Feb. 25, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



Mr. York — Mr. Abbott says he very nearly came all that 

 way to see me. I don't believe it would pay him, but be 

 says he might do that. It would pay sometimes probably 

 for us to get together and see persons. I have had gentle- 

 men come to see me about certain matters, and it seemed 

 to do them good, and I know it was good for me just to meet 

 them. 



Mr. Johnson — I am satisfied that local organization is a 

 good thing, and especially in selling honey, but I would like 

 somebody to tell us how we are going to get a local organiza- 

 tion, 



Mr. Whitney— I think we will agree that an organization is 

 a good thing, but it is sometimes difficult to know how we are go- 

 ing to get them together. At our olace I have taken a little pains 

 to try to get bee-keepers together at Lake Geneva, and I 

 have written half ?. dozen letters and I don't get a response 

 from a single individual. We are going to try it, though, 

 and see if we cannot get an organization. I think if we had 

 an organization at Lake Geneva, individuals wouldn't be 

 rushing their honey to the grocers at lo cents a pound as 

 thev did, and lose money by it, too. I tell you, an organiza- 

 tion is what every county that has a number of individuals 

 engaged in the same business ought to have. 



Dr. Miller — I very strongly suspect that if a man were 

 obliged to answer that perhaps he would answer it all right, 

 and he might say — well, I don't know all about it, and I would 

 like to call on Mr. J. E. Johnson to tell us just how he would 

 go to work to get up an organization in his neighborhood. 



Mr. Johnson — I have been trying to organize an associa- 

 tion of our county, and of course, I would like to take in 

 other counties. I have talked with a preat manv, but I have 

 never talked with any but what say it is a good thing, just 

 the thing exactly. I have started out a little on that line, and 

 that is to write all the bee-keepers I know of in the county, 

 and put an advertisement in the daily paper to get the address 

 of all I don't know, and then try to have a meeting; then 

 organize, and your other meetings would depend upon the 

 success of that one. 



Mr. Hutchinson — I started an organization in north- 

 western Michigan. I got a notice in all the bee-papers, 

 stating that on such a date a meeting for the purpose of or- 

 ganizing a local bee-keepers' association would be held. I 

 put a notice in all the daily and weekly papers, and in ad- 

 joining counties, and wrote the editors and said I would 

 thank them to give a notice of the time. I wrote to some of 

 the dailies in Detroit of our attempt to organize, and wrote 

 postal cards to any bee-keeper I knew in that county and 

 adjoining counties, and asked them personally to come and 

 organize an association, and when the time came there were 

 about ,30 bee-keepers present, and we organized. We have an 

 organization there now. 



Mr. York — I want to say that you won't find the papers 

 charging you anything for the notice, and when you get 

 together you will find a date to suit the majority. 



Mr. Niver — We have a bee-keepers' association. Two 

 men started that. Mr. Coggshall and Mr. Morton. They 

 announced a bee-keepers' picnic in June and advertised it 

 through the papers, and the bee-keepers from around there 

 as far as 2.=; miles all came to the basket picnic, and they 

 organized that way. It was a large gathering, and it wasn't 

 just bee-keepers, the whole public was invited and it has been 

 for 15 years a very prosperous association. 



Mr. York— I don't think it is necessary to organize a 

 county association. There might not be enough in one county. 

 Perhaps one county is all right; Hamilton County, Ohio, 

 and Cook County, 111., would be, but we thought best to 

 spread out and get more. I don't think you can have more 

 than one really good bee-keepers' association in a State. 



Mr. Abbott — Another word on the how. Now if there 

 should happen to be only three people come, then there ought 

 to be in that crowd that came three people that would make 

 the officers. If these gentlemen would go over and say lo 

 Jones, "Will you act as president?" and to Smith, "Will v"' 

 act as secretary?" and another, "You act as another officer" 

 W ell, now, you meet at my house, and meet whether anybody 

 else comes or not. Elect Jones, Smith, etc. I will give you 

 a httle mside talk. Every reporter is aching for an item 

 as much as you are for a free advertisement. You go over 

 to the newspaper reporter and tell the longest story you can 

 Two people can have an enthusiastic meeting if you want to 

 Tell him the names of the officers, and get the names in all 

 the local papers you can, and also have them state that you 

 had an enthusiastic meeting of bee-keepers, and you will have 

 another enthusiastic meeting with a large crowd You will 



see the next time there will be somebody there to make a 

 convention. 



Mr. Whitney— Mr. Abbott has stated just what I intended 

 to say. They say some people's wit comes too late. In 

 Ohio I went to Mr. Botsworth, and said, "Will you be presi- 

 dent of the bee-keepers' association?" He said, "Yes." And 

 I found somebody else that would be secretary, and somebody 

 else that would be some other officer, and we got together 

 and organized. I drew up the constitution and by-laws and 

 there was just enough to make the officers, and it was adver- 

 tised that at a certain time we would meet at some promi- 

 nent bee-keeper's place. It was ri.ght in the midst of quite a 

 number of bee-keepers. Instead of three members we had 50. 

 Mr. France — There was a bee-keepers' organization com- 

 menced in Grant County, Wis., by E. France and his son, and 

 that's all who were there. We advertised it through the local 

 papers, and those right in our own county didn't even come. 

 In two years we had over sixty. They organized. 



Mr. York— I have heard of a father and son having 

 an enthusiastic time, but it was in the woodshed. That's 

 not the case here, perhaps. 



(To be continued.) 



Our Bee-MceDin§ Sisters | 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Sister Bee-Keepers Ahead in South Africa. 



In that new land. South Africa, the sisters do not seem 

 to be crowded to the rear. The British Bee Journal has re- 

 ceived the prospectus of the Horticultural and Training 

 College for Ladies at Pinetown, Natal, South Africa, in 

 which Miss Ritchie is to be teacher in the apicultural 

 branch of the college. 



A Hard Winter on Bees. 



We are having the most severe winter within the mem- 

 ory of any one, and I fear the bees will suffer. To-day the 

 temperature has risen somewhat, so that I dug my bees out 

 of the deep snow, which lay upon the hives to a depth of 2 

 feet above the covers. The bees are all alive, but must suf- 

 fer, as they have had no cleansing flight since November. 

 One colony out of the 22 showed some dysentery. I fear 

 there will be much loss of bees this spring- because of these 

 conditions. Mrs. C. A. BAtL. 



Oneida Co., N. Y., Feb. 5. 



A Discouraged Sister Revived. 



We have had, in northern New York, two exceptionally 

 hard seasons on bees and their owners. Both years, though 

 mine wintered well, but from the time they were put out 011 

 the stands until frost there was scarcely a day when we 

 could work in the yard without starting them robbing. We 

 could not "even up" feed, or make new colonies to supply 

 the spring dwindling, but had to leave them pretty much 

 alone. My apiary is rigged for extracted honey. In the 

 two seasons described our yard dwindled from 81 colonies to 

 64, and in the spring will, of course, be less. 



We gathered last year about 2500 pounds of honey. We 

 usually get between three and six tons from our yard. My 

 other work has so driven me that I could not read the copies 

 of the American Bee Journal thoroughly, and, besides, felt 

 discouraged. However, having time, I got together my Bee 

 Journals for 1902 and 1903, sorted them out, and started in 

 to read them. It was as if scales had fallen from my eyes. 

 I don't believe I will ever again neglect them. 



By the way, my bees are " banner bees " so far as crops 

 are concerned. They always bring in more honey than my 

 neighbors in this section and Canada. 



I read, and study, and watch, and work, more than the 

 above perhaps would imply. (Mrss) F. E. Wheei,ER. 



Clinton Co., N. Y., Jan. 22. 



The foregoing illustrates the advantage of re-reading, 

 and brings out a point comparatively new. Not only do we 



