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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATIOX. 19i 



for a chance, he really does not want to wait much longer; the chance is 

 right here now. This last summer there was a young woman came 

 to the Pritchard apiary and she was quite enthusiastic about the bees. 

 She said: "I wish I were a great, tall, broad-shouldered man and I 

 would go into big bee-keeping, that is what I would like to do." He 

 said: "You don't need to wait for any chance, j'ou have it right now, 

 it is yours just for the doing. " There is no reason to-day v/hy a woman 

 who has experience and a little intelligence cannot go ahead and super- 

 intend such work just as well as a man." 



About twenty years ago a man was standing looking out of the 

 window of his real estate office, and he saw coming down the street a 

 young man. athletic in appearance, right in his prime, riding down in 

 a one horse wagon, going to his ten acre farm for a day's work, and the 

 real estate man had been a cripple all his life and had been working 

 against difficulties, but he had a whole lot of push and determination, 

 and he glanced out there and he saw this 3'oung giant riding along 

 contentedly back of his ambling old horse, and he just took one look 

 and said: ''There is one of your young men that says he doesn't 

 have any chance." This man that I am speaking of, this real estate 

 man, is a very successful business man in that city to-day, and the 

 contented man was seen just a few weeks ago working on the street 

 with a shovel. 



Among the qualities that are certain to ensure success we would 

 mention, firsts a strong self-reliance, assurance, based on one's own 

 experience as well as the experience of others, coupled with an open- 

 mindedness and a readiness to accept suggestions from other sources, 

 no matter what that source, even if this involves giving up a pet theory, 

 and that is always a hard thing for a bee-keeper to do. And then 

 besides this there should be stick-to-itivesness. Bee-keepers need 

 that more than anything else. Certain seasons come when for some 

 reason or other the crop is very poor. We need to look ahead, and we 

 need to have a firm enough faith in our business to know that in the 

 long run bee-keeping does pay and pays well. That will help to bridge 

 over these times. 



Seven or eight years ago or some such a matter in Oregon they 

 had a very poor season, and manj^ of the bee-keepers w^ere completely 

 discouraged. W. J. Manly told at a convention at that time what he 

 had been doing. Lots of bee-keepers were ready to sell, they had all 

 the bee-keeping they wanted, probably the bees all dead and nothing 

 left but the hives in many cases. Mr. Manley took that opportunity 

 and went around and bought up all the old combs he could find. He 

 did not always buy, some of the farmers were glad to give them away. 

 He said sometimes he could get a whole wagon-load for nothing, at 

 other times he paid a dollar for a wagon-load. He loaded up the old 

 combs, and gave a dollar for the wax, and so it turned apparent disaster 

 into something that was rather profitable for him. 



Just this last year one of the New York bee-keepers lost practically 

 all of his colonies through foul brood, and he had to go to building 

 up more, but he managed to get together a little apiary, and this 

 year had an average of 280 pounds per colony, and at the price at which 

 the honey sold we can see whether that paid or not. 



