THE AMERICAN APIC UL TUB IS T. 



155 



our energies, talent and money have 

 all been expended in supplying one 

 demand of our interests to the neglect 

 and injury of others of equal or 

 even greater importance. And in 

 our mind it is well to consider that 

 with a properly organized system of 

 beekeepers' associations representa- 

 ive in their character the same results 

 could be accomplished, and at the 

 same time all other interests protected 

 and fostered. It is needless to re- 

 peat all that we have written on this 

 subject as it can be found in our 

 back numbers, and we trust that 

 those of our readers who have not 

 followed us through it will secure 

 our bound volume and become ac- 

 quainted with the course that we 

 have taken. 



We see no reason why all that is 

 desired cannot be accomplished by 

 our National Beekeepers' Association, 

 endorsed and supported by the bee- 

 keepers in every state in the Union. 



Neither do we see any cause for 

 forming a distinct organization which 

 will have a tendency to retard the 

 work of estabUshing a thorough sys- 

 tem of associations. We may err 

 but we are always open to convic- 

 tion, and eager for truth which will 

 enable us to work with better effect 

 for the welfare of apiculture ; either 

 the Beekeepers' Union and the 

 National Beekeepers' Association 

 must meet in conjunction and be con- 

 ducted and controlled by the same 

 officers, or we shall be as deep in the 

 mud as we (in the past) have been 

 in the mire. 



We can justly inquire what marked 

 advances the beekeepers' associa- 

 tions of the United States are taking. 



Are they working up a demand for 

 our honey, instituting better means 

 for disposing of the same, sim- 

 plifying the methods of teaching 

 apiculture, establishing properly con- 

 ducted experimental schools, or are 

 these problems being solved in a large 

 measure by individual enterprise ? 



If our contemporaries wish to 

 "work," Jiere is avast field for action 

 almost overrun with weeds, nor has 

 it seen the editorial cultivator for 

 many long years until the present. 



Visiting a field occasionally and 

 tearing out a handful of weeds will 

 never assure a crop. The entire 

 ground must be turned over and 

 over again and again and if one will 

 not attend to it another must, else 

 but a poor crop, if any, will be the 

 result. 



If the beekeepers and our brother 

 editors will go to work right, and 

 stick to it, it will be only a brief in- 

 terval before we have a National 

 Beekeepers' Association representa- 

 tive in character with affihated asso- 

 ciations in every state and, we trust, in 

 every county in the United States. 

 When this is done we need not fear 

 to claim our rights before any assem- 

 bly of people, and apiculture will 

 command the respect which is its 

 just due. 



It is useless to evade this question. 

 The large majority of beekeepers 

 never can attend the National Con- 

 vention and yet their interest de- 

 mands that ihey shall be represented 

 there. 



W^e trust that amid the excite- 

 ment, created by this new move- 

 ment, the matter of association work 

 may not be forgotten or neglected. 



