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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. <J, 



Tho the bee-keepers faithful servants be exceedingly 

 small, they are wonderfully numerous, hence the results of 

 their combiued efforts aggregate so enormously, and are of 

 such great importance to the world to-day. Thus it is that 

 gatherings such as this are found, Where those most interestec^ 

 may compare experiences and strive to so aid each other that 

 knowledge concerning the little busy bee may be increast, and 

 its product become a greater source of profit to those whose 

 business it is to harvest it, and distribute to the world's 

 hungry human toilers. 



I cannot hope to add much, if anything, to what my 

 audience already knows regarding the practical work con- 

 nected with bee-culture, but I may strive to remind you of 

 some things that you are quite familiar with, and also offer a 

 few suggestions that possibly may cause a discussion that shall 

 result in something of real benefit to each. 



INCREASING THE CONSUMPTION OF HONEY. 



First, I wish to call your attention to the very urgent 

 need of devising some means by which honey — nectar fit for 

 the gods — shall become more generally a dietary article. It 

 should be found upon the plain, but neat and wholesome, 

 tables of the toiling masses, as well as on the sumptuous ban- 

 queting boards of the rich and royal classes. The price of the 

 article can no longer be urged as a barrier to its universal 

 demand. 



But how shall honey-producers proceed to create a more 

 general use of their delicious and health-giving sweet, and 

 consequently increase the demand? No great hight is at- 

 tained and permanently occupied without much and constant 

 effort. As in other domestic lines, so in this of honey con- 

 sumption. Education of the public is the great necessity. 

 They must be taught the intrinsic food value of our product 

 ere they can be expected to use it to any appreciable extent. 

 But this cannot be accomplisht in one week, or one month. It 

 will require years to attain the desired goal. But it can be 

 done. One bee-keeper cannot do it. AU must help. As in 

 the bee-hive, this is where individual work counts. Let every 

 producer of honey see to it that his own neighborhood is thor- 

 oughly informed as to the true value of honey as a food, and 

 it will not be long until the aggregate of honey-educated neigh- 

 borhoods will embrace the total of America's great population. 



But what special means can be employed to bring about 

 this much-desired result'? No one thing will do it. Of course, 

 a good deal of talking will have to be done. The circulation 

 of literature explaining the nature and valuable characteris- 

 tics of honey as a food, together with recipes detailing a few 

 of the very best forms in which honey may well enter as an 

 ingredient — I say, the unlimited distribution of such concise, 

 epitomized information will go far toward solving the prob- 

 lem. But this form of educating the public must be thor- 

 oughly and continually applied. 



Again, the use of local newspapers should not be over- 

 lookt. Also, the presentation of tempting samples of honey 

 to prospective customers will often prove especially helpful. 

 Other means will readily suggest themselves to the usually 

 bright brain of the bee-keeper. 



DISPOSING OF LARGE CROPS OF HONEY. 



One of the greatest questions that confront many a bee- 

 keeper, and one that must be solved ere long, is that of dis- 

 posing of large crops of honey. It is little encouragement to 

 have produced a big crop of beautiful honey, and then find 

 that there is no eslabllsht market for the same — no organized, 

 cooperative system through which the large crops can be dis- 

 tributed, or placed upon the market so as to yield the best 

 financial returns. Right here is where the pursuit of bee- 

 keeping is exceedingly weak. The fruit-growers are away be- 

 yond us in this regard. Wo must awake, and meet, in some 

 satisfactory manner, this need that presents itself with 

 such force to the extensive producers of honey. I doubt not 

 there la ample wisdom and intelligent foresight possest by 

 those in attendance at this convention to successfully meet 

 this emergency. It 7ni(.vt be met. The question is How T 



It has been discovered, I think, that it will not do to rely 

 wholly upon commission men. They can handle only a por- 

 tion of the honey produced In our melllfiuous land. And then, 

 gome of the commission men have proven themselves alto- 

 gether too swinish, and devoid of common honesty, besides. 

 There is too great an opportunity for fraudulent dealing ever 

 to make the commission way of handling honey entirely and 

 generally satisfactory to the large or even the small producer. 

 Bee-keepers must sgme day be organized so as to handle and 

 dispose of their honey themselves. They can do it, and they 

 will do it, ore long. Then good-bye to the tlowery-tongued, 

 boastful, proud-of-hls-big-rating-and-referonces commission 



man, who is a veritable leech upon his fellowmen, and should 

 long ago have been everlastingly retired to the robbers' cave 

 whence he came. 



GRADING OF COMB HONEY. 



The question of properly grading honey is one that has 

 received all too scaut attention on the part of the producers. 

 There is not a doubt if there could obtain a mutual agreement 

 between honey-shippers and the dealers, it would be a very 

 great help toward securing a better and more nearly just 

 price for the product. It seems to me that an executive com- 

 mittee should be appointed by this Union, whose duty it shall 

 be to secure suggestions from the dealers in the principal 

 markets, and also the ideas of the most extensive and practi- 

 cal producers, and from the views of both prepare and submit 

 for consideration a set of rules for grading comb honey, being 

 the combined wisdom of the committee, the producers, and the 

 dealers. Then having such rules as a guide, they could be 

 held open for further suggestions and criticisms, and for dis- 

 cussion in the bee-papers, until a stated time, when the com- 

 mittee should issue the final and perfected rules, to be fol- 

 lowed by the producers in packing honey for shipment, and 

 by the dealers when issuing market quotations. 



PUTTING AN END TO HONEY-ADULTERATION. 



Another line of most important work in which bee-keepers 

 should unitedly engage, is that of forever putting an end to 

 the adulteration of their fair liquid product, by the admixture 

 of glucose or other foreign substance by the unprincipled and 

 criminally inclined. This, to-day, is the greatest bane of the 

 pursuit of honey-production, and to in some degree wage the 

 initial battle against the hydra-headed monster, a year ago a 

 new constitution was adopted by this organization, one of 

 whose several important objects is that of attempting to 

 suppress the adulteration of honey. 



This is a subject in which every bee-keeper in Christen- 

 dom is vitally interested. Unless somethin? radical is done, 

 and that right speedily, the very existence of our beloved in- 

 dustry will be endangered. 



It had been hoped by some that by the time of this meet- 

 ing our able General Manager and wise Board of Directors 

 might be permitted to accomplish something along this line, 

 but not yet being supplied sufficiently with the needful finan- 

 cial equipment — the "sinews of war"— -to begin the fight 

 against the honey-adulterators, it was deemed best to simply 

 wait until there is in hand ample "ammunition" to insure 

 the entire annihilation of the enemy when once the war is 

 begun. 



It seems to me that the very first thing we need to do is 

 to rally around the standard of the United States Bee-Keepers' 

 Union a veritable host of determined, never-say-die honey- 

 producers, who are willing to go in for the whole war, whether 

 It takes all summer, or any number of summers — to eternally 

 destroy our common foe — the abominable adulterators of 

 earth's purest natural sweet I 



I might continue these suggestive hints, but It is scarcely 

 necessary. Every or.e of you is ready to go forward whenever 

 this Union shall but give the starting word. Let us hope that 

 at this convention such action will be taken along various 

 lines as shall prove the bright harbinger of better things in 

 our pursuit. 



In conclusion, permit me to say that tho the presidency 

 of this Union was thrust upon me at the last meeting, I have 

 endeavored to discharge its duties to the best of my limited 

 ability. I trust that wherein I have failed to measure up to 

 your anticipations you maybe lenient; and that at the close 

 of my term of office I may have the pleasure of welcoming as 

 my successor one who shall lead us all to higher hights of 

 success, until the great and ennobling Industry of bee-keeping 

 shall bo unto its devotees all that it rightly deserves to be. 



Chicago, III., Aug. l-t, 1897. George W. York. 



Rev. E. T. Abbott — Bee-keepers ought to ask for honey 

 when stopping at hotels. Bee-keepers preach of the health- 

 fulness of honey, but say " I don't care for honey." Let's take 

 our own medicine. I had considerable difficulty once to get a 

 friend to try using honey. I finally got him to buy a 60- 

 pound can of it, he thinking that it would last a lifetime. He 

 now buys such a can full once in throe months. We need to 

 put forth some little elTort to get people to using houeyr 



Dr. Miller— I think that something ought to be said in re- 

 gard to the healthfulness of honey as compared with sugar. 



R. V. Holtermann — If the people of the United States had 

 some officer, some one In an official poiitlon, who would not be 

 suspected of having an axe to grind, who could give the peo- 

 ple the truth on these subjects, It would be believed, and bo of 

 great value. 



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