

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



71 



of apiaries are examined in one year 

 — and if we have no Card System we 

 have no record except the few letters 

 that you have. We do not know what 

 we have been doing; what we have 

 done the year before and the year be- 

 fore that and the year before that. 



If all the men whom we find to have 

 bees were to make a record by the 

 Card System, we would have that 

 much to go by, and we could refer to it 

 whenever we needed information. 



Our Inspector knows of several hun- 

 dreds of bee-keepers;' positively he has 

 visited several hundred; he can, on 

 his Index System, make a record of 

 all those people and mark upon the 

 card who they are — how many colon- 

 ies — what kind of bees — whether care- 

 ful or careless, whether there is dis- 

 ease or not — what kind of disease — 

 whether treated and whether the man 

 is competent to treat. 



If this system is followed from year 

 to year, these parties who are on the 

 Card System will be recorded in such 

 a way that you can find them — and 

 through these people you will find 

 others, and if you keep on adding to 

 the Card System you will have a good 

 record. 



But if you do not begin the Card 

 System you will be in the dark in a 

 , year or two, especially if our Inspector 

 changes. 



J. Q. Smith was the Inspector for a 

 long time. There were no records 

 kept, no records were left as to what 

 he had done; no knowledge was left 

 as to where the disease was. If he 

 had been requested to use the Card 

 .System, and had put the names and 

 addresses and the number of colonies, 

 the number of apiaries which he 

 visited — whether they have disease or 

 not — we would have known much more 

 about the conditions that existed. 



I believe there is a great advantage 

 to be gained from that. 



My reason for upholding it is, as you 

 have heard. 



I found the Card System used by Dr. 

 Gates, of Massachusetts. 



He is the originator of it. I saw 

 it in use in Canada very extensively. 

 I thought they were the originators, 

 but Dr. Gates told me they borrowed 

 it from him. 



I saw the Card System used in 

 Texas. 



By this Card System, everything is 



marked on it that can be of use to 

 bee-keeping. 



If you have deputy Inspectors — in- 

 struct them to fill in the cards wher- 

 ever there is a bee man, if they have 

 only one hive. This makes a record 

 to which you can refer in case of 

 necessity. 



This will make it very much better 

 than with nothing to tell where we 

 have been or what we have done ex- 

 cept the record on the books of the 

 Inspector, which is not at all as satis- 

 factory as the Card System. 



Mr. Kildow — We have a record, but 

 I have to dive through it if I want to 

 find out next year what we did this. 



We have a record of everything that 

 has transpired but it "is incomplete in 

 a way. I cannot see it at a glance; 

 I have to look it over, look over a 

 number of pages, probably if I have 

 been to a party two or three times that 

 year. 



I have got to hunt over a lot of 

 record to find it. 



It is scattered over the book. Since 

 I have begun to study it over I think 

 the Card System would be better. I 

 could read it in a few minutes time. 



I have a record of everything that 

 has transpired, but it is scattered. I 

 have to hunt it out. 



I think it would be much better, 

 from what I can see of this card busi- 

 ness, to have a Card System. 



I am compelled to keep a record of 

 everything for the state. I have had 

 to do it; I have it all down. 



Mr. Stone — I want to say in regard 

 to the Card Sygrfm: I did not give 

 that attention; I do not know just the 

 intent of that card, but I will say this: 

 That, when the legislature made the 

 appropriation for our Honey Exhibit 

 at the Chicago World's Fair, Mr. Ham- 

 baugh was the President; I was Sec- 

 retary. We had charge of the Honey 

 Exhibit at the World's Fair. The 

 exhibits were to be in the first of May, 

 at Chicago, and it was away in May 

 before our legislature made .the appro- 

 priation, and we had everything to do. 



We got our heads together — what 

 shall we do? I said: "I have a list 

 of the crop reporters of the state 

 We will send return post cards to 

 them and have the return card lined 

 for names of bee-keepers. In about 

 two weeks we had the names of 6,000 

 bee-keepers in the state; there were 



