ILLIJfOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEKS' ASSOCIATION. 195 



eradication and the like. This latter class has a great financial interest 

 in association. They would associate for the purpose of discussing 

 the larger problems of bee-keeping and of marketing and of prices. 

 The first class which I mentioned would be mainly interested in the 

 problems which this latter class have already thoroughly informed 

 themselves upon either from study or experience. 



The objects of an association would be either social, educational 

 or commercial, or the union of all three. As I have indicated, certain 

 classes of bee-keepers, these mainly beginners and back lotters, would 

 be interested in the educational and social features only, and would 

 have but shght interest in the commercial features. On the other 

 hand those who are in bee-keeping as a business would care much less 

 for the social and educational features and much more for the working 

 out of methods of marketing, advertising and the like. Generally 

 speaking, also it would seem to me that the great weakness in our 

 organizations up to date has been that they have sought to bring into the 

 same association to participate in the same Convention these two 

 classes of bee-keepers, and an effort has been made in the same program 

 to furnish profitable entertainment for both. The result has been that 

 neither class has been satisfied, and associations have dwindled as a 

 consequence. It seems to me, therefore, we must start with the axiom 

 that the association must be organized so as to separate the two classes, 

 and at the same time give them both that service which warrants their 

 membership. So in considering the method by which bee-keepers 

 might be organized, I have kept in mind these fundamental principles, 

 first, that the objects to appeal to all must be social, educational and 

 commercial; second, that the meetings must be so arranged as to cause 

 a natural classification, and to furnish to the class naturally present 

 at a given convention the sort of a program which that class particularly 

 is interested in. To accomphsh this object I propose that all American 

 Bee-keepers shall be associated in the American Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation intending thereby to bring together all of the English speaking 

 bee-keepers in North America, and this of course obviously includes 

 the United States and the Island posessions and British North America. 

 There is a natural reason for ignoring the political subdivisions of the 

 territory involved as there is a community of interest, and associations 

 obviously should be built not along geographical lines but along natural 

 lines. The English speaking people on the North American continent 

 are alike in ancestry, in language, manners, customs, laws and pol- 

 itics, and all North American bee-keepers have similar commercial 

 and education problems. Our Canadian friends have heretofore given 

 us very largely of their assistance and experience. I need only mention 

 Holterman, Pettit and Byer for you to readily respond that the affili- 

 ation with the Canadian bee-keepers would be of mutual advantage. 



Starting then with an organization including the bee-keepers of 

 the English speaking peoples of the North American Continent in- 

 cluding all of them, small and great, I would propose a central organ- 

 ization corresponding roughly with the present National Association 

 made up of deputies elected by the District Associations, hereafter 

 spoken, of called a senate. This organization would have meetings 

 at stated times at a certain particular place; the expenses and the time 



