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46 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



$2,500,000 asked for in the appropriation, 

 in excess of the taxes of the State. Nat- 

 urally your committee felt that the best 

 thing they could do was to follow the 

 advice of the powers that be. Since that 

 time we have had a fire at the Fair grounds, 

 which destroyed the Dome Building, as 

 you all know. Our exhibit was" in the 

 Dome Building, on the second floor. It 

 has been all over the building. During 

 the last week I went over to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to find out what 

 provisions had been made for the coming 

 year. Well, there has not been any made. 

 They would Uke to build a building for 

 the Centennial, but it would necessitate a 

 special call of the Legislature, and even 

 if they got the appropriation, it would be 

 doubtful if they could build a building to 

 be used next September or October. 



Mr. Kildovr — ^August. 



Dr. Baxter — Next August. But the 

 director informed me that when the new 

 building was built, the bee-keepers would 

 be given a hearing and a building such as 

 we asked for would no doubt be built as a 

 part of that building. But for the present 

 it will be necessary for us to remain in the 

 main building, as we were this year! 

 We will probably get a little more space 

 than we have, but we cannot do anything 

 about the building now until the new 

 Director of Agriculture has charge of that 

 department, and it will be up to the Board 

 of Agriculture then to ask for that appro- 

 priation, which no doubt they will. 



The Secretary made a motion that the 

 committees be both continued, and after 

 a good deal of discussion the motion was 

 amended by merging the committees, both 

 into onf-. 



Mr. Dadant — We are wasting a lot of 

 time on a needle point. It is very unim- 

 portant whether we have one committee 

 or three. Let us get through. 



The President — The Committee on Pre- 

 miums and State Fair Grounds and Build- 

 ings is Dr. Baxter, Mr. Stone and E. J. 

 Baxter. E. J. Baxter resigns and the 

 chair appoints C. P. Dadant instead. 



The next committee is the Committee 

 on Exhibits at the last State Fair. Dr. 

 Baxter is chairman of that committee. 



REPORT ON COMMITTEE ON EX- 

 HIBITS. 



Dr. Baxter — That is the report of the 

 committee that has charge of the Illinois 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association exhibit at 

 the Fair, which is an educational exhibit. 

 The exhibit was practically the same as 

 carried out last vear, in which we showed 



people how the honey was extracted, 

 showed the various kinds of hives and 

 manipulation and the grading of honey. 

 You know we had the fire, and the after- 

 noon of the fire we had completed our 

 exhibit, as far as cleaning up and repainting 

 and redecorating; our cabinet was de- 

 stroyed and the cage. We had to make 

 a cage in order to extract the honey on 

 account of the flies in the buildings, so 

 we had to build a new cage and a new 

 cabinet. I have not written a report of 

 the actual expenditure to the State Bee- 

 Kee/.ers' Association, because the man who 

 made the cage had enough lumber in his 

 bill to make a solid cage, so I returned the 

 bill and have not yet received a written 

 report at this time of the expenditures. 



The expenditures were greater than we 

 bad anticipated, on account of the fire. 

 We did not carry insurance; it was an 

 absolute loss. But I might add that the 

 exhibition of extracting honey was prob- 

 ably the most interesting exhibit on the 

 Fair ground to the majority of people. We 

 were on the ground floor this time, in the 

 main building, and practically at all times 

 when the extractor was running there was 

 a crowd of people around that cage watch- 

 ing the work. Mr. Withrow donated his 

 honey. From my observation, I think 

 that that exhibit should be continued every 

 year. The sales of honey at the grounds 

 have increased about 40 per cent. 



We received the congratulations of the 

 Board of Agriculture for having the best 

 and most complete exhibit on the ground, 

 and it did not make any difference where 

 you went among the people, you could 

 hear them all talking about the extracting 

 of honey. It was something new. You 

 know the majority of people imagine that 

 extracted honey is obtained by putting 

 honey into a tub and chopping it up with 

 a spade and dumping it into a sack and 

 letting it run out. After they discovered 

 that extracted honey was clean, that it 

 was not refuse honey that the bee-keeper 

 wanted to get rid of, the sales in this town 

 alone, in all the grocery stores, before the 

 shortage of sugar came, have absolutely 

 doubled and I attribute that to our ex- 

 hibit at the F|iir. Of course, Springfield 

 receives more benefit of that, possibly at 

 the present times, than the rest of the 

 State, but it is only a question of time 

 until we will have reached all corners of 

 the State. 



This exhibit was put on at the suggestion 

 of Mr. Dadant, and I think it was one of 

 the best' things that has ever been sug- 

 gested to this Association. The only 

 thing about our exhibit there it is a little 



