204 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPOET OF THE 



aeroplane all existed before the war; the war caused to develop them and 

 carry them out to new dimensions. 



So I would like to make that little comparison if I may with the 

 extension work. Extension work, my friends, is not a new idea; it 

 was born 25 or more years ago; university extension started at least 

 that long ago; it was followed by agricultureal extension, and last of 

 all bee-keeping. Perhaps the war also in this had its influence, but 

 friends, bee-keeping extension Avas born before the war; born in Wash- 

 ington, it had a chance to try itself out in a few of the Southern states ; 

 the results were so hopeful, so encouraging, that plans were laid to 

 carry on the work in the other states. 



An S. O. S. call was received to come into Macedonia and help 

 us and as rapidly as possible trained men were sent out in the twenty- 

 five states. There are now sixteen men in the field trying to cover 

 twenty-five states, twelve covering individual states, the other four 

 still having group of states, but that is being eliminated as rapidily 

 as possible. 



And then came the war. The war liberated forces that were 

 already being mobolized; this force perhaps would not have been lib- 

 erated in a century of peace, and so war has done a wonderful thing in 

 developing the extension idea in bee-keeping. 



And so the big idea, and that is what I say extension is, has in- 

 vaded your bee-keeping world ; it has invaded bee culture ; it is nothing 

 less, friends, than a nation wide drive for better bee-keeping; that is 

 all it is, a nation wide drive for better bee-keeping. But people are 

 asking, and they have a right to ask — what does it do? In the words 

 of the man on the street, does it bring home the bacon? I want to say 

 right here that the whole project, friends, is too new to be judged 

 accurately. Never judge a house while the scaffold is up is a good 

 motto; you cannot estimate a movement, size up the cliff or the moun- 

 tain as long as you are too close to it; it takes time and distance to give 

 you the proper prospective, and so with this extension idea, I say it is 

 too new for you to pass final judgment on it; all we can ask of you as 

 bee-keepers is to keep in a state of suspended judgment until the 

 thing has been thoroughly tried — and so now, in the quiet of this 

 convention hall I have thought it might be worth while to try to get 

 a clearer view of what this aim is; already the aim of the movement has 

 been clearly defined, that is, not to make more bee-keepers but to 

 make better bee-keepers. 



I know the movement has been misunderstood by some, due to a 

 failure to get the fundamental idea, but those of you who have listened 

 to these speeches I am sure are getting that idea. 



If you could go along the line and see the wretchedly poor bee- 

 keeping on the part of men who are supposed to be up to date bee- 

 keepers, you would say there is nothing but good that can come from 

 the idea of holding up better bee-keeping. 



Even before we commercial men there are three cardinal points 

 in better bee-keeping that make for success or failure: Wintering — 

 disease — control, swarm control, on these three points hang the law 

 and the prophets. You have to hold these points up to bee-keepers 

 whom you meet up and down the states; they get tired of it, but edu- 



