ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



61 



I have a neighbor who has foul brood 

 among his bees; and he doesn't care. 



I don't know how I am going to get 

 rid of foul brood under those condi- 

 tions — but if my neighbor were to 

 take into consideration the real value 

 of the bees, and what they meant — 

 and what foul brood meant, he would 

 take an interest; but he doesn't know. 

 And I believe if we could do as we are 

 doing today, we could educate the peo- 

 ple. 



Our coming here today was no pleas- 

 ure. We have been up since midnight, 

 but we come here with a purpose in 

 view. 



Mr. Kildow was with us at our field 

 days; he said it was a good thing. 1 

 wonder if you would be in favor of 

 that, and work it up in some way. 



I can't express myself as I ought to, 

 but I suppose you understand my 

 meaning. 



Pres. Dadant — I am very much im- 

 pressed with the idea of improving bee 

 culture throughout the country, and 

 the two meetings in Eastern Illinois 

 have given me an idea that it would be 

 well to increase such meetings. 



I believe Mr. Duby has good ideas in 

 his head. 



I want to show you how slowly 

 things are accomplished. This organ- 

 ii;ation was chartered by the State of 

 Illinois in 1891; it is just twenty-one 

 years. It was at the suggestion of 

 Col. Chas. F. Mills, who was Secretary' 

 of the State Board of Agriculture; he 

 told us we could not get a permanent 

 organization unless we took out a 

 charter. 



We had been meeting right along for 

 years; there were fifteen named in the 

 charter, but some of them were not 

 present. Charles Mills was not a bee- 

 keeper. 



Mr. Stone — Your father was here at 

 that meeting. 



Pres. Dadant — That can give you an 

 idea how slow is progress. 



Mr. Moore — We had a little associa- 

 tion in the Western part of the state, 

 called the Western Illinois Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association; we met at Galesburg; 

 in a good year we would have a fair 

 attendance. 



In 1898 we had a good crowd, and 

 m.ade sort of a picnic affair of it; we 

 had dinner on the Court House lawn 

 and had a good time. The following 

 year was a failure; I called a meeting 



late in the summer, and there were 

 three of us there. The next year I 

 called a meeting and I went to Gales- 

 burg, and no one came. I finallj^ went 

 out to the house of the secretary and 

 roused him out — and that was all there 

 was. 



In a good season we can get enough 

 people interested in ordinary localities. 

 I expect in Eastern Illinois, in Mr. 

 Duby's county there are more bee- 

 keepers than there are with us; it de- 

 pends a good deal on locality. 



Mr. Stone — This organization grew 

 out of the district organization we held 

 here; we called it the Capital Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, and we run for 

 about six or eight j^ears until this par- 

 ticular meeting spoken of, in which 

 there were fifteen members present — • 

 (nearly half of those present have 

 passed on now) — and formed the pres- 

 ent Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Associ- 

 ation. I was elected secretar3% and it 

 ran for years, and I never got a dollar, 

 but for things that I had to have, like 

 stationery, etc. The year of the World's 

 I'*air, after we had been running for 

 three or four years, I sent out to the 

 crop reporters of the state a return 

 postal card, ruled, for them to put in 

 the names of nine or ten bee-keepers 

 in their county, and I got between 

 three and four thousand names. That 

 vv'as all done after our appropriation 

 was made by the legislature to give us 

 an exhibit at the World's Fair; they 

 appropriated $3,500 to make the honey 

 exhibit. Mr. Hambaugh and I had 

 charge of the honey exhibit and got 

 the medal over all the other states. 

 That was the beginning of the growth 

 of our association, it became self sup- 

 porting, Ave got an appropriation and 

 published this report. The next one 

 will be the twelfth. 



These little associations that Mr. 

 Duby talks about can be formed 

 throughout the state; the secretary- 

 can get those members to affiliate with 

 the State Association and with the 

 National, and we can give them the 

 report. If you can find a secretary 

 who will do this work for nothing, he 

 Is the man to elect. You get the re- 

 port, a membership in the National 

 and the Review, and you have some- 

 thing for your money. 



You can get the report of your as- 

 sociation embodied with the State re- 

 port; it will not cost you a cent — but 

 keep up the State Association in order 



