32 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



Mr. Hurburg-h: "Can't you get this 

 Bill through today?" They said: "In - 

 ten minutes' time that iDill will 'be on 

 a second reading in the House." And 

 it was.' 



Pres. Dadant — Are you ready for the 

 question? AIJ those in favor of send- 

 ing a deleg-ation, signify it by saying 

 aye. 



Motion carried. 



President Dadant — I will appoint as 

 delegates Messrs. Stone, Kildow, Baxter, 

 Moore, Becker. 



Pres. Dadant — Do you wish to let 

 that question of the Secretary as to 

 whether he shall accept membership of 

 $1.00 until we hear from the National 

 Secretary — or do you wish to pass on 

 that now? 



Mr. Baxter — I move that the $1.00 be 

 accepted and that those paying the 

 $1.00 be considered members of the So- 

 ciety. 



Pres. Dadant — It is moved and 

 seconded that we accept $1.00 for mem- 

 bership to the State Association. That 

 leaves the member out of the National 

 as we understand it. 



Are there any remarks? 



Mr. Roberts — In the Notice of Bee 

 Keepers' Meeting, sent out by Mr. 

 Stone, it said: 



"On account of the change of the 



Constitution of the National Bee- 



Keepers' Association, our Associa- 

 tion is a branch of the same, as 



are all the associations in the 



United States, unless otherwise 



voted in the Association." 



Pres. Dadant— That word "unless" is 

 there — "unless otherwise voted in the 

 Association." 



Motion carried. 



Pres. Dadant — Is there any new busi- 

 ness to be brought before the meeting? 



Mr. Kildow — Ought we not to have a . 

 Question Box, so that the members can 

 begin to put in questions? 



Pres. Dadant — That is a good sug- 

 gestion. Mr. Kildow, will you take , 

 care of the Question Box? 



"We can discuss some questions this 

 morning. We have a visitor with us 

 from whom we have not yet heard, Mr. 

 France, of Wisconsin. We w^ould like 

 to hear from Mr. France. 



Mr. France — On my way down here — 

 I have been so busy ever since I had 

 the invitation to come — I made a few 

 notes. I thought I would take a little 

 time whenever it would be your most 



convenient hour, and that what I ha,ve 

 to say might be followed' (by a discus- 

 sion; as the noon hour will come soon, 

 would it not be well to take this matter 

 up later ? 



Pres. Dadant — Perhaps you could 

 give us some information as to the crop 

 in Wisconsin, and matters of interest 

 outside of the line of your paper. 



Mr. France — Something just to fill in: 



Wisconsin was in the same sad con- 

 dition as to winter losses as Illinois, and 

 our oldest bee-keepers have had ex- 

 periences during the winter and spring 

 such as they have never witnessed be- 

 fore. It has made me a great deal of 

 additional work as Inspector over the 

 state this year. But we w^ere fortunate 

 early in the fall — we had sufficient rain, 

 so that the clover came up over a large 

 portion of the state. I never saw fields 

 whiter with clover bloom than they 

 were this year; unfortunately there 

 were not bees enough and many of the 

 days, while the clover was in bloom, 

 were rainy- and cool^still the total of 

 the state showed a pretty fair clover 

 crop. 



Basswood is almost a thing of the 

 pas't even in Wisconsin. 



The fall crop of honey has been un- 

 usually heavy, so that as near as I can 

 leai-n there are as many bees today in 

 the state of Wisconsin as at this time 

 a year ago, if not more. 



They have made up their losses and 

 the hives are well supplied with honey 

 for winter, with also a clover promise 

 as good as we could ask for for the 

 coming year. 



As for bee diseases — ^we have held 

 them in check so that to a large ex- 

 tent throughout the state very little 

 disease is annoying the bee-keepers in 

 Wisconsin. 



Black Brood or European Foul Brood 

 — dropped, as it were without any 

 cause, into three places in the state, and, 

 in one of those, 133 colonies w^ere seri- 

 ously affected; one of those yards has 

 gone from over a hundred to six weak 

 colonies; I don't attribute all that 

 heavy loss to the disease. The original 

 owner of the bees died at the time that 

 the disease appeared, and it has lacked 

 good, practical care in the yard, and 

 you see the result and how the disease 

 had an opportunity to spread among 

 the colonies. 



But this subject of Bee Diseases is 

 one that your Inspector will bring up, 



