193 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



About three weeks ago I was in Pennsylvania and a man spoke 

 to me about the bad luck he had had. When he finished his story I 

 did not think it was bad luck. He said that his bees had foul brood, 

 so that he was completely discouraged, he did not know what he could 

 do, and he treated them as well as he could and united the fragments 

 and out of 800 colonies he had left 200. Those 200 he built up to 500, 

 and started in this spring with 500, and sold his crop for over $20,000. 



Those are a few instances to show whether stick-to-itiveness is 

 necessary to the bee-keeper or not. 



Above all else in pushing to the front I think bee-keepers need 

 vision. It is impossible to come to a convention like this, to exchange 

 views with bee-keepers, and not be fired with a greater enthusiasm. 

 Well, what is that worth to us if it stops there? What are we going to 

 do with it? I suppose there is not one in this room who could not 

 do much greater things in bee-keeping if he would; not one who could 

 not double or triple his output if he really made up his mind to it. 

 I suppose that ten years from now some of the people who are here in 

 this room will be just about where they are now, and others will have 

 at least double their success. And the difference I don't think is a 

 difference in ability. I will grant that that has some part in it, but 

 I have seen mediocre men push ahead of the other so often that I am 

 going to say the difference is not in ability, the difference is that some- 

 body to-day saw the opportunity and grasped it, and began laying 

 their plans accordingly^ (Applause.) 



Dr. Phillii s.— Mr. Chairman, I would like to commend the 

 spirit of optimism which Miss Fowls has manifested in her paper. 

 You know it is impossible to tell the truth about bee-keeping without 

 being a liar. (Applause.) Now, some of the things that Miss Fowls 

 said would undoubtedly be considered as over-statements by many of 

 the older bee-keepers of the country, and I think that she would admit 

 that very readily. At the same time, we know perfectly well that she 

 has under-stated the case. She does not dare tell the things that she 

 knows to be true about the bee-keeping industry, because, as I say, 

 you can't tell all the truth without telling lies about it. 



Now, some peculiar things have happened in bee-keeping in the 

 last ten or fifteen years, since I have had an opportunity to watch 

 it more closely. We have a lot of bee-keepers in the United States 

 to-day who were leaders in bee-keeping at that time. They are standing 

 exactly where they did at that time. They are having about the same 

 number of colonies, perhaps a few less, and they are pursuing exactly 

 the same purpose and are making no progress whatever. But there 

 have been a large number of men who have simply slipped something 

 over on the bee-keeping industry, men whose names are not known, 

 men who unfortunately are rarely seen at our bee-keepers' conven- 

 tions, and men who have made an astonishing success of bee-keeping 

 by perseverance. 



Miss Fowls has suggested the difference between these two types 

 of individuals. I would like to put it in a little different way. Miss 

 Fowls might be accused of preaching a sermon, and I know I shall be 

 when I get through, but it seems to me that the fundamental difference 

 between a progressive bee-keeper and a poor bee-keeper is that the 



