ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



25 



PROCEEDINGS 



—OF THE— 



Tv^enty-Fifth Annual Session 



—OF THE— 



Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association 



November 29 and 30, 1915, 



AT THE CIXY HALL. 



The 25th Annual Meeting of the Illi- 

 nois State Bee -Keepers' Association 

 was held in the City Hall at Spring- 

 field, Illinois, November 29th and SOth, 

 1915. 



The meeting was called to order by 

 the President, Mr. Emil J. Baxter, at 

 10 a. m., November 29th. 

 ~ President Baxter — The invocation 

 will be the first in order this morn- 

 ing. 



Mr. Stone — Mr. President, Ladies 

 and Gentlemen: If there is any one 

 in the world who depends on Divine 

 Providence for the good things he gets 

 — it is the bee-keeper. The Lord 

 gives the rain and the sunshine. We 

 would not have a pound of honey nor 

 any of the other good things produced 

 were it not for our Hjeavenly Father, 

 and we want to acknowledge the Su- 

 preme Being in all our deeds and our 

 acts. Reverend Mr. Gunter is here, 

 and he will open the meeting this 

 morning with prayer. 



Prayer by Rev. George T. Gunter. 



Our Father in Heaven, we come this 

 morning first of all, before we shall 

 address each other and before we shall 

 take up the program of this hour and 

 of these days, to address Thee. We 

 come because we recognize the pecu- 

 liar fitness of coming before God be- 

 fore we shall ever come before men; 

 and we come this morning recogniii- 

 ing the unusual propriety of thanking 

 Thee for the good things of life. We 

 thank Thee because we have down 

 deep in our hearts, whether we have 

 made public confession or acknowledg- 



ment or not, that conviction that Thou 

 art God and above all things else Thou 

 art supreme and the giver of all that 

 blesses, beautifies and sanctifies the 

 children of men; and as we come this 

 morning, Oh, God, we recognize that 

 that little insect which this morning 

 shall be the theme of discussion, so 

 little that the average man seldom 

 stops to think of it, and so apparently 

 insignificant that not one man in ten 

 thousand turns to thank God for the 

 bee, and yet as we come to think about 

 it this morning, Thou hast planted 

 deeply within the very constitution of 

 this little bee the very fundamentals 

 of human life. We thank Thee for the 

 lessons which we may learn; the les- 

 sons of industry, and Oh, God, how 

 much we need to learn the lesson of 

 industry in this society, of ours. How 

 many drones there are, and how many 

 men and women there are in these 

 days, that live like parasites upon the 

 industry and labors of other men and 

 other women; and we need this morn- 

 ing to sit beside the little bee and 

 learn something of the beautiful co- 

 operative plan of human life. We 

 thank Thee that in this world of bee- 

 dom we have the wax maker, the comb 

 maker, the honey maker; that each 

 works in beautiful harmony and co- 

 operation with the other so that the 

 fine product which comes out to 

 gladden the hearts of humanity is the 

 result of harmony and co-operation; 

 — so that through the sessions of this 

 conference we beseech Thee that these 

 men, who have come together to study 

 and to confer and to exchange ideafe 



