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FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Your President was authorized, at 

 the last annual meeting, to institute 

 and conduct not to exceed four bee- 

 field meets in such parts of the state 

 as he thought most favorable for good 

 results. Owing to the unfavorable 

 weather conditions only two such 

 meetings were held — one "dlt Hamilton, 

 which was a grand success — and one 

 at Rockford, which your President was 

 unable to attend. I would recommend 

 that your incoming President be auth- 

 orized to again hold not to exceed four 

 such meetings during the coming sea- 

 son. 



In the matter of continuing our affili- 

 ation with the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, I hardly know what to 

 recommend, but I believe that we have 

 nothing to gain by such affiliation and 

 therefore might just as well save the 

 expense and use the money we are pay- 

 ing that Association for a better pur- 

 pose. 



President Baxter — The next thing in 

 order will be the reading of the 

 Minutes of our last annual meeting. 



Mr. Stone — Mr. President, I will 

 have to make a little apology for not 

 having that. It is in our last report 

 and all the bee-keepers have read it 

 there, and I did not have the time. 

 After I left the hospital (some of you 

 know that I was there), in just the 

 four weeks and a half that I spent in 

 gaining strength enough to do it I ex- 

 tracted 900 lbs. of honey and got my 

 bees fixed in winter quarters, packed 

 and all that, and I didn't have any 

 time to get those Minutes ready, and 

 I thought they had often been dis- 

 pensed with by motion and I would let 

 them go and try to get enough time 

 to put 'in my report; but I want to 

 say a word. The weather is such that 

 we are sorry that hardly any of our 

 bee-keepers from the immediate 

 neighborhood are here. All of our 

 members near by Springfield are not 

 here. 



President Baxter — What is your 

 pleasure in regard to the Minutes? 



Dr. Baxter — I move that the reading 

 of the Minutes of the meeting be dis- 

 pensed with. 



President Baxter — It is so ordered. 

 We wijl now listen to Mr. Stone's re- 

 port. 

 SECRETARY'S REPORT FOR 1915. 



Judging from the past, we are in- 



clined to look forward to a larger 

 membership the coming year than we 

 have had the past year. We have ob- 

 served in the years gone by that the 

 large honey crops were followed by an 

 increased membership, while small 

 crops were followed by a decreased 

 membership. On account of the poor 

 honey crop last year the result was, 

 for this year, a diminished member- 

 ship list by 49 members (185 this year, 

 including all the affiliated societies, 

 and last year — 234). 



We notice that during the year ten 

 members have sent in their dollars, 

 who did not waait to join the National. 

 It seems that a $2 fee frightens them; 

 even though they get a membership in 

 the National and the Review as well. 

 Last year we received an enclosure of 

 $1.50 — when that was the amount of 

 fees for the two Associations — and the 

 writer said — if this is enough for 

 membership, in the State Association 

 "all right, for I do not want the Re- 

 view." Gave him what . he asked for, 

 and returned him 50 cents. 



It is our opinion that the Secretary 

 — in getting out the needed letter 

 heads, and the applications for mem- 

 bers — should first state that $1 makes 

 them a member of the State Associa- 

 tion, and then make it known what 

 they will get for $2. This will make 

 it plain that if they wish to join only 

 the State Association they can do so. 



The early prospect for honey this 

 year was so poor that we knew one 

 bee-keeper who talked of feeding a 

 part of his bees through the famine 

 and let the rest of them starve as 

 there was no prospect of any clover 

 honey. I have not found out what he 

 did, but I wonder what he thought 

 when the fall flow came in. It is a 

 very flattering promise of white clover 

 that we now have for next year; but 

 we will not say further as to this, but 

 leave it for the question box. 



It was a great disappointment that 

 your Secretary met with, in not being 

 able to attend the tri-state meeting 

 at Hamilton on the 7th of August, in 

 order among things that he might have 

 something nice to relate. But our 

 President and some of our members 

 who were there will be able to tell of 

 the good meeting they had. We will 

 also want to hear from our President 

 as to any further field meetings that 

 may have been held. 



