THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 149 



to visit some of the leading cities and make arrangements for selling agencies 

 for our product to be established. 



With reference to the change in Constitution, will sa\- that there has, of 

 course, been a great deal of misunderstanding on the part of the membership ; 

 some objection has been raised, but there has been a good deal more approval 

 than there has criticism. There are some things, however, which should be 

 changed at this meeting, and these will have the attention of the delegates later. 

 There has been some opposition on the part of some State Associations with 

 reference to their becoming members of the National, but I feel confident that 

 this has been mainly through a misunderstanding of just what we are trying to 

 do and how we are doing it. J feel that the National laws should be made so 

 they will not conflict in any way with the laws of the various local State Branches; 

 at the same time these different Branches should conform to the rules necessary 

 to successfully conduct a National Organization. Some of the Associations that 

 held out at first have since become Branches, and I am pleased to say that I have 

 an Association waiting now, the Northern California Association, that will be 

 recorded as a Branch in the March number of the Review, but is waiting the 

 action of the delegates at this meeting to know whether all of their members 

 can be considered Branch members, as per proposed amendment. Section 2, of 

 Article IV, or whether they will be required to do as one other Association has 

 done — organize a separate Association to act as a National Branch. 



During the past year, according to resolutions adopted by the Directors, I 

 have listed as National Branches those societies v,fhose officers have agreed 

 to act as National officers until their next regular meeting when tlie matter could 

 be definitely settled. This was done as members were coming in from these 

 places where Branches had not been established, sending their National and 

 Branch fees, which made it necessary for me to turn this money over to some 

 other National Branch instead of to the Branch in their State or Province. This 

 is particularly true of the Ontario Branch, and I wish to mention in this respect 

 that I understand I was criticised at the New York State meeting by an Ontario 

 bee-keeper, and possibly by others for publishing the name of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation as a National Branch when they had not taken legal action. I offer the 

 above explanation as my reasons for doing this, and will say that during the 

 year I have sent to their Secretary, Mr. P. W. Hodgetts, quite a number of fifty 

 cent memberships that otherwise would not have gone into the treasury of the 

 Ontario Association, but would have been turned over to some other Branch. My 

 first letter to the Secretary of the Northern California Association when they 

 Avrote me that they had voted to become a Branch contained a check for $5.00 

 for memberships received from that and nearby states not having a Branch, 

 received just a few days prior to getting their letter, which I had not yet sent 

 to other Branches. By the above j^ou can see that there has been no intention 

 to deceive the public b}^ printing these names as National Branches, but rather 

 a desire to assist them and maintain the National members through their 

 Branches to the financial benefit of these local Associations. These rules were 

 all published in the July Review on page 267. 



For the future I wish to say that to me, at least, the outlook is bright. 

 Members everywhere are beginning to understand better the work of the Asso- 

 ciation under the new laws, and many new ones are sending in their support 

 in the way of subscriptions. The subscription income to the Review was almost 

 doubled during January of 191.3 to what it was in January, 1912. Our subscrip- 

 tion list also is in a great deal better condition for since purchasing the Review 

 I have been gradually weeding out all subscriptions past due, until now my list 

 is strictly a paid-in-advance subscription list, with the exception of those who 

 have written in asking that the Review be continued and that they would send 

 their subscription remittance later. 



Considering the amount of packages we have sold to our members in a 

 local way last year and remembering that not a single shipment excepting a local 

 shipment was made, and realizing that all of these customers were pleased with 

 the goods sent them, many having written me words of approval and stating 

 what thev had made by purchasing from the National, it is reasonable to expect 

 a much larger business along this line during 1913 ; besides, I have received a 



