160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1916 



T 



C 



LJ 



'HE time of 

 conventions 

 is with us 

 again, and the 

 sound of ad- 

 dresses is heard 

 thru the Ian d . 

 All good side 

 liners should go 

 to conventions. 



Unfortunately, a convention, like the very 

 human beings therein coHvened, can be in 

 only one city at one time. So neither the 

 national nor" the state gatherings can pos- 

 sibly be held in the most convenient place 

 for everybody. But they are always con- 

 venient for a great many and fairly acces- 

 sible to still more. And they are very much 

 worth while. 



Of course the professionals are always 

 there, making most of the addresses and giv- 

 ing freely of advice and experience; while 

 the interchange of views and the arguments 

 about methods, if satisfyingly enlightening, 

 are largely in their hands. 



There are two reasons the large and suc- 

 cessful beekeepers and honey producers are 

 pretty certain to be found in faithful at- 

 tendance upon conventions. One is that 

 they realize how others now look to them 

 as they once looked to some one else for 

 leadership, and they are glad to do their 

 share in a world where co-operation is one 

 of the greatest words yet spoken. The other 

 reason is their own eagerness to learn. We 

 may not smile at this. This is the attitude 

 that has made them what they are. Such 

 men are always on the alert for new ideas. 

 If they can pick up one suggestion of an 

 easier or a quicker or a more efl&cient way 

 to accomplish some desired end, they feel 

 that that one little idea may more than 

 compensate them for the expense and. trou- 

 ble involved in attending the convention. If 

 this is true of the big ones, how much more 

 true of the small ones. They have so much 

 more to learn. And in any assembly of live 

 beekeepers there is a chance to learn. 



Our own Tennessee convention met with 

 several disappointments, as there were three 

 or four scheduled on the program who were 

 not able to be present. But at that, it was 

 a good convention, good particularly in the 

 spirit of brotherliness it helped to foster. 

 And always I shall regard that as a not un- 

 important aim of conventions. 



Following a paper by George Ainslee, 

 Knoxville, sweet clover came in for some 

 animated discussion. When something bene- 

 ficial to beekeepers does as well as sweet 

 clover has done, so near to home as Ken- 

 tucky is to Tennessee, it is time for the 

 home people to take notice. This is true not 

 of Tennessee alone. It is a truism. We 

 ought not to wait for opportunity to come 

 to us in such matters, we are to make op- 

 portunity ourselves. Porter Ward told us 

 how his own locality, which he formerly 

 considered somewhat poor, has recently im- 

 proved materially by the rather extensive 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



LJ 



1 



Grace Allen 



introduction of 

 crimson clover. 

 Many another 

 location has 

 passed thru 

 similar changes. 

 Who can tell 

 what can be 

 made of medio- 

 cre chances 

 when deliberate effort is put forth toward 

 improvement ? 



But the prize feature of our meeting was 

 C. P. Dadant. Over and again, all thru the 

 program, he answered questions on various 

 subjects with directness and wisdom. His 

 own paper on ' ' The Management of Out- 

 Apiaries " came in the evening session, and 

 it goes without saying that it was a forceful 

 presentation of the subject. Plied with 

 questions as to the advantages of those fa- 

 mous big hives, he left his hearers well con- 

 vinced of their many superior points. And 

 he left them still more convinced of the 

 friendliness and courtesy and force of the 

 genial editor of the American Bee Journal. 

 The Tennessee convention passed one 

 rather important resolution, passed it with- 

 out one dissenting vote, and with a great 

 deal of favorable comment. The Tennessee 

 State Fair management every year prints in 

 its catalog a rule to the effect that exhibits 

 in the Agricultural department must have 

 been produced by the exhibitor the year ex- 

 hibited. There has been no such rule in the 

 Apiary section. Thus it has been left to the 

 • judgment of each individual exhibitor to de- 

 cide whether honey produced in previous 

 years, or honey purchased from some other 

 producer, might with propriety be entered. 

 Judgments differ. So the Association went 

 on record as desiring rules and restrictions 

 in the Apiary section similar to those in the 

 Agricultural section. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to lay the matter before the State 

 Fair management, and inform them of this 

 earnest request of the association, "in con- 

 vention assembled. ' ' 



Of course the little labeled samples of dif- 

 ferent kinds of honeys are not supposed to 

 be produced by the exhibitor, and granu- 

 lated honey is not supposed to have been 

 produced the year exhibited. So these are 

 not to be included in this ruling. But sure- 

 ly in the case of any extracted or comb 

 honey regularly entered in competition for 

 prizes, some such regulation is necessary, or 

 at least wise and reasonable. The honey ex- 

 hibit at State Fairs should represent a 

 friendly, straightforward competition 

 among honey producers of their own prod- 

 uct, and should not under any circumstances 

 slip down into anything less open and dig- 

 nified. 



One thing that was again and again 

 brought out at the Nashville convention 

 was the necessity for reading. It is folly 

 for the beginner to try to learn everything 

 of his own experience. Others have studied 

 out wise steps and successful ways of doing 



