FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX. 641 



EXHIBITS. 



B. II. LONGWORTH, POLK CITY. 



To the Iowa Beekeepers' Association in Second Annual Convention 

 Assembled. Greeting: When your secretary requested me to present the 

 subject of "Exhibits" I had no idea of the array of talent that would here 

 be mobilized. And since I have read the printed program it has been 

 hard for me to get away from the impression that in appearing before 

 you at this hour, the chief exhibit I would be presenting would be that 

 of nerve. 



Surely at the close of a series of sessions so replete with interest and 

 enthusiasm, something of the nature of nerve is required of him who 

 would introduce the comparatively uninteresting topic up for our present 

 consideration. I say comparatively uninteresting advisedly. With 40,000 

 beekeepers in the state you can count on your finger^ without using your 

 thumbs the exhibitors at the State Fair for the past ten years. 



That the beekeeping industries exhibits are not without interest for 

 great numbers of fair visitors is clearly evident to one w^ho has spent 

 a day among the throngs of sightseers passing through the apiarist's 

 section of Agricultural Hall. 



When we speak of exhibits, naturally w'e think of fairs, and when we 

 talk of fairs we are discussing educational institutions. If our fair 

 should happen to be falling short of fulfilling the requirements of our 

 ideal as an educator, it is our privilege and duty to give to it our best 

 thought and effort. 



As your ideal for your fair is high, let your ideal for your own exhibit 

 be none the less so. Be satisfied only when you have given it your highest 

 thought and your most conscientious endeavor, your closest application 

 and your keenest effort. Then wherever awards may fall, the true re- 

 ward will be yours. 



We do not believe that we will be breaking faith with the preceding 

 proposition if we plan for the appropriation by our own families of a 

 large proportion of the educative infiuence set in motion by our exhibit. 

 If you have no family are you a young man? I would say quit it. 



Are you an old man? Interest some young persons with you. Someone 

 has said that to educate a child properly you should begin with the 

 grandmother, and so it might be said with regard to training an exhibitor, 

 but we are talking of exhibits and not of exhibitors. However, take 

 this from me: your exhibit will be better if your family is enlisted in 

 the campaign to make it so, and your family will be bettered if your 

 exhibit is used as means for their moral and intellectual as well as 

 material advancement. As a wave goes out from the center where it is 

 born and joins hands with the wave running to meet it, and these two 

 with others, so the interest of those connected with you are carried out 

 through the influence of your exhibit, and acquiring added and increased 

 interest there ensues a blending with a broader and more significant life. 



To return to the suggestion. Your exhibit will be better with the help 

 of your family. Your exhibit should be as extensive as practicable for 

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