488 STATE BOARD OK AOHK'LLTUKE. 



POULTUy. 



Poultry does not nsiiixlly find a place in the fanners live stoek account, though it 

 frequently Ibnn.s a very considerable item of his income. There is always a demand 

 for good poultrj^ and fresh eggs at fair prices, and on a well conducted farm a num- 

 ber of fowls may always he kept at an inconsiderable expense. Jn this as in all other 

 classes of domestic animals the profits is the best breeds and especially in those 

 breeds which combine in the highest degree the best qualities for the table and for 

 the production of eggs. 



BEE CULTUUK. 



Hereafter no inventory of Michigan's farm products will be complete which does 

 not include the apiary. The State Bee Keepers Association, a flourishing organiza- 

 tion, numbers over iOO members, mostly specialists and amateurs, some of them 

 keeping several hundreds of colonies. Mr. Koup, of Carson City, reports his sales of 

 honey for the past season as aggregating $2,300, while Mr. Heddon, of Dowagiac, 

 Bold 8,000 pounds at prices ranging from 9 cents a pound for extracted honey, to IS 

 cents for comb, and many others have no doubt done as well. The aggregate pro- 

 duct of the State cannot be safely estimated, but it is evidently large, as are also the 

 profits, where the bees are properly managed. The introduction of artificial comb 

 foundation, and the improved methods of breeding, feeding and hiving bees are 

 working quite a revolution in the apiary, and aiding materially to its profits. South- 

 ern Michigan, with its cultivated field of clover, buckwheat and succession of summer 

 bloom, aTid Northern Michigan, with its native basswood groves, raspberry thickets, 

 and wild flowers, are all admirably adapted for bee pasturage, and insure a rapid de- 

 velopment of this industry, the profits of which should be shared, not by specialists 

 merely, but by farmers generally. 



J. P. THOMPSON. 



On motion the report of the Secretary was referred to the appropriate com- 

 mittees when appointed. 



Treasurer Dean asked permission to make a personal exphination, which was 

 granted. 



Treasurer Dean took the floor and read from tiie Detroit Evening News tlie 

 following article, in which it is charged that there was a ring in the State Agri- 

 cultural Society, and which accused Mr. Dean personally of corrupt practices, 

 as treasurer of the State Agricultural Society. 



[From.the Evening News, September 2).] 



A paragraph in the News of Wednesday to the effect that great discrepancies were 

 alleged to exist between the gate receipts at the State Fair, and the number of visi- 

 tors to the ground, has created considerable excitement, especially as no denial has 

 been made by the treasurer, Mr. Dean. The News reporter obtained his Information 

 from a responsible oflicial of the Society, who further stated that the Free Press 

 people had stationed private detectives at each gate to spot the number of persons 

 admitted. The treasurer has not yet made up his account of receipts, as tickets of 

 different values were Issued, which have to be canvassed. The counting of the dime 

 tickets issued to school children, and of quarter dollar ''special rates" and compli- 

 mentary tickets will occupy all the afternoon. The amount of receipts will foot up 

 |35,000. Mr. J. P. Tliompson, the outgoing Secretary, says that very much more than 

 $35,000 ought to have been taken. He estimates that in the five days at least 120,000 

 people visited the Fair, ninety-nine per cent, of whom at least should have paid full 

 rates. At the smallest calculation, $50,000 should have been gathered in. At Grand 

 Rapids, five years ago, where the fair was not half as large as this week, the receipts 

 were §28,000. " Think of that," said Mr, Thompson. " 1 tell you that the State Fair 

 ring is a rotten one of the very worst kind, and it was because 1 wouldn't knuckle 

 down to them that they ran me out of the secretarj'ship. They say in the papers 

 that they do not know what to do with their surplus. Jt will go where it will do 

 the ring the most good. AVhen my accounts are audited I will make such an expos- 

 ure of the inside workings of the men who engineer the State Fair as will astound 

 the people of Michigan." 



On motion of Mr. Beckwitli, it was 



Jiesolved, That if Mr. Thompson has any charge of corrupt practices to make 



