ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



117 



tional scale and make those people, 

 who live by our taxes, make them do 

 what you want them to. 



I met Secretary Houston of the Ag- 

 ricultural Department of Washington, 

 in Minneapolis. A committee of three 

 were going to him to see why the 

 government does not do its part by 

 the Bee-Keepers. I took the blue book 

 of the government. There they had 

 everything in its own department — 

 every bug — every weed in creation in 

 that book, and looking through it, from 

 cover to cover, I could not find the 

 word, "BEE." 



I said to Mr. Houston — "Mr. Secre- 

 tary, how is that?" 



He said to me — "Now, gentlemen, 

 I will tell you, you are the first bee- 

 keepers I have met in my life. Sit 

 down and tell me something." He was 

 anxious to learn. 



We cannot blame the authorities — 

 the blame is with us because we are 

 not organized; we must approach 

 those people in such a way that they 

 will know we are somebody. 



Now, there are other problems that 

 face us on a large National scale that 

 we cannot solve alone, but a large 

 body of nnen have to be working all 

 over the United States. 



State Aid and Government Aid for 

 Bee-Keepers. 



The production and over-porduction 

 of honey in the United States. 



Freight and express rates. 



Educational and research work in 

 bee-keeping. 



How to increase the consumption of 

 Jioney, or the methods of increasing 

 the consumption of honey. 



Of course, on a big scale, the State 

 alone cannot determine it. You have 

 to take this in connection with the 

 whole world. 



The United States maintains a num- 

 ber of well paid men, the finest busi- 

 ness brains that can be got for a large 

 salary. They maintain several hun- 

 dred of those men in every city and 

 town of large size in the whole world. 

 There is not a spot in the world where 

 they do not ma.intain these men — pay 

 them big salaries — for what? Just 

 for what w^e are worrying about; and 

 it is their duty to do this work. They 

 have to find the markets for our pro- 

 duction; that is their business, finding 

 markets for our production. They 

 send in reports from every corner of 



the earth — how much honey is pro- 

 duced in Russia, Japan, Italy — they 

 send in those reports if they are 

 wanted. 



Ask your government if you get 

 them. No, and blame ourselves we 

 must for it. We are not big enough 

 to go after those things. 



By the reports that come in from 

 the whole world, we could easily figure 

 out whether there is an under or over- 

 production of honey. Could we not 

 figure out where there is no honey- 

 where honey could be shipped? 



Suppose we had a tremendous crop 

 of honey in this country and they have 

 none in England, Australia, Germany? 

 We can get all this information free 

 of charge from men who are paid to 

 give it to us. 



We have got to have a National or- 

 ganization, and I still believe the time 

 will come when we are going to have 

 a Financial Agent, a man who is paid 

 a salary, to keep us informed as to 

 honey, its under- or over-production; 

 and we will be able to dispose of our 

 honey as soon as harvested. 



The National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion must take care of these things 

 and see that the bee-keepers get a 

 better price for their production. We 

 want more money for our honey. 

 More fees for our bees — more dough for 

 our show. 



How will the National organization 

 do that? 



I do not know. We have got to 

 work out those problems. We are be- 

 ginning to work on them. 



To show you an instance of how 

 much we need a Central Bureau of 

 information connected with the Na- 

 tional or some other way: 



Look up your last July quotations 

 of honey. Just for curiosity I cut 

 them out from different papers. 

 Gleanings says: "We are offered 

 white clover honey, $.07%." Eastern 

 dealers offered 7 cents, and bought it 

 for less. Minneapolis daily paper, 

 Minneapolis Journal: "Choice white 

 clover honey, 11 and 12 cents; dark, 

 8 and 9 cents." 



Dadant's American Bee Journal — 

 "11 and 12 cents'' for white clover. - 



There were quotations from 7 to 12 

 cents; five cents difference in quota- 

 tions. 



Now, what is the price of honey? 



. * . . "if .■t^-hr-m 



