ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



149 



us are all right, but they lack num- 

 bers, and our new bee-keepers, now, are 

 not the men — we do not have the men 

 we had thirty years ago. 



Policies are changed; people are 

 changing; times are changing, and, 

 with this change, the younger people 

 have not found themselves yet. When 

 they find the right policies I believe 

 they will take up progressive, con- 

 structive policies that will arouse en- 

 thusiasm anri increase the attendance 

 3) tiiese meetings. 



The old bee-keepers: I take off my 

 hat to them; to such men as Doctor 

 :«^.ijler and all those people, and they 

 have been faithful and all that, but 

 time will conquer all of us eventually. 



Mr. Burnett — It seems to me that, if 

 the bee-keepers would make a sort of 

 school of their bee yards and invite 

 their neighbors to come in, and manip- 

 ulate colonies for their interest, it 

 would create much interest in bee- 

 keeping. 



At my yard, in Lake Geneva, when I 

 was there, I had at least 100 every 

 summer, who came to my yard to see 

 me handle the bees, and they became 

 very much interested, and, at times, 

 I almost felt as though I would deplete 

 my yards in selling colonies of bees, 

 they were so interested in bee-keep- 

 ing. 



Such individuals would become mem- 

 bers of an association like this very 

 soon. 



I think if bee-keepers generally' 

 would invite their neighbors in to see 

 them work among their bees, it would 

 create more interest all over the coun- 

 try in bee-keeping. 



Mr. Stewart — 35 years ago bee-keep- 

 ing — bee-keepers were just learning 

 and every man had something to tell 

 and was glad to tell it; he was chock 

 full of it. Today if he learns some- 

 thing about bee-keeping, he keeps it 

 to himself; he doesn't tell anybody 

 ataoiit his business any more. 



Mr. Smith — I think that is because 

 he has gotten old and selfish. Young 

 hlood I believe will be glad to impart 

 the knowledge they can get, if we can 

 get them here. I do not want to re- 

 flect on old men — the color of my 

 beard will excuse me in anything I 

 say. 



I find one of the hardest things we 

 have to do in life is to keep ourselves 

 in sympathy with young people. I 



never come to one of these meetings 

 but what I get enough information to 

 pay me for a week's time, and I don't 

 use it in the bee yard, either, I use 

 it simply as a matter of knowledge. 



Whenever we get a spare dollar w^e 

 have to spend it somewhere. Some 

 buy furniture, some buy a suit of 

 clothes, while others put it into knowl- 

 edge; we all have to put it some- 

 where, and eventually we have to 

 leave it all; but the education I get 

 at this meeting is worth more to me 

 than ten times the cost. 



I could name five or six points of 

 information of scientific value, enough 

 to pay me for a week's time. 



All we need to do is to get this in- 

 formation out to the young bee-keepers 

 and get them to come here, and then 

 we will get more information — they 

 are learning. 



A boy twelve years old stud5ang 

 bee-keeping for a year may tell us 

 something we do not know. 



We have learned that we can can 

 our food and thus keep it. 



Men observed the bee doing that 

 thing for 5,000 years before he had 

 sense enough to understand what the 

 little bee was doing. 



I can remember when my grand- 

 mother didn't know anything about 

 canning fruit, and, when they learned 

 it, they learned it from the bee; they 

 took the material the bee manufac- 

 tured in order to can our food to keep 

 it; beeswax and rosin, and sealed it 

 up. 



There are a number of other lessons 

 that a twelve-year-old boy, if he is a 

 student, might happen on to one of 

 those discoveries. 



It seems to me we might fill a room 

 three times this size if a little ad- 

 vertising was done with the nature 

 study class of the city of Chicago. 

 Thousands of dollars are spent by 

 nature study teachers. No field is so 

 rich in nature study as the study of 

 the bee. 



Mr. Kindig — I would like to take 

 issue with Mr. Stewart as to the bee- 

 keeper not telling what he knows. I 

 have run across lots of them, and I 

 have yet to find the man who really 

 knew who would not tell. The fel- 

 low that does not know, he hides the 

 little light he has under a bushel, and 

 he tells you that is his secret, but the. 

 man who really knows, if you go to 

 him and ask him, he will tell you. 



