ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



135 



"Spanish needle and heartsease right 

 in bloom and he left the queen at 

 home watching the scales." 



He said to me, "Good bye, lYance, 

 I must attend to business." 



The queen was doing the work in his 

 absence; the scale told the condition 

 of the weather, that it was changing, 

 and that meant home, and he got a 

 bigger crop in September than through 

 the rest of the reason. 



He is another crank on young 

 queens every year. 



(Applause.) 



I believe that is just as practical 

 and just as applicable to bee-keeping 

 anywhere. If we learn to manage 

 bees we will learn how to save ex- 

 pense. 



Say, let us learn how to sell our 

 goods and pocket the money. 



President France — I would like to 

 bring up a different line of thought. 

 We have had it on the bee-keeper as 

 . an individual, his make-up and man- 

 agement, and these conveniences; now, 

 there is the grand good social factor; 

 it is hard to get it in any other way 

 save at these meetings. 



The social feature — that of coming 

 together and exchanging ideas and 

 experiences. I have attended a good 

 many conventions in the last few years 

 and I don't believe I ever attended 

 one but I feel I have learned some- 

 thing that paid me for making the 

 trip. 



Although my father was a bee- 

 keeper before me, and I had his ex- 

 perience to begin my learning, — as I 

 go abroad and get the experiences of 

 others I begin to find I am a beginner 

 and can learn every day something; 

 and I find there is one up in Wiscon- 

 sin who knows all about the business. 



Now the social feature has another 

 side that has not come to your atten- 

 tion here. 



In New York they hold two bee- 

 keepers' meetings — winter and sum- 

 mer conventions — and they bring their 

 better halves. They think more of the 

 summer field meet as social meetings, 

 and every housewife does her duty; 

 she is going to the field meet in the 

 summer; they have a basket picnic 

 dinner together; that is where your 

 time is worth as much in the social 

 building up and getting together as 

 these winter meetings; and we can 

 learn from those eastern states that 

 have been holding field meets with 



profit, what they are doing. Let Mi\ 

 Kildow bring out this point. 



THE ADVANTAGE OF FIELD 

 MEETINGS. 



Mr. A. L. Kildow, Putnam, 111. 

 Mr. Kildow — I think the Secretary 

 made a mistake in his program when 

 he selected me to talk on that topic; 

 I did not know it until yesterday morn- 

 ing; I did not know that I was on for 

 anything. 



I was somewhat surprised; when I 

 first got a letter from the Secretary I 

 told him I couldn't come; I got his sec- 

 ond letter, and I thought I could come, 

 I would like to hear some one else talk 

 on this subject. I am a poor talker. It 

 is not in my line, and I will make only 

 a few remarks. 



In regard to these field meets. I 

 think it is one branch of bee-keep- 

 ing that is very important; if any- 

 thing it is better than these meetings 

 in the winter time, although these 

 meetings are good, but in our sum- 

 nier meetings we bring out things that 

 we cannot do here; for instance: We 

 can have practical manipulation of the 

 bee hives and show the different work- 

 ings of the inside of a colony of bees 

 that you do not get here and that a 

 good many do not know much about, 

 especially the novice. Of course the 

 practical bee-keeper knows all about 

 this. 



We get the social feature in the bee 

 yard that we do not get here. 



Now, for instance, our meeting at 

 Hamilton: I think any one who went 

 up to that meeting would say that ix 

 paid them well to go clear across the 

 state to be there. 



If you have seen a picture of the 

 Wisconsin meeting you will get some 

 idea of what our meeting was in Ham- 

 ilton. There were about 100 of us, or 

 more, in the picture. 



To hear the different ones talk, it 

 was worth the time it took to go there. 

 And our meetings at Rockford! They 

 have been good. We have a little gath- 

 ering there every year, and those meet- 

 ings are well worth the bee-keepers' 

 time who is in reach of there, to go. 



We have been having meetings in 

 eastern Illinois ; for some reason this 

 fall, we failed to have one there. 



We have been having good meetings 

 there; and I want to say if there is 

 any neighborhood in the state wfto 

 will get up enough interest to furnish a 

 place of meeting — some bee yard. 



