440 



gleanijngs in bee culture. 



June 1. 



keepers' Convention voted their president be 

 delegated to draft a bill for the suppression of 

 foul brood in Wisconsin, and attend the State 

 convention in February, and get them to assist 

 in having the legislature act on the bill. I ap- 

 peared before said society, which voted F. Wil- 

 cox, their president, to act as State delegate. 

 We in committee carefully reviewed each 

 section of the bill, and reported what we con- 

 sidered a model, much in form like the Canada 

 foul-brood law, which is doing so much good. 

 That evening my assemblyman reported Bill 

 300 A. for consideration, which was referred to 

 the Committee on Agriculture. About two 

 weeks later I was telegraphed to appear before 

 said committee in defense of the bill. I took 

 the next morning train, and at 1:30 p.m. ap- 

 peared as directed. Said committee reported 

 the bill was worthy of consideration; but as it 

 provided for an appropriation to defray ex- 

 penses of a State Inspector, they would recom- 

 mend the bill for indefinite postponement. As 

 soon as this report reached me, I learned by 

 several assemblymen, that, if the bee-keepers 

 would write them, urging the passage of the 

 bill, it would have quite an elTect. I wrote 65 

 postal-card requests to bee-men, asking them 

 to plead for their interests. Had they all re- 

 sponded with the earnestness of F. Wilcox, H. 

 Lathrop, and F. Murray, Wisconsin would 

 have had a foul-brood law. 



I set a date for them to reply. The same 

 date I again appeared before another State 

 claim committee, with only a small handful of 

 letters for support. As a last resort I presented 

 this committee a bill the same as before, ex- 

 cept that no State money was asked, but a two- 

 cent-per-swarm tax on all colonies of bees, to 

 defray expenses, was added. As this made the 

 bill self-supporting, they voted to recommend 

 its passage. Next day it was presented to the 

 Senate, and returned for indefinite postpone- 

 ment. 



Now, Wisconsin brothers in bee culture, I 

 have been at $25.00 personal expense, and wish 

 to say that, if you had done your part, we 

 should have had a law for our defense. Am I 

 going to give it up ? Not until we have a State 

 foul-brood law. I know the ground we have to 

 go over, and will for the next two years try to 

 get our bee-keepers interested. If at first you 

 don't succeed, try, try again. 



Platteville, Wis., May 6. 



BEFORE THE WESTERN CLASSIFICATION 

 COMMITTEE. 



FREIGHT RATES ON EXTRACTED HONEY IN BULK 

 MATERIAI-LY REDUCED. 



By Herman F. Moore. 



Mr. Root : — Dr. C. C. Miller has just left my 

 office with Mr. Geo. W. York, and will stay one 

 night at Ravenswood with him. The doctor 

 stayed at my home last night. He says he has 



often been asked to pronounce a benediction, 

 but answered that he was not a minister. But 

 I tell you it is a benediction to have Dr. M. for 

 a guest; and if he did not preach to us — why, I 

 never heard preaching. Mrs. Moore and my- 

 self were charmed by the doctor's visit. He 

 sang for us in his own inimitable style, and 

 played an accompaniment on the piano. 



We had 45 minutes before the full committee. 

 It consisted of about sixty men of all ages, from 

 the youth of 25 years to the gray-headed veter- 

 an railroader, seated at a long table in a room 

 75 feet in length. 



Dr. Miller called attention to the fact that the 

 bee-business is a great and growing industry; 

 that it needs encouragement from the railroads 

 to develop into one of the greatest interests in 

 the land. He said, by way of parenthesis, that 

 he was there in the interest of the roads; that 

 if they'd give us lower rates we'd give them 

 more business. He mentioned the fact that one 

 supply-firm had shipped seven carloads to west- 

 ern points in one month (The A. I. Root Co.); 

 also that fourteen carloads of honey was ship- 

 ped from Arizona in 1894 to one firm in Chicago 

 (R. A. Burnett & Co.). 



Nine petitions were presented to the Western 

 Classification Committee by the chairman of the 

 committee appointed by the North American 

 Bee-keepers' Association at its convention at 

 St. Joseph (Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo. 111.). 

 Petitions on four of these same articles were 

 presented by The A. I. Root Co., of Medina, O. 



Bee-hives in the flat was first on the list. 

 Through the kindness of T. G. Newman, sample 

 packages of stufif were on hand to show the 

 committee. Mr. York, editor and publisher of 

 the Americun Bee Journal, assisted the writer 

 in elevating the samples in view of the commit- 

 tee. Attention was called to the fact that bee- 

 hives in the flat (K. D.) have no greater value 

 than average lumber shipments, and that the 

 Trans-continental Committee had already rated 

 them with box stuff at a very low rate. 



Samples of the Crane and Clark smokers were 

 next shown to the committee. They took great 

 interest in these, and one or two amused them- 

 selves in a quiet way by aiming the current of 

 air at a fellow-committeeman's face. 



Samples of honey-box lumber were then pre- 

 sented, and the uses explained. Just then a 

 young man asked how long a bee lives, to the 

 great amusement of the others. Dr. Miller said 

 it depended on what kind of a bee he meant. 

 Another committeeman put in, "A bumble-bee," 

 and the whole committee of railroad-men burst 

 out laughing, like a lot of schoolboys. 



The writer believes that whatever reduction 

 is obtained will be more the result of Dr. Mil- 

 ler's jokes, and R. A. Burnett's case of honey, 

 which he presented to the committee, not for 

 publication, but merely as an evidence of good 

 faith, than to any of the solid arguments ad- 

 vanced in the course of the conference. 



