ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



21 



RESPONSE AND PRESIDENT'S AD- 

 DRESS. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle- 

 men: 



On behalf of the State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association of Illinois I wish to thank 

 the Springfield Commercial Association 

 for the most hearty welcome they have 

 given us to their city. Our Association 

 has been meeting in Springfield ever 

 since its birth some twenty-flve years 

 ago, and our members have always had 

 the glad hand of fellowship extended 

 to them while here, and have always 

 had a most enjoyable time. I hope and 

 trust this may ever continue. 



Springfield, as the capital of the state, 

 is a most interesting city aside from 

 being the orice-while-home of our mar- 

 tyred president, the incomparable Lin- 

 coln. 



The state capitol is the creation and 

 handiwork of a citizen of my home 

 town. Much of the stone in its walls 

 was dug from the quarries where I 

 used to wander when a boy while on 

 my geologizing tours, so that seeing 

 this most magnificent structure recalls 

 memories of my boyhood days. 



Springfield has many other places of 

 attraction, too many, in fact, to mention 

 all of them. Let us hope, then, that 

 Springfield, the Queen City of the Prai- 

 ries, may continue to grow and pros- 

 per for time without end. 



Today at the opening of our annual 

 session it is fitting that we take stock 

 of the past season, analyzing the condi- 

 tions that have prevailed, to see, if 

 possible, wherein we have been remiss 

 in taking advantage of the conditions 

 that were favorable, or of improving 

 those that were bad, or of mitigating 

 their effects. The season of 1915, in 

 the much greater part of Illinois, 

 opened up with many forebodings to 

 the bee-keeper. The terrible drought 

 of the preceding year-^ ought to have 

 said of several years — still continued. 

 White and alsike clovers were all dead. 

 Sweet clover, in most places, did not 

 seem to be in much better condition, 

 and it did seem as though there would 

 be no bloom from which a orop of 

 honey could be expected. . All colonies 

 of bees in the lower four-fifths of the 

 state had gone into winter quarters 

 light in stores and generally weak in 

 bees, being especially deficient in young 

 bees, owing to the very adverse wea- 

 ther conditions that had prevailed dur- 



ing all of the year, and especially dur- 

 ing the fall. The result was that the 

 loss of colonies in wintering was very 

 great and most of those that did sur- 

 vive came out of winter quarters so 

 weak that it took months to build 

 them up again, even when they sur- , 

 vived at all. Thanks to the very 

 favorable weather during April, other- 

 wise the mortality would have been ap- 

 palling. About the middle of May a 

 great and unexpected — and I might add 

 a sudden — change in the weather con- 

 ditions took place. It began to rain, 

 and it continued to rain, rain, rain all 

 through the remainder of May, all of 

 June and July, until the ground was so 

 thoroughly saturated that the farmer 

 could not cultivate his crops at all, the 

 result being that all corn fields, and 

 small grain stubble, grew the largest 

 and finest crop of heart's ease that I 

 have ever seen. The bees up to the 

 middle of August had hardly held their 

 own, and in many cases had to be liber- 

 ally fed to keep up brood rearing, but, 

 after the middle of August, honey be- 

 gan to come in so fas that it was diffi- 

 cult to keep the bees supplied with -ftie 

 necessary supers in which to store their 

 honey. The crop in some instances 

 was almost marvelous ' for the large 

 amount of honey stored in so short a 

 time. I know in one case, where a bee- 

 keeper with 600 colonies averaged 100 

 pounds per colony, nearly all of which 

 was gathered in the space of about two 

 weeks. 



The indications are, from reports re- 

 ceived, that fi'om a fair to a good crop 

 of fall honey was gathered over the 

 greater portion of the state. The bees, 

 in nearly all instances, have stored an 

 abundance of the best of honey to carry 

 them over until the first of next May 

 or longer, and have gone into winter 

 quarters quite strong, especially in 

 young bees, so we may look for them 

 to winter well where properly packed. 



Foul brood has received more atten- 

 tion from the Inspectors than usual, 

 and much good work has been done to 

 clean It up. And yet, we must not re- 

 lax our energies and vigilance in fight- 

 ing it. I am not yet satisfied with 

 what we have accomplished in subdu- 

 ing this dreaded disease, and I recom- 

 mend thd.t, this coming year, which 

 promises to be a favorable one for 

 fighting this disease, we make still 

 greater efforts to clean it up. 



