ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATION. 187 



It is inevitable that three of these conditions will gradually change. 

 In fact, some are beginning to change somewhat just now. But that 

 should not worry us, because it is pretty certain that these good con- 

 ditions that have come have come to stay, and we are pretty certain 

 that no bee-keepers in the past have ever looked to a brighter, better 

 future than the bee-keepers now; when the words of Emerson are 

 probably truer than ever before, that ''We live in a new and exceptional 

 age. America is another word for opportunity." And that since the 

 war has a pecuhar significance for bee-keepers. In all beedom the 

 outlook is larger, freer than ever before, and people are coming to 

 look on bee-keeping as a science. 



It used to be that people thought bee-keeping might be learned 

 in perhaps a few minutes. Various times I have had letters come to 

 me saying: ''I am becoming interested in bee-keeping, and will you 

 please tell me all you know about it. I want to start in right awa^y- and 

 make it my life-work." That was the substance of several letters 

 I have had. 



I think that feeling is changing. INIany of the bee-keepers are 

 now talking in much larger numbers in speaking of the colonies than 

 they did before, and we have ever so many bee-keepers who have over 

 a thousand colonies now, and they are beginning to realize that their 

 work should .command better returns, and that a great deal of the 

 work that they have previously done themselves should be turned 

 over to helpers, people working under their supervision. At present 

 we see what is perhaps the beginning of a stampede into better bee- 

 keeping. A great deal of this is done quietly. People are seeing their 

 opportunity, and are not saying much, but are rapidly taking up the 

 best locations. Of course there are many good ones left. But some 

 are going on a bigger scale than many of us perhaps know of. I know 

 of a few that are even going down to the tropics. One man told me he 

 was backed by over a million dollars. He is just starting in, but he 

 is not saying much about it. 



This larger field that is opening up is made possible partly by 

 organization, and by the interchange of views concerning diseases, 

 management, etc., through the bee literature and Government work, 

 and also this larger bee-keeping is helped a great deal by a few other 

 factors, such as the auto-truck. In times past very good locations have 

 had almost no bees there simply because of the poor transportation 

 facilities, people could not reach them. Now the big trucks are be- 

 ginning to run all over the country, and in two or three years all of 

 our large cities will be connected with these large trucks, running reg- 

 ularly two or three times a week, and the bee-keepers can easily take 

 advantage of these and can move their crop without needing to own 

 a truck at all. And as it goes on, these lines are going to extend all 

 over the United States. We have one right now that is just starting 

 between Cleveland and Toledo, so that we will have the use of that 

 this next year if we care to. 



And migratory bee-keeping is also another factor in helping. Some 

 twenty years ago migratory bee-keeping was rather expensive, and it 

 was tried on a smaller scale, but year after year they have been growing 



