Aug. 17, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURJXAL 



585 



it because I wanted to say something. You take the poultry 

 people, and there are in the United States something Uke 

 15 or 20 poultry papers that have a circulation ranging from 

 25,000 to 75,000. They all have good circulation, and every 

 poultry keeper swears by his poultry paper. Every poultry 

 keeper has a pride in his industry and therefore he reads 

 carefully his poultry paper. They do not all take the same 

 paper, of course, but they swear by some poultry paper, and 

 they go out and talk it up amongst their friends, and they get 

 subscribers for the different papers ; they are talking it up at 

 institutes and poultry meetings, and all the time interested 

 in pushing the circulation of their papers. But it seems to be 

 a crime to mention a bee-paper at any bee-convention. The 

 editors are so modest they will hardly distribute sainple copies 

 for fear some one will say they are trying to drum up trade. 

 If they are, they are drumming up trade that helps us. Take 

 the American Bee Journal, the only weekly bee-paper that is 

 published on this continent and it has a paltry circula- 

 tion say of less than 10,000 copies, and perhaps there are 

 less than 30,000, all told, that read bee-papers, and we are told, 

 and we tell the world, that there are over 300,000 bee-keepers 

 in the United States. Are there less than 30,000 out of 300,- 



000 who have enough pride in the industry to spend one 

 dollar a year to learn what is going on in the industry? It 

 seems they must think it a very small business if it is not 

 worth investing a dollar in. There is no other kind of an 

 industry but what the people who belong to it are willing to 

 take three or four different papers. The hog people, the sheep 

 people, and the poultry people, take three or four papers. A 

 man came into my place the other day who is just an ordi- 

 nary poultry fancier in the city, and before he went out he 

 had subscribed for four poultry papers in addition to mine. 



1 said to my wife, "That fellow has some pride in his indus- 

 try." If a man happens to take two or three bee-papers, and 

 spends two or three dollars a year for bee-literature, he seems 

 to think he is making a bank account for some fellow, that 

 lives in the city. I can't understand how it is we have so 

 little industrial pride in our papers. If the American Bee 

 Journal, instead of having less than 10,000 had 100,000 sub- 

 scribers, what a power it would be. Then when Mr. York 

 opened his mouth in the .American Bee Journal in regard to 

 such a thing as we have just been discussing it would mean 

 something, because he would have a constituency behind him, 

 and he could make himself heard all over this land. I say, 

 the way to do it is for the bee-keepers of the United States 

 to take an interest in the circulation of our bee-papers. Mr. 

 York, Mr. Root and Mr. Hutchinson will all be gone soon, 

 their hair will soon be as grey as mine — mine is not very 

 grey yet, but I am getting old, and I know it — and Dr. 

 Miller there, and somebody must come into their places, and 

 this industry is to be perpetuated and the bee-papers are 

 what perpetuate it, and I say we ought to take more interest 

 in it than we do, as individuals, and bodies. 



Dr. Miller — I must say a word in defence after such a 

 lambasting as that. I very much doubt whether there is a 

 larger percentage of poultry men take the poultry papers 

 than the percentage of bee-men that take bee-papers. Did 

 you tell us how many poultry subscribers there are and how 

 many poultry keepers? Please remember this, that there are 

 more people that keep hens than keep bees, very many more ; 

 there are more than five times as many. 



Mr. Abbott — I am talking of the poultry fancier. 



Dr. Miller — If you count the poultry fanciers and the 

 bee-fanciers I think they will rate very fairly. I think the 

 bee-fanciers take just as many papers as the poultry fanciers 

 take poultry papers. But you must remember that the sub- 

 scription list of these papers is not made up of fanciers so 

 much as of those who keep a few hens or a few bees. My 

 wife keeps hens and several other wives keep hens, and Ihey 

 don't keep bees at all. When you take the number, I do 

 believe Mr. Abbott will find out he is a little hard on us. 

 We are keeping up to the mark just as well as the chicken 

 people are. The thing in a nutshell is, there are not so 

 many bee-keepers as there are of the others, and I don't 

 believe we are as "worse" as we might be. 



Mr. Whitney — I agree somewhat with Mr. Abbott and 

 with the Doctor. I think the Doctor's position is about > r- 

 rect when he makes a comparison between the chicken n 

 and bee-keepers. But the fact is, we don't take the I'te- 

 papers as we ought to. I don't care how many chicken men 

 take chicken papers, every mother's son of us ought to take 

 a bee-paper. There is not a farmer in the country but ought 

 to t&ke an agricultural paper and a bee-paper and a fruit 



journal. They all raise fruit, they all raise poultry, and 

 nearly all of them ought to keep a few colonies of bees ; 

 that is, keep them right, keep them as they should be kept. 

 I have tried my best in the last year to increase the sub- 

 scription list of the different bee-papers; I have succceeded 

 in getting four or five individuals to subscribe, and they are 

 delighted with what they get in the bee-papers. I think if 

 we would all take that interest in it. that we go to somebody 

 who is our neighbor — and some clever fellow would just as 

 soon give a dollar for something he doesn't know anything 

 about, may be he will learn something about it, and in that 

 way we have increased the circulation of these different 

 journals may be one hundred percent. I think we can do it 

 next year, and if we do that, we will increase the member- 

 ship of the National Association, too. 



Mr. Dadant — I wish to take issue with Mr. Abbott in the 

 statement that there is a greater percentage of poultry raisers 

 who take poultry papers than there are bee-keepers who 

 take bee-papers. I believe it is the other way. I think 

 you all know everybody keeps poultry, except a few people 

 in the big cities. Every farmer keeps chickens. We see 

 the chickens when we pass by the farm-house ; and lots of 

 city people keep poultry. Now. what per cent are there of 

 those people who keep bees? How many are there of the 

 people who keep poultry who read a poultry paper? Only 

 here and there. But of those who keep bees the great 

 majority, who have an interest at all I believe, take a bee- 

 paper. There are plenty Vi'ho raise two hundred chickens 

 a year and who make money out of them who do not take 

 a poultry paper. But there are very few farmers that we 

 find who make any money at all out of bees that do not 

 take a bee-paper. Therefore, I believe, generally, the bee- 

 keepers take a journal where the poultry men do not take 

 a poultry paper. 



Mr. Whitney — I know a bee-supply man who has a large 

 sign out by the side of the railroad advertising bee-keeper's 

 supplies and honey, and he doesn't take a journal, and I have 

 talked to him more than a little to get him to subscribe for 

 some of the journals. 



Dr. Mill er— I would like to ask those bee-keepers who 

 take only one bee-paper to rise. (7 rose.) How many take 

 only two? (2.) How many take only three? (16.) How 

 man take only four? (5.) How many take more than four? 

 (6.) I am very glad to have the opportimity of asking those 

 questions. I want to follow the advice of Mr. Abbott, and 

 urge that those who do not take a bee-paper, that did not 

 rise, to take a bee-paper. You will like it; it will do you 

 good. 



Pres. York— I would like to ask Mr. France to say 

 what he found in Wisconsin, where he had made a pretty 

 thorough canvass of bee-keepers, as to the proportion of 

 them that take a bee-paper. 



Mr. France — A few years ago, I don't remember the 

 year, I was going to make a very thorough report v.^hile 

 inspecting bees over the State. I believe Wisconsin will 

 average up to any other State as a honey-producing State; 

 it will average as well in its proportion of those who are 

 readers of bee-papers. When I had finished that season, I 

 am sorry to say I found only one in twenty who was a 

 reader of the bee-papers. That looks pretty tough for my 

 own State, but I believe if you take the subscription lists 

 vou will find it will average up with the other States. It is 

 just the same with the farmers' institute. Wherever the 

 farmers' institutes were frequently held we found better 

 farmers; and invariably wherever I find a home that takes 

 a bee-paper I find a better bee-keeper. 



Mr. Abbott— I want to say further, I know scores of 

 people who have from 10 to 15, 20 to 100 colonies, who do 

 not take any bee-paper at all. I have a way of finding out 

 because I am taking subscriptions on the basis of new sub- 

 scribers only for the American Bee Journal, and you would 

 be surprised to know the information that comes to me along 

 that line. People come to me and say, "I want to take 

 that club offer of yours;" and I say, "Why, you can't take 

 that; vou get the American Bee Journal right along; that 

 is {or' nczv subscribers." They say, "No, I don't. I don't 

 take it at all." Some of them say they never have taken it; 

 and some of them say, "I never have heard of it ; what kind 

 of a paper is it?" And they don't all live in Missouri, either. 



[Laughter.] 



(Continued oe.^t week.) 



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