150 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



I don't think we ought to come to 

 this meeting with pessimistic ideas; 

 we come here to learn. 



President France — The discussion 

 on this subject is all well, but the 

 question is — are we going to do any- 

 thing? Are we going to make an ef- 

 fort to make the next Chicago-North- 

 western reflect back on the good old 

 days? 



What can or will we do? It may 

 be a long way to reach it, but I be- 

 lieve brother Whitney has one good 

 suggestive idea — we should get our 

 vicinity interested. Some one will 

 say, hold on, you are going to get 

 new bee-koeners. Somebody has 

 to follow in line, and, although there 

 is a good deal to be studied and 

 weighed out on the proposition given 

 us yesterday by Dr. Phillips, that 

 future day when we will have more 

 bee-keeping, more bees, more honey, 

 and nearly double the price for the 

 product — there is a whole lot between 

 now and that condition. 



And I assure you that Dr. Phillips 

 has not made that statement but what 

 he has thoroughly weighed it. 



The fact now is that we are loading 

 up people with honey; we are trying 

 to get them to buy all they will take 

 — to consume all they can; there is 

 the danger point. We are liable in 

 many cases to overload an individual 

 stomach; nature rebels against taking 

 an overload, and what is the result? 

 Lack of taste for that article for some 

 time to come. 



W^e better do as Mr. Baldridge is 

 doing; he will not allow- a customer to 

 have over a certain amount of honey, 

 and the result is, those same custo- 

 mers are sticking j-ear after year, and 

 paying him the same price for comb 

 or extracted honey: take your choice. 



I have been offered, by wholesale 

 men, to. take my entire crop of honey- 

 for the same price as I sell to the 

 consumer. 



They are my customers, who will 

 stay by me. It is convenient some- 

 times to unload your whole crop at one 

 time, to the wholesale man; he is look- 

 ing only at the business end of it; next 

 year, if your price is low enough to 

 suit him, he is your customer — but the 

 consumer who gets in the habit of us- 

 ing a certain grade ^f honey, a cer- 

 tain grade of good goods, and he knows 

 where he can get it, year after year — 

 they are the market. 



But to go back to this topic. What is 

 this Association going to do, as an or- 

 der or individual members, to bring it 

 up in its meetings; to bring it to the 

 point of actual business? If anyone 

 has any method w-hich they can sug- 

 gest that would bring about this re- 

 sult, we would like to hear it. 



Mr. Williams — I was to the Michigan 

 Association this week. 



They had 150 members there. I asked 

 the Secretary how they man-aged to get 

 that number. They were enthusiastic. 

 They had a table the full length of the 

 room. Doctor Phillips was there, and 

 he, probably, can tell you more of the 

 particulars than I. 



I saw three medals — one gold, one 

 silver, one bronze. 



Those medals were given into the 

 keeping of three people that brought 

 the best exhibits there. I do not know 

 exactly what the exhibits w^ere, but 

 the facts were, they are very nice ex- 

 hibits and created a great deal of in- 

 terest. 



I understand that any one, who gets 

 permanent possession of those medals, 

 has to earn them for three years in 

 succession. 



But the idea is: It keeps them go- 

 ing after it, not only this year, but 

 next year. One man suggested that 

 each member bring a ton of honey. 



At any rate, they had the assurance 

 of a great big show of honey next year. 



They propose to get out on some of 

 the business places and have a public 

 demonstration; have two nicely dressed 

 ladies, and perform manipulation and 

 show honey to the crowd that will be 

 there, and make those plans for pub- 

 licity. 



They are expecting a big attendance 

 next year. They are taking up some- 

 thing new that is progressive. 



The women brought their cakes — the 

 boys brought their wax — the men 

 brought their honey — and I don't know- 

 all what they did not bring. It w'as not 

 extensive in amount but quite exten- 

 sive in variety of number of exhibits. 



Doctor Phillips can tell you more 

 about it than I. 



Dottor Phillips — I would like to say 

 something about that. It was a tre- 

 mendously interesting innovation in 

 Conventions. 



The number of classes — fifteen. 

 There were, I believe, two awards on 

 each class, and then of those who got 



