ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATION. 197 



tions that would arise and give the members a good day or half day's 

 instruction as conditions might arise. These locals might be grouped 

 for a short course or institute in bee-keeping which would occupy a 

 number of days as it might be thought best. 



The financial affairs of the Association should be administered 

 entirely from the Central Body. This Central Body should furnish 

 speakers and organizers for the District Conventions and for the 

 Local meetings. These of course could be so arranged that the same 

 company of speakers might pass from one to the other and appear 

 at a large number of meetings in the same month or year. The entire 

 fiscal management should be in the hands of the Central Organization. 

 To this Central Organization dues should be reported and transmitted 

 and from the treasury of this Central Organization the entire expenses 

 of handling the Association should be run. The American Association 

 should have a paid general manager who should devote substantially 

 all of his time to looking after the affairs of the Association and in 

 organization work. 



Obviously this idea calls for a considerably larger amount of 

 funds than has been for some years at the disposal of the bee-keeping 

 associations, and I fancy you are asking already, how much dues 

 ought to be paid. Now we readily appreciate in deahng with this 

 proposition that it is a delicate situation. Dues must not be placed so 

 high as to keep members out, at the same time they must not be placed 

 so low as not to afford adequate funds for carrying out the objects 

 of the Association. If these objects are not attained the members 

 cannot receive the worth of their money. I believe the fairest way 

 to provide for dues would be upon the basis of the number of colonies 

 kept by the member with a minimum fee of a dollar, and the member 

 should pay fifty cents more for every ten colonies or major fraction 

 thereof owned by him. Of course this means that the commercial 

 bee-keeper would pay much more than the back lotter or the beginner. 

 I have heard eminent bee-keepers say that they believed this unfair 

 because they thought the beginner gained more by way of instruction 

 from the Association than the commercial bee-keeper did. The truth 

 of this statement cannot be controverted if the only purpose of the 

 Association is to educate bee-keepers, and if that were the purpose 

 of the organization which I propose, clearly much of the machinery 

 outlined heretofore could" very well be dispensed with, but I beheve 

 if the Association has a license to exist it must of necessitj^ be of much 

 more worth to the commercial bee-keeper. There is no limit upon its 

 activities for his interest, and a very small part of its program of work 

 would be purely educational to the beginner or the keeper of a few 

 bees. I think it would be recognized that if it is to do more ambitious 

 things than to educate beginners in bee-keeping it is of much more 

 value to the commercial bee-keeper than it is to the beginner; that 

 value could be measured by the extent to which he is engaged in the 

 business and obviously upon the basis of the number of colonies which 

 he owns. 



I have said considerable about the activities, the objects and pur- 

 poses of the Association. With reference to these, aside from what 

 has already been outlined some suggestions might be made. The 



