26 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



his home and to steal his honey, and we 

 had painf'jl remembrances oi it. 



Ladies and gentlemen, you are certainly 

 entitled, as I say, to the commendation of 

 the people of this State and to the con- 

 sideration of our Legislature. I learn that 

 the Legislature niggardly allowed $1,000 a 

 year to bee-keepers, counting them possibly 

 not a very important asset to the producers 

 of the State's food, but I want to say that 

 they need education because, as I have 

 already stated, from earliest times there 

 is no more staple article of food, no more 

 desirable article of food, no article of food 

 that helps build up man and make a man 

 of one who would not otherwise be, than 

 honey, and so, Benefactors of the Human 

 Race, I greet you in behalf of the city of 

 Springfield. I wish to say that anything 

 that you see that you need or want to 

 make your stay in this city pleasurable, 

 why, we want you to call the Secretary of 

 the Commercial Association and I am 

 sure he will be ready at all times to grant 

 you any favors he can, for we are proud 

 to have you happy, to have you as a part 

 of the great w^oild's food producers. T 

 thank you. 



The President — The next number will 

 be the President's address. Dr. Baxter, 

 will you take the chair? 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



I am sorry to say that I had an address 

 prepared and either forgot it at home or 

 lost it on the way. I have been so busy 

 this fall that I have been pushed to the 

 limit. 



We are verj' thankful for the coridal 

 welcome given us by the city of Springfield. 

 We have been meeting here so long and 

 we have been treated so well by the citizens 

 of Springfield and the officials that it 

 would seen almost unnatural to meet any- 

 where else in the world. 



I do not think I could enjoy a State 

 meeting as well anywhere else as I have 

 enjoyed it here in Springfield for many 

 years and we appreciate the welcome given 

 us very much. 



Now in regard to the bee conditions for 

 the past season, they have been rather 

 discouraging. The season opened up very 

 encouragingly, but on account of the 

 weather conditions and other things, the 

 prospects have been very disappointing. 

 I do not believe there is any part of the 

 State where there has been any crop to 

 any extent, except probably along the 

 Illinois River bottoms. The clover prom- 

 ised pretty well last fall, but the dry 

 weather last summer, being practically no 



rain at all from the 23d of June until late 

 in August or beginning of September and 

 then very little, stunted the clover and 

 killed it out in many places, and then the 

 open, dry winter, with the extreme cold 

 weather, just about used it up, so that 

 what little was left this spring did not 

 spread and develop as it might have done 

 if we had had timely and abundant rains. 

 Nevertheless, I looked for a pretty good 

 fall crop. We had a great many fall 

 flowers, during the summer lots of Spanish 

 needle and lots of Heartsease and a great 

 deal of :Jweet clover, but it failed to 

 develop, the rsin did not make them 

 grow as they should grow and then there 

 was the cold weather. We had an ex- 

 tremely cool season all the way through, 

 an unusually cool season I must say, so 

 that the flora this year did not produce 

 the nectar that it should. Still, I under- 

 stand that in most parts of the State the 

 bees were in pretty good condition. There 

 was enough nectar in the fall to give us 

 good broods, so that there are strong 

 young bees and they are pretty well filled 

 up, so that even if we did not get a good 

 crop, this is encouraging, and I see there 

 is lots of wild clover left. Not as vigorous 

 as we would like it, still it is promising 

 and if we have snows, as we ought to 

 have after such a dry year, I think probably 

 we will pull through and we may have a 

 very good crop next spring, especially if 

 we have timely rains, and so on. 



As to the foul brood situation, I under- 

 stand it is waning all along, large areas of 

 the State are being cleared out and good 

 work is being done, and I hope to see it 

 continue. If there is anything that we 

 ought to do, it is to stamp out foul brood 

 entirely out of the State, and I believe 

 that if the Legislature is liberal, it can 

 be done. 



There is another thing we want to be 

 very careful about and that is to see that 

 we have the right man for inspector. There 

 was a change spoken of this spring and I 

 was consulted about it, and the party that 

 they wanted to appoint was not the man at 

 all that we wanted. We have to be very 

 careful that we do not get a politician into 

 that ofiice who is not a bee-keeper and who 

 will not do what ought to be done to pro- 

 tect the bees against the spread of this 

 disease. We want to keep our eyes on the 

 Legislature and on the legislators and in 

 the question of the necessity of having a 

 good reliable man, we want one who will 

 be all over the State to see that our inter- 

 ests are protected. If they know what we 

 need, they will be apt to give it to us 

 Gov. Lowden has been very liberal and he 



