AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY W. F. CLARKE, CHICAGO, ILL. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PEK ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VIII. 



JA1NTTAKY, 1873. 



No. 7. 



NATIONAL BEEKEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Transactions of the North American Beekeep- 

 ers' Society, at their Second Annual Session, 

 held at the city of Indianapolis, on Wednesday, 

 Thursday and Friday, December 4-8, 1872. 



Pursuant to adjournment, the North American 

 Beekeepers' Society met in the room of the Su- 

 preme Court of the State of Indiana, at Indiana- 

 polis, at 9.30 A. M., on Wednesday, the fourth 

 day of December, 1873. 



The society was called to order by Rev. W. 

 Fletcher Clarke, Vice President, from the Prov- 

 ince of Ontario, Canada, who stated that the 

 President, Mr. Quinby, had written to him that 

 he could not be present, and requested him to 

 take the chair. Having complied with the Presi- 

 dent's request he asked of the society, " What 

 is your pleasure?" 



Dr. G. Bohrer of Indiana, suggested the pro- 

 priety of initiating the proceedings with prayer, 

 and if there was no objection, he would request 

 Vice President Clarke to do so. A general hearty 

 assent being given to the proposal, prayer was 

 accordingly offered. 



The President said it was customary, at the 

 beginning of the session of such associations, for 

 the presiding officer to make some introductory 

 remarks, and as Mr. Quinby had requested him 

 to take his place, he had prepared an opening 

 address, which, if agreeable to the society, he 

 would now proceed to deliver. He then went on 

 to say : 



Fellow Beekeepers — In the absence of our 

 much esteemed president (Mr. Quinby), which 

 I am sure we all deeply regret, it devolves on 

 me, at his request, to call this meeting to order 

 and inaugurate its proceedings with some open- 

 ing remarks. The quick flight of a twelvemonth 

 has brought us together in our first annual 

 meeting since the consolidation of the two bee- 

 keepers' associations into one great continental 

 society. This event, happily consummated at 

 Cleveland a year ago, we are here to commemo- 

 rate, and to follow up with further indications 



of apiarian progress. It is very fitting that we 

 should meet on the present occasion in this city, 

 where the initiatory organization was formed, 

 and the plan of consolidation conceived and pro- 

 posed ; where, too, we received at the outset 

 such tokens of appreciation from the citizens, 

 the press, and the civic authorities, especially 

 in the free use of the fine Senate chamber, in 

 whose honorable seats even our lady beekeepers 

 could feel for the time that they were not only 

 suffragists but legislators, and now in this Su- 

 preme Court room, where we can feel that we 

 have attained judicial elevation. From its pecu- 

 liar and central position, the cordial spirit of its 

 officers, editors, and people, and the number of 

 such bodies that have seemed to come here as 

 by some law of gravitation, Indianapolis de- 

 serves to be Styled Convention City, and if it 

 has not yet formally received that name, I pro- 

 pose that the beekeepers here assembled do so 

 christen it forthwith. 



It is my pleasant duty to greet you all with 

 honeyed words of welcome. Though our society 

 is not, in the technical — I had almost said the 

 cant sense — either philanthropic or religious, yet 

 there are features about it that tend to draw us 

 together and forge the links of brotherhood and 

 good fellowship. If he who makes two blades 

 of grass grow where but one grew before, be — 

 as is generally acknowledged — a benefactor of 

 his race, so, also, must be he who causes two 

 pounds of honey to be gathered where only one 

 was gathered before ; and in this view of it our 

 society is most assuredly a benevolent one. And 

 if the reverent, earnest study of nature in one 

 of its most interesting departments be, as it 

 undoubtedly is, a part of religion, then is our 

 society a religious as well as benevolent one. 

 We have so much in common with one another 

 that we might not inappropriately adopt a fa- 

 miliar hymn couplet — 



"Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one, 

 Our comforts and our cares." 



There are so many disintegrating forces at 

 work in society that anything which brings 

 human beings together, and gives them a sense 

 of unity and commonalty, is a great benefit. 

 Our interest is a fascinating pursuit ; the simi- 

 larity of our tastes, endeavors and experiences, 



