58 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL ^PORT OF THE 



cation for membership in this Associ- 

 ation last week. 



Outside of him there is nobody I 

 know. 



Mr. Stone — If you and he get to- 

 gether in the Farmers' Institute, and 

 afterwards call the men together 

 whom you thought would join this As- 

 sociation or affiliate with us — and tell 

 them what they would get by Sending 

 their dollar to us, I believe you would 

 be able to work up a considerable in- 

 terest. 



President Baxter — Do you have 

 many bees in that country ? 



Mr. Wiley — We have something like 

 200 altogether, around five miles 

 square. 



President Baxter — Are there many 

 bee-keepers? How are the flowers for 

 honey? 



Mr. Wiley — Pretty good this year; I 

 got 300 pounds surplus out of nineteen 

 hives. 



President Baxter — What is your 

 main source of honey? 



Mr. Wiley — White clover, spring 

 time; we have been having sweet 

 clover in the fall, golden rod and 

 Spanish needle. 



President Baxter — Smartweed, too? 



Mr. Wiley — Yes, plenty of that. 

 Smgrtwe-^d? The bees seem to die off 

 from smartweed: take off half a pint 

 or a pint in the morning when the 

 smartweed first comes in bloom. 



I hfive a paper h'^re that I intended 

 to read — Tb-^ rest of this paper is about 

 the same thing — the good I think it 

 would do if we had an association. 



I would like to have somebody sug- 

 gest something, or give me some in- 

 side track as to what to do that will fee 

 helpful. 



President Baxter — You better confer 

 with our Secretary. Mr. Stone: proba- 

 bly he can give j-ou some pointers as 

 to how to proceed and work it up. 



Mr. Pyles — I might suggest — I am 

 not sure but that Mr. Kildow has al- 

 ready suggested it to Mr. Wiley — that 

 he get a number of these people to- 

 gether and talk this matter over, and 

 decide upon a meeting next summer, 

 during the bee-keeping season, when 

 they are all interested in the matter. 



Mr. Kildow told Mr. Wiley he would 

 have some one help him with this 

 meeting. 



There> are only two ways of getting 

 bee-kj^^pers together, that is, in the . 

 winter tiJne, to have speakers, or some 

 one who -is used to Conventions and 

 Convention work — or in the summer 

 time when they are most interested in 

 the work and will come out to the field 

 day meetings. 



When you cannot bring more than 

 forty people together for a state meet- 

 ing, it" is a hard matter to do things 

 locally unless you can get the people 

 individually interested in this work. 



President Baxter — I believe the 

 summer time would be the most ad- 

 visable. 



Mr. Wiley — I have here a few names 

 — thirty — all within five miles square. 

 The largest bee-keeper has ninety- 

 four hives — runs from two to ninety- 

 four. 



President Baxtep — You have got the 

 flowers down th^e, and, if you under- 

 take it in a scientific way, you would 

 make the niBnwi', and you have as 

 good, if not better, locality than we 

 have here in /central and northern Illi- 

 nois. 



Mr. Wiley — I think we have a better 

 chance if our territory was not over- 

 stocked. 



It seems like we have not been able 

 to get the amount of honey per colony 

 that you do up here in this part of 

 the country. Some of you claim to 

 get 200 to 275 pounds per colony; I 

 can't get that much. 



President Baxter — I have a good 

 many colonies that gave me 360 

 pounds this year. 



Dr. Baxter — What kind of a hive do 

 jou use? 



Mr. Wiley^I use a dovetail hive; a 

 neighbor of mine has a ten frame Dan- 

 zenbaker that is pretty fair; most of 

 the hives are 14 1-4 x 14 and 10 inches 

 deep. 



President Baxter — The next will be 

 the Question Box. Mr. Pyles, you have 

 the questions. \ 



Question — Can we breed as good 

 queens here as down south? 



Dr. Baxter- — Yes, but not so early. 

 We can raise just as good queens 

 north, or even in Canada for that 

 matter, as in the south, but they can 

 raise them in March and April, and 

 that cannot be done in Canada; but 

 later in the year as good queens can 

 be raised in the north as in the south. 



