large
percentage of fuel in winter and house
cooler in summer. The bees have a
little house to live in and it is worth
our while.

This painting of comb foundation:
It has been explained. If you have
never tried it — do so.

How much more do you prize painted
foundation than that unpainted?

Mr. Hassinger — At least two and
then some.

President France — The painted one
is easily worth two.

Let us put some of these things into
practical use — into practical trial in
our own homes. Is there anything fur-
ther before I have to leave?

A member — One thing I noticed to-
day: It has been recommended that
infected honey be boiled two hours be-
fore it is fed back to the bees. I no-
tice you said fifteen minutes.

Mr. Hosman — I think less time will
be all right. Have cover left off on
boiler it is boiled in; a very short time
will settle that for good, and ten or
fifteen minutes is 'just as good as two
hours.

President France — I would say, to be
on the safe side: Don't ever feed boiled

honey to your bees. Better buy sugar
and make syrup and dispose of that
honey in some other way.

Mr. Kildow — If you boil it you must
stand and stir it, even the froth on the
side.

President France — I believe Mr. E.
S. Miller is your Vice-President; if he
will take charge I will have to be mak-
ing towards my train.

Vice-President Miller — What is your
further pleasure?

Mr. Kannenberg — Before our Presi-
dent goes, I wish that this Association
would extend their thanks to him for
his being with us, and wish him a safe
journey home.

Motion made and seconded.

Vice-President Miller — It has been
moved and seconded that a vote of
thanks be extended to our President,
Mr. N. E. France; all in favor say
Aye.

Motion was made unanimous.

Vice-President Miller — Anything fur-
ther before we adjourn?

Any suggestions or questions you
wish to bring before the meeting?

Mr. Kannenberg — ^We have a sample
on the table, and I have been asking
what this is; can any one tell me what
it is?

Vice-President Miller — Can any one
explain this device?

A member — I believe I put in a ques-
tion with reference to bees fertilizing
grapes.

Question: How many colonies of
bees would be required to fertilize 300
acres of grapes, location Pine Hurst,
North Carolina? Would like informa-
tion of any bee-keepers in that lo-
cality.

Mr. Coppin — I don't know whether
t)ees fertilize grapes to any extent or
not. My bees are among the grapes. I
fail to see them working among the
grape bloom unless it is wild grape.
The bees will work very rapidly on
that; cultivated grapes they don't
seem to work the same.
■ Vice-President Miller — The grapes
in my section, it seems, do not require
fertilization. Very seldom have I ever
seen bees on my grapes.

Mr. Kannenberg — I have a wild
grape vine in '-rpy bee yard; it never
had any grapes yet. Bees do not work
on it. ~

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

171

Mr. Coppin — Some of my neighbors
have wild grape vines and they com-
plained my bees were on it and that
they did not get any fruit because the
bees destroyed all blossoms, whilst the
tame grapes they did not disturb at
all.

Vice-President Miller — I have heard
of bees working on grapes. I had a
neighbor who claimed my bees, one
time, destroyed $200.00 worth of
grapes.

Mr. Coppin — The bees will not de-
stroy grapes. The grapes the bees
go on, that they were supposed to de-
stroy, were already destroyed before
the bees went on. They were ripe and
broke or something else. Bees will not
puncture the skin of sound grapes.

Vice-President Miller — The jaws of
bees are rounded, not sharp like those
of some other kinds of insects, like
wasps, and they cannot puncture the
skin of grapes, but, if this skin is
punctured by some other insect, then
the bees will suck the juice of grapes.

If there is nothing further, and we
wish to close, a motion for adjourn-
ment will be in order.

Vice-President Miller — There are one
or two questions here.

Question: Will the queen carry
American foul brood from the queen
raiser's apiary to the purchaser's?

Mr. Kildow — I don't believe she will,
unless the candy in that cage has been
made from infected honey.

Vice-President Miller — Anj^ one else
on this point?

Vice-President Miller — Here is a
question :

Question: What disease? Brood dies
after being capped — cappings flat, not
sunken — only occasionally perforated —
larvae come out whole — seems bloated,
but there is no ropiness or scale left —
about one row or two of cells around
brood not affected — nearly all season.

Mr. Kildow — Pickle brood.

Question: In European foul brood
location, how many colonies should one
care for and keep clean, running for
comb honey?

Mr. Bull — I might say that is entire-
ly up to the man who is doing the
work.

Vice-President Miller — Some people
are competent and able to do very
much more than others; it depends

upon his knowledge; skill, and ability
to get work done.

Vice-President Miller — I had a ques-
tion I intended to ask Mr. France, but I
didn't seem to have a good oppor-
tunity.

He stated yesterday, that it was his
policy to requeen every year, to raise
the best queens.

I think this question was discussed
by Doctor Miller through the Bee
Journals some time ago: "How are
we going to raise the best queens?
How are we going to know which is
our best stock if we requeen every
year? Has any one a solution for that
problem?"

It takes two years, sometimes three,
for me to find out which my best
queens are; I find out that some do
better the second year than they do
the first, ■ while others do better the
first year.

Mr. Bull — The main point of Mr.
France's argument w^as to control,
swarming. Take that queen away about
the 10th or 15th of June; leave the
hive queenless, then let them rear a
queen, or give them a cell of better
stock to prevent swarming.

Vice-President Miller — ^Where would
you get better stock?

Mr. Bull — Would have to test it out
to find which was the best stock; the
colony that showed up the best work
would be the best; test out a few of
those for breeding stock.

Vice-President Miller— In my yards
I have got to the point where it is
pretty hard for me to buy anything
better than I have. It has not always
proven best, in my case to, to send
out and get stock and cross with what
I have, because what I have is better
than what I have been able to buy,
recently. Whether crossing of blood
would pay or not, I don't know.

For six or seven years the stock I
have bought from queen breeders has
not been equal to the stock in my own
yard. Probably some of you have had
the same experience.

Mr. Hosman — I notice Mr. France
said: After the queen has been caged
for a while slie is no more good. This
being the case, we could not expect
to get good queens by sending for
them.

The only way I can see is to keep
track of your colonies and use your
best colonies to breed from next fall.

172

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

I keep track of every colony so that,
after the honey flow is over, I know
what each colony has done. By keep-
ing- that record — starting my queen
rearing the latter part of July — that
will give me a chance to breed from
my best colonies and have that queen
ready to start work the following
spring. I would hate to part with
some of the queens I have now.

Vice-President Miller — If there is no

further business, we can adjourn at
any time now,

Mr. Kannenberg — I move that we ad-
journ.

Motion seconded and carried.

Vice-President Miller — The meeting
stand^ adjourned.

At 4 p. m. the Convention adjourned
to rheet at the call of the Executive
Committee.

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

173

ALPHABETICAL UST OF MEMBERS

FOR 1916

Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association.

NAME AND ADDRESS.

Augestine, A. A., R. 1, Dakota, 111

Baker, Martin, Williams Bay, Wis

Baldridge, M. M., St. Charles, 111

Balduff, Henry, Beardstown, 111

Barkemeyer, B. D., 450 Marion St. Oak Park, 111...

Bartsch, F. R., 330 ^V. 69th St., Chicasro

Baxter, Dr. A. C, 1418 Holmes Ave., Springfield, 111.

Baxter, Emil J., Nauvoo, 111

Beaver, Wallace R., Lincoln, 111

Becker, Charles, Pleasant Plains, 111

Bender, C. F., I^ewman, 111

Bennett, C. S., 1022 Jackson St., Charleston, 111

Bercaw, Geo. W., Glendale, Cal

Bishop, Frank, Virden, 111

Blubaker, W. H., Freeport, 111

Blume, W. B., 6505 Norwood Park Ave., Chicago...

Boss, H. T., Cicero, 111

Bowen, J. W., Jacksonville, 111

Boyd, C. J., Anna, 111

Brelsfoard, W. H., Kenney, 111

Brinckerhoff, Dr. J. J., Minooka, 111

Brown, Frank, 1749 W. 58th St., Chicago

Bruner, E. H., 3836 N. 44th Ave., Chicago

Bryant, E. J., 676 Walnut Ave., Elgin, 111 ,

Bull, John C, Hammond, Ind

Burnett, R. A., 199 S. Water St., Chicago ,

Burrows, Charles, Lincoln, 111 ,

Cheeseman, J. A., Pesotum, 111 ,

Clark, Frank, Ridott, 111

Claussen, S. S., R. 3, Oregon, 111

Coppin, Aaron, Wenona, 111

Cunningham, J. C, Streator, 111

Dadant, C. P., Hamilton, 111

Daman, C. J., Aurora, 111

Desort, Frank, 1308 Ottawa St., Lincoln, 111

Diebold, A. J., Seneca, 111

Drake, Robert P., Warren, 111

Fairbanks, C. A., Anamosa, Iowa

Parrington, F. C, Wheaton, 111

Finch, C. W., 1451 Ogden Ave., Chicago

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174

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

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NAME AND ADDRESS.

Finger, C. A., Marissa, 111

Fischer, Henry F., Bensenville, 111

Foltz, Adam, Elpaso, 111

Frei, George J., R. 5, Freeport, 111. . .

Fry, Jacob, R. 6, Mechanicsburg-, 111

Furgeson, L. R., Harvey, 111

Glasser, William, Dakota, 111

Gray, W. H., Chillicothe, 111.

Haan, Frank J., Riverview, 111

Haberman, Mrs. William, Lodi, Wis

Haberman, William, Lodi, Wis

Hansen, Will, Minooka, 111

Hartman, G., Freeport, 111

Hassinger, Edw., Jr., Greenville, Wis

Hawkins, Kennith, Plainfield, 111

Hays, C. L., 2000 W. 101st St. Place, Chicago

Heinzel, A. O., R. 3, Lincoln, 111

Hettel, Mrs. J., Marine, 111

Horack, Charles, Streator, 111

Horstman, William H., 948 W. 68th St., Chicago

Kannenberg, C. F., Oak Park, 111

Kiefer, Edw., 4432 N. Campbell Ave., Chicago

Kildow, A. L., Putnam, 111

King, Harry L., R. 10, Springfield, 111

Klein, John, Mendota, 111

Kluck, N. A., McConnell, 111

Kneser, John, R. 19, Hale's Corners, 111

Kuezynski, John F., R. 4, Amboy, 111

Laurie, T. E., Jacksonville, 111

Lee, Arthur, R. 11, Rockford, 111

Lee, H. W., Pecatonica, 111

Legat, Sylvester, Spring Valley, 111

Lind, M. H., Bader, 111

Lyman, W. C, Downers Grove, 111

Mandle, H. W., Palmyra, 111

Marshall, William, Carpentersville, 111

McCartney, George, Rockford, 111

Miller, Dr. C. C, Marengo, 111

Miller, E. S., Valparaiso, Ind

Muchleip, H., Apple River, 111

Mundell, J. M., Hobart, Ind

Mussing, Martin, Oak Park, 111

Ness, L. L., Morris, 111

Newburn, J. W., Wenona, 111

Norberg, Arthur, Spring Valley, 111

Olson, John, Davis, 111

Pike, E. C, St. Charles, 111

Poindexter, James, R. 5, Bloomington, 111

Price, Henry, Elizabeth, 111

Pyles, T. E., Putnam, 111

Rasmussen, Peter, Fairdale, 111

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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

175

name; and address.

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Rei chert, John, 458 Hendse, Elgin, 111

Reynolds, Alvah, Altona, 111

Richardson, Dr. G. R., Princeton, 111

Robtains, Daniel E., Payson, 111.

Roehrs, H., Hinsdale, 111

Root, A. L, Co., 215 W. Ohio St., Chicago

Ross, E. B., Monroe, Wis

Russo, Gottlieb, 3029 N. Leavitt St., Chicago

Ruth, E. M., R. 3, Freeport, 111

Sauer, George L., Polo, 111

Schmertman, Lewis, Freeport, 111

Scripter, Otis, Zion City, 111

Scroggin, A. C, Mt. Pulaski, 111

Seastream, George, Box 142, Pawnee, 111

Seibold, Jacob, Homer, 111

Shaw, F. L., Hutsonville, 111

Simmons, J. R., Harvey, 111

Smith, C. O., 5446 Cornell Ave., Chicago

Snell, F. A., Milledgeville, 111

Soper, Frank, 8043 Muskegon Ave., Chicago

Stanley, A. C, 6131 Warren Ave., Chicago

Stanley, F. B., R; 8, Springfield, 111

Steinhausen, J. S., R. 37, Downers Grove, 111

Stolts, J. P., 306 Walnut St., Aurora, 111

Stone, James A., R. 4, Springfield, 111

Stumm, W. H., R. 3, Edinburg, 111

Sylvester, L., 123 S. Highland Ave., Aurora, 111

Tanner, W. F., 1107 N. Ave., Hubbard Woods, 111...

Teutemacher, Herman, Dyer, Ind

Turner, W. P., Peoria Heights, 111

Valerius, Charles, Elkville, 111

Van Butsele, Louis, CoUinsville, 111

Vogel, Henry, Galena, 111

Wachter, Martin, Hinsdale, 111 ,

Wallace, F. N., 130 State House, Indianapolis, Ind..,
Werner, Louis, Edwardsville, 111. (Lost all in flood)

Wicklein, F. A., Percy, 111

Wheeler, J. C, Oak Park, 111

Wiegand, Adam, 1575 Claybourne Ave., Chicago

Withrow, G. M., Mechanicsburg, 111

Wuretig, C. J. Blue Island, 111

Zimmerman, Henry W., Bethalto, 111

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700

65

500

500

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2200

600

450
1000

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1400

750

176

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION

I -

INDEX TO FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT.

Page

Address of Welcome, by Wm. H.
Conkling 26

Affiliating with the National, Dis-
cussion on 86

Afternoon Session, Chicago-North-
western, First Day 104

Afternoon Session, Chicago-North-
western, Second Day 158

Afternoon Session, Illinois State,
First Day 36, 43

After-Thoughts of the Hamilton
Meeting 50

Annual Report of the Illinois State
Meeting 24

Appropriation, State 13

Auditing Committee, Chicago-
Northwestern, Report of 167

Auditing Committee, Illinois State,
Report of 43

Baxter, Emil J., Pres., Cut of 23

Baxter, Emil J., Response and Wel-
come Address by 27

Becker, Chas., Treas., Cut of 29

Bee-Keepers and Inspectors,

Thoughts Relative to 41

Bees, as to Taxing 74

Bees, Efficiency in Manipulation of 132

Black Brood and Treatment 22

Bull, John C, Building at each out
Yard, or Motor Truck, Which?. . . 114

Bull, John C, Picture of 92

Buyers, Proposition to insure good
Queens to 44

Cellar or Out-door Wintering for
Illinois? 68

Charter Members of the Illinois
State 7

Chicago Bee-Keepers, Greeting
from Indianapolis 139

Conkling, Wm H., Welcome Ad-
dress by 26

Constitution and By-Laws of the
Illinois State 9

Contagion, Causes of 17

Convention of the Chicago-North-
western, Eighteenth Annual 92

Comb Foundation, Why and How
I Paint 130

Corn Bloom, Does it Furnish any
Honey? 68

Dadant, C. P., Agency of Bees in

the Fertilization of Flowers 77

Dadant, C. P., Marketing Honey.. 121

Page
Dark Honey, One promising out-
look for 83

Diseases Among Bees, the Preven-
tion of 43.

Dysentary, Causes and Treatment. 22

Energy, Expenditure of 55

Entrance, The 56

Evening Session, First Day, Chi-
cago-Northwestern 130

Experiments 18

Father Langstroth's Picture 4

Feces, Effects of accumulation of.. 53

Field Meetings, The advantage of. 135
Foul Brood, and Other Diseases of

Bees 16

Foul Brood, Causes of 16

Foul Brood, European, Question as

to Time of 75

Foul Brood, Law 11

Foul Brood, Symptoms of 18

Foul Brood, Treatment of 19

Foul Brood, Utah Treatment of.. 20

France, Hon. N. E., Paper by 61,93

France, Hon. N. E., Picture of 92

Furnace, The Comparison of a

Colony with a 54

Grapes, Bees to Fertilize? 170

Greeting to Chicago Bee-Keepers.. 139
Group of the Illinois State Bee-
Keepers' Association (insert)

between pages 32-33

Gunter, Rev. Geo. T., Invocation t)y 25
Hassinger, Edw., Jr., As to Paint-
ing Comb Foundation 130

Hawkins, Paper by 44

Heat, Conservation and Reduction

of 54

Heat, Excessive Generation of . . . . 52

Honey, Teaching the Food Value of 123

Honey, To Feed Bees, Sour? 127

Illinois State Association, Charter. 8
Illinois State Association, Officers

of, for 1916 S

Illinois State, Election of Officers.. 80, 81
Illinois State, Morning Session,

Second day 76

Illinois State, Organization of, in

1891 7

Illinois State, Proceedings of 25

Inspector's, State, Report ' 37

Insulation, Types of 55

Judging Honey, Code of Rules for. 14
Kildow, A. L., Advantage of Field

Meetings 135

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE

177

Page

Kildow, A. L., Picture of 38

Kneser, John, Selling Honey at

Higher Prices 118

Legislature, Resolution to 41

Letter of Transmittal 3

McEvoy Treatment 19

Members, Roll of, for 1916 173

Miller, E. S., Paper by 132

Morning Session, Second day, Chi-
cago-Northwestern 144

National, Discussion on Affiliation. 86

Out-door Wintering 51

Packing, Methods of 56

Packing, Time for 56

Phillips, Dr. E. P., Paper, Out- door

Wintering 51

Phillips, Dr. E. F., Picture of 52

Pickled Brood, Symptoms and

Treatment 21

President's Address 27

Price, Show Your Goods, Then

Tell the 120

Queen, Influence of the 54

Queen, Young 126

Queens, Importance of Young 100

Queens, The Value of Young 96

Queens, Young from the best of

Stock 61

Page

Question Box 35

Report of Treas. Becker 29

Report, Secretary Stone's Financial 30
Resolutions offered by the Chicago-
Northwestern 168

Response and President's Address,

by President Baxter 27

Secretarj^'s Report for 1915 28

Spring Dwindling 54

State Board of Agr., Resolution to.

Favoring a Separate Building at '

the State Fair 77

Stone, Jas. A., Secretary's Picture. 23

Stores, Lack of 54

Summary, and Conclusion 58

Sweet Clover, Sow in Corn? 71

System 134

Unpacking, Time for 57

Weak Colonies, Danger of 53

Williams, Geo. W., Paper, Outlook

for Dark Honey 83

Williams, Geo. W., Teaching the

Food Value of Honey 123

Wind Break, Providing a 57

Winter Loss, Causes of .51, 165

Winter Stores, Providing Adequate 57

Young Bees, The Necessity of

Having 53

- 12