AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 563 



number of little kinks about the business that can be learned only by actual practice. 

 To one who is making a practice of feeding back, the acquisition of this little 

 item of information might be worth all that it cost to go to St. Joseph. I seldom 

 attend a convention without running against some such chunk of wisdom ; but to 

 leave home with the idea that every hour will be fraught with startling revelations, 

 and that words of wisdom will drop out whenever lips are opened, it is to court dis- 

 appointment. 



Convention Advantages. — The most of our bee-papers, if not all of them, are 

 edited by bright men. Nearly all of them are practical bee-keepers, and know a 

 good thing the moment it is brought to their notice. All of them are on the alert 

 for these good things with which to enhance the value of their papers, and some of 

 them don't wait for these good things to " turn up," but go out and " rustle " around 

 the country and turn them up. The moment that a discovery is made it is caught 

 up by the papers and spread broadcast over the country. Under these conditions it 

 is well-nigh impossible that anything so awfully, awfully new should be brought out 

 at a convention. Sometimes we get hold of a veritable gold-mine in the shape of a 

 practical man that won't write, but who can be made to stand up and talk ; then we 

 sometimes get hold of something worth going a long distance to hear. Then, again, 

 the leading bee-papers always have representatives present, and little of value is 

 said that does not appear upon their pages. 



We may as well admit that the inducements to attend conventions are not what 

 they were once ; but, let us be thankful there is one feature that the papers can 

 never usurp, even if they have given us pictures of most of the prominent bee-keep- 

 ers, and that is the social part of a convention. It is the main thing left for con- 

 vention-goers, and there is nothing small nor mean about it, either. We are a band 

 of brothers, but sometimes some of us get to feeling a little edgewise towards some 

 of the brethren. We think there is good reason for it, and perhaps there is, but 

 when we meet the offender face to face, take him by the hand, sit by his side, and 

 see an honest soul shining out of his eyes, we find our emnity melting away. It 

 would not surprise me if several people went away from St. Joseph with a better 

 opinion of somebody else than they had when they came. For this alone, the 

 meeting is worth all that it cost. 



Then, again, it is an advantage to have a personal acquaintance with those 

 who write for the bee-papers, even if that acquaintance is only a short one. For 

 instance, during quite a lengthy discussion last summer in the " American Bee 

 Journal," I fell to wondering several times whether one of the disputants was a man 

 of real good sense, or the reverse. Later 1 had the pleasure (?) of his company for 

 one-half hour, and in that short space of time he had " given himself away ;" I had 

 been enabled to decide in regard to the value that ought to be placed upon his 

 observations and conclusions. An acquaintance with the writer increases the 

 value, to us, of his writings. 



The Revised Constitution.— One good stroke of work accomplished at this 

 meeting, was the revision of the Constitution. All of that matter relating to affilia- 

 tion, delegates, honey companies, etc., was thrown out ; in fact, there are no By- 

 Laws left, nothing but a short and simple Constitution. The salary of the Secretary 

 was placed at $25 ; now when a man accepts the office he knows what to expect 

 for his services, and there will be no chance for any wrangling over the matter. 



Speaking of the Secretary, reminds me of another suggestion that I would like 

 to make, and that is, that there is nothing gained in spending a large sum of money 

 In printing notices of the meeting and paying postage on them in sending them out 

 to agricultural papers. A man who is not sufficiently interested in bee-keeping to 



