ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 207 



were not watned. If there was no other reason for the existence of the 

 extension work than that fact alone, that would justify its existence. 

 The first thing the county agent does is to make a drive against the 

 box hive; then there are Other drives against foul brood, swarm control. 

 Does that work not promote better bee-keeping? Nothing but good 

 can come from holding before the mind of the public, steadily, better 

 bee-keeping; this should be constantly before the bee-keeping fraternity 



We have a slogan down in Indiana, "Better keep bees better or 

 better not keep bees." The ostrich sticks its head under the sand and 

 thinks nobody can see it because it sees nobody. A great many human 

 species are like the feathered denizen of the desert. If a bigger field 

 awaits you, it takes a bigger man to fill it. I once herad one of the 

 best bee men in this country say that he wanted all the good bee men 

 he could possible get to come into his community and start bee-keeping 

 but, he says, they have got to be good ones. The worst menace to 

 your community or business as a whole is the careless bee-keeper. 



Extension men are trying to help you to weed out the poor bee- 

 keeper; will you help him? Above all, don't be an ostrich! 



DIXIE BEE-KEEPING. 



{By Kennith Hawkins.) 



Dixie land is like a prisoner before the bar, at this conference. 

 Without a spokesman, and a defender named, who is foreign to the 

 Southland. However, I have the bee-keeping future of Dixie at heart 

 and while there are some things which I could say against my ''client," 

 I will instead defend her. 



I am placed in the position of the elderly judge, who having been 

 introduced as the perpetrator of certain misdeeds unmentionable, 

 when young, arose and said in his self defense: "Gentlemen, I have 

 only this to say in my own defense. In all my years of experience 

 before the bar, it is always the dirtiest scoundrel in the bunch who 

 turns state's evidence." Hence I shall speak only in defense. 



In my four years of work in the extension office for bee culture 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, I have probably been 

 asked more than any question, that of: "Where can I settle in a 

 good bee location in Dixie?" My advice to the northerner going 

 to Dixie to keep bees is to keep out until he has been south one season 

 and knows something of the location he is going to take up. Otherwise, 

 he may be disappointed. There are hundreds of good locations in 

 the south for bee-keeping, some of which I should like to take up 

 myself. I speak particularly of Louisiana, Florida, Virginia. West 

 Virginia and Kentucky. Those who wish to locate in any one of these 

 states should communicate with the extension division of the several 

 state colleges of agriculture, information can be gotten there, far 

 more accurate than mine, on definite locations. I spent too much time 

 on the Pullman, to know much about particular locaHties. 



A WINTER PROBLEM. 



Next, I want to emphasize that in a great portion of the South, 

 there is a real wintering problem. In the regions of the Virginias 



