28 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



of fellowship extended to us, as far as 

 I can remember, by the citizens of 

 Springfield. 



For my part, I love the City of 

 Springfield. I love the hallowed ground 

 wherein rests our martyred President, 

 the unapproachable and incomparable 

 Lincoln, and I love this wonderful 

 Capitol Building in which our associa- 

 tion has met these many years. It is 

 the conception and handiwork of one 

 of Nauvoo's illustrious citizens of 

 long ago, Mr. Picnard, and it recalls 

 memories of my boyhood days. Much 

 of the stone that is in these walls was 

 dug from the hills about our city where 

 I used to roam in the long ago watch- 

 ing the quarrymen at work taking out 

 the stone and loading them on barges 

 ready to ship. Oh, those were happy 

 days in that far off time when Hope 

 sprang eternal, and deceit and dissimu- 

 lation were unknown. 



"Oh, I know that Life is pleasant and 



I know that Life is fair, 

 But I want the glad returning of the 



days beyond compare. 

 Of the days when hope was springing, 



of the days when hope was fast. 

 And the Future seemed all golden as I 



judged it by the Past." 



"Oh, I know that Life is earnest and 



I know that Life is real, 

 But I want the dreams and visions and 



the joys I used to feel. 

 Oh, the days that know no shadows and 



the dreams that held but joy 

 Must they have forever vanished when 



I ceased to be a boy?" 



"Oh, I know that Life is pleasant and 



I know that Life is fair, 

 But I want the glad returning of the 



Faith that went — somewhere." 

 And I want to trust my neighbor and 



I want to know myself 

 And I want to lose the feeling that 



there's nothing real but pelf." 



My friends, the memories of child- 

 hood are eternal, and we all cherish 

 them with an unfailing devotion to the 

 end of life. And it is well that we do, 

 for in them we live our lives over again 

 to a great extent, and feel that peace- 

 ful satisfaction and contented joy that 

 nothing else can give. 



Leaving the ethereal world for the 

 practical one, it behooves us on this 

 twenty-fourth anniversary of our or- 



ganization to take our bearings "to see 

 where wfe are at". Surely bee culture 

 has made rapid strides in these few 

 years, but there is yet much to accom- 

 plish for the bettering of the vocation. 

 There was a time and that not very 

 many years ago when bee-keeping as 

 a vocation for profit, as a means of 

 gaining a livelihood, was little thought 

 of, and riidiculed by many. Today, 

 thanks to the researches and untiring 

 labors of such men as Father Lang- 

 stroth, Quimby, Root, Gallup, Charles 

 Dadant, Grimm and a host of later la- 

 borers in the cause, bee-keeping has 

 become a recognized vocation of prom- 

 inence, producing, in the United States 

 alone, millions of dollars annually in 

 the product of honey and bees-wax, 

 which, without the bees to gather it, 

 and a knowledge of their profitable 

 management, would be a total waste. 

 Aside from this, who can name the 

 many millions of dollars in fruits, 

 vegetables, grains and seeds that the 

 honey bees contribute in producing, 

 through the poUenization and cross - 

 fertilization of the plants and trees 

 of our fields? There was a time when 

 this fact was ridiculed as the visions 

 of an enthusiast and a theory without 

 the slightest foundation. But today 

 no one who pretends to a liberal edu- 

 cation, and is posted in the phenomena 

 of Nature, will deny the fact for a 

 moment. It is no longer spoken of as 

 a theory but as a recognized fact, and 

 many -experiments are being made to 

 ascertain how best to employ the 

 honey bees in this vast field of work 

 so as to obtain the best results. 



A noted naturalist, who is making 

 a study of this subject, recently said 

 that there were about sixty species of 

 insects in this country, more or less 

 widely distributed, that help to poUe- 

 nate and cross-fertilize the flowers of 

 our fields and orchards, by these visits 

 to them, but that the honey bee does 

 vastly more in this respect than the 

 fifty-nine species of other insects com- 

 bined. 



Here, surely, is food foj- reflection 

 and it gives us some idea of the great 

 importance of the honey bee to the 

 country at large, aside from its useful- 

 ness in gathering the vast stores of 

 sweets that would go to waste without 

 it. 



It is only recently that pee diseases 

 have spread so rapidly in this country 

 as to threaten to wipe out the industry 



