FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VITT. 527 



vantage that which we already have, and where the spirit of cooperation 

 c.mes in a community, let it be co-operation and not combination. 



And, after all, what are the benefits of co-operation? In the fable 

 the old man wanted to impress on his sons the value of ihoir co-opera- 

 tion, and demonstrated it by tying sticks together in a bundle and bid- 

 ding them to break it, which they could not do. Then he untied it and 

 I hey easily broke each stick by itself. This is the theory. of the benefits 

 of co-operation in everything; this is the theory on which our glorious 

 cation is based. 



The benents of co-operation, then, are strength, ability to resist im- 

 positions of other interests, to carry out enterprises on a larger and more 

 pro'uabh' scale. 



Do you ever think of the practical value of co-operation as exem- 

 plified when Uncle Sam with his 70,000,000 people carries a letter from 

 New York to San Francisco for two cents, or when co-operation among 

 the nations carries a letter to the other side of the world for five cents? 



The benefits of co-operation seem to me so plain and so often proved 

 by practical application that there should be no more need of wasting our 

 time. 



BEE CULTURE. 



G. M. Saylor hefore Pocahontas County Farmers' Institute. 



The subject, "Bee Culture," which has been assigned me, is so large 

 and broad a subject that we scarcely Imow where to begin, and when 

 I conclude there will be only a very small part of the subject exhausted. 

 Being in the bee business only six or seven years and not directly for 

 profit. I say not directly for profit, I began with but one swarm, to fer- 

 tilize my orchard and garden, there being apple, plum and cherry trees, 

 also strawberry plants, that will not bear unless fertilized from other 

 blossoms. In this my bees were eminently successful. Trees had blos- 

 somed from year to year without bearing, began bearing. What I 

 shall say- will be from the standpoint of an amateur, and not from an 

 old, scientific beekeeper. 



I sympathize with you being obliged to listen to an amateur, but 

 after listening to the big guns for some time some of the plain, practical 

 ideas of beekeeping will be a change at least. I do not think anyone 

 should engage in the bee business that is not a lover of honey, for this 

 reason, without that object in view, working among bees is very likely 

 to become distasteful. As is well known to most of you, the bee is an 

 animal that objects to being trifled with; the bee carrying a sword or 

 dagger with him all the time, like a Russian soldier, and never asking 

 permission to use it. In this connection will say that much suffering 

 can be avoided by not taking hold cf the lance or sting with thumb and 

 finger to draw it out, but instead use a blunt knife, scraping over the part 

 stung, which will remove the lance and with it the poison. Try it and seo. 



