Oct. It). 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL, 



663 



It is po.s.sible, however, for the Na- 

 tional Hee- Keepers' Association to 

 spread .such a lot of information from 

 one side of this continent to the other, 

 or from the middle of it, as shall circle 

 the Entire country and do away with a 

 great deal of this ijinorancc. 



There is another kind of ignorance 

 which is simply a lack <if knowledge, 

 and a lack of knowledge because there 

 has been no opportunity to get the 

 proper information. 



Then, again, there is another thing 

 that makes the farmer not succeed in 

 the cultivation of the soil, and that is 

 indifference. You will see a great, 

 burly, well-built, tinely-fed fellow sit- 

 ting back in an old rocker with a 

 broken arm, his beard as long as it can 

 possibly grow, for it has never been 

 clipped; his hair running a race with 

 his beard, unkempt, and his face dirty, 

 a kind of swaggerish way about him, 

 who says : " Let her go ; we have got 

 enough to live on, that is all that a 

 man can get in the world, anyway. 

 Let 'er go 1" 



There is a great deal of indifference 

 in the world, and this is characteristic 

 of a certain class of farmers. If a 

 farmer just eases l)ack and puts his 

 thumbs behind his suspenders, and 

 says, "Let her go," she will go, and 

 there will not be anything done ; there 

 will not be anything accomplished. 

 There is that kind of indifference all 

 over the country with regard to the 

 work this Association has to do. 



A gentlemen, who is a judge, came 

 into my office with his brother, an 

 attorney, an intelligent man, who is 

 probably worth half a million of dol- 

 lars, and who has four colonies of bees. 

 The judge is a member of the National 

 Association, and he said to his brother, 

 *' Steve, YOU better join ; they might, 

 want to drive you out of the city ; the 

 Association will defend you." Just as 

 though a family of lawyers needed any 

 defense 1 



His brother said, " Well, I would not 

 mind to join, but I do not know as it 

 would do me much good : I guess they 

 will not drive me out with three or 

 four colonies." 



The judge said: "You better help 

 the matter along: it is not much ; it's 

 only a dollar a j-ear." 



But he did not join. He belongs to 

 the class, figuratively speaking, who 

 have their thumbs behind their sus- 

 penders, so far as the interests of this 

 Association are concerned, and he is 

 "letting it go." There are a whole 

 lot of people like that, I believe, in the 

 United States, and something must be 

 done to get them into a different way 

 of thinking, if possible. 



Then there are other people who say 

 they have so much to do that they 

 have no time to attend to the business 

 of the Association. Now, friends, I 

 tell you frankly, with emphasis and 

 with real earnestness, that I have no 

 sort of patience with a man who be- 

 longs to an Association, or is identified 

 with any industry, who has no time to 

 promote its interests. I believe you 

 will not misunderstand me if I say I 

 have no use for a man who will accept 

 a position of trust, or identify himself 

 with any body and neglect the inter- 

 ests of that body. So long as I am a 

 member of the National Association, 

 so long as I am identified with its work 

 in any way, I expect to be present at 

 all its meetings, let the cost be what it 



may. You can hold it in Denver, in 

 New York city, in Philadelphia, or San 

 Antonio, as I hope you will next year, 

 and I will be there and take my part, 

 and hold up, if possible, my end of the 

 whillletree. livery farmer knows what 

 that means. 



K. I,. Taylor- You must have a pass. 

 Mr. Abbott Did you ever know a 

 hotel that would accept a pass ' Did 

 you ever find a place where you could 

 pay $2.00 a day with a pass ? Did you 

 ever know a Pullman sleeper that 

 would carry you with a pass, or a man 

 riding for a week across the continent 

 without sleep, or sitting square up in a 

 common car and sleeping, as nervous 

 as I ^m ? 



Mr. Taylor — I have seen railroads 

 that would take passes. 



Mr. Abbott — I have, too, and I can 

 get one on almost any railroad in the 

 United States. (Applause.] And I pay 

 for it in value received. 



Dr. Mason — I would go, too, if I 

 could get a pass. 



Mr. Abbott — My pass is worth 

 money, and I exchange a commodity 

 that is worth money, and of as much 

 advantage to the railroad as the ticket 

 is to me, so I do not owe the railroad 

 anything. I have had the ride and 

 they have had the space, which is 

 worth in the Modern Farmer what they 

 pay for it. 



There is great danger in people con- 

 cluding that the whole field has been 

 worked over and cultivated. Dr. Miller 

 rightly said that the matter of adul- 

 teration had been threshed over. Well, 

 it has been threshed over like the boys 

 used to thresh with the old-fashioned 

 flail, leaving most of the grain. When 

 a boy, I cut wheat with a sickle, and 

 pretty nearly cut my shin off — if that 

 is the proper thing to call it in com- 

 pany. Then I began with a cradle, 

 and then I went to binding, and finally 

 we got self-binders, and that let me 

 out. And so we learn. 



A man is apt to think because he has 

 cultivated his own field properly that 

 all fields have been threshed over, just 

 as the boy threshed around with a flail 

 and got out but little wheat. The 

 farmer who threshed with a flail got 

 some wheat, and after a while they 

 got headers, and threshers, and they 

 got all the wheat. 



We are inclined .to think that if we 

 have done all the work in our imme- 

 diate neighborhood we have done a 

 great deal. Colorado is a big State, 

 and Texas is still bigger, but North 

 America is a great country. Every 

 man who is a thorough gardener goes 

 into his garden and cuts his own 

 weeds. Perchance his neighbor takes 

 pattern after him and cuts his weeds, 

 and then he looks around, and when he 

 sees what he has done he thinks every- 

 thing is done. He thinks it is the 

 cleanest garden you ever saw, and he 

 swings the hoe over his head and says, 

 " Hurrah boys ! We have done it. We 

 have exterminated all the weeds !" But 

 further up the road, a mile or so, the 

 weeds are as high as your head, and 

 over there, in that other State, in that 

 other State, and that other State, and 

 that other Province, Canada, still the 

 weeds grow, and still the work of adul- 

 teration goes on. • 



I will bet four dollars against a pew- 

 ter spoon that I can go right down in 

 the stores in Denver and find a quan- 

 titv of adulterated extracted honev to- 



day. I am Hure there is not a town in 

 Missouri that has two thousand in- 

 habitants ill which at least four or five 

 grocery men have not adulterated honey 

 on their shelves; and it does not come 

 from Missouri. They do not have any 

 in Chicago because they have a strict 

 law there, but the Chicagoans put it 

 up and send it down to Missouri. Then 

 we talk about having covered the field 1 



I had some experience for a short 

 time acting as General Manager, and I 

 know more about many things than I 

 did before I had this experience. For 

 two or three months I was trying to 

 find out about some things; I was 

 trying to do the work of the General 

 Manager of the National Association, 

 and wrote scores of letters, here and 

 there, and everywhere. I went out 

 after this thing and after that, and I 

 have piles of stuff lying on my desk 

 that tells the story of the multitude of 

 work that there is for a live, energetic, 

 earnest, up-to date, enthusiastic, go- ■ 

 ahead Association to do. 



There is no question about there 

 being a field, my friends ; there is no 

 question about there being an opening; 

 there is no question about the work, 

 but it is a question of where are the 

 reapers.' Where are the men who 

 have the nerve, the determination to 

 do the work, and who will do it with 

 enthusiasm, and without any regard to 

 the results ? What we need is men 

 who do not consider the question of 

 dollars and cents. Now, a dollar is an 

 excellent thing. It will get you a good 

 bed in Denver over night, when you 

 are real sleepy, and I tell you that is a 

 fine thing. If you get one like I had 

 last night, right along by the railroad 

 track, you might wish you had your 

 dollar back in the morning. But a dol- 

 lar is a good thing ; it will do a lot in 

 the world : but there are some things 

 dollars will not accomplish, and you 

 can not do them with dollars. The 

 man who goes at the Association work 

 with the thought of the paltry sum 

 that may come to him in dollars and 

 cents as an inducement to do the work 

 will not accomplish much. 



There has never been a great reform 

 in this world, or a great work done, 

 without a man who was willing to lay 

 himself on the altar, to sacrifice his 

 time, his life, if need be, to the work. 

 Ever since the day when Jesus of 

 Nazareth cried upon the cross upon 

 the hill, " It is finished !" the work has 

 been finished by self-sacrificing and 

 noble people who were willing to die, 

 if needs be, for the work they had in 

 hand : and that is the kind of men we 

 need, and that is the kind of work we 

 must do, if we ever expect to succeed. 



The only hopeful field is the field 

 that is wisely cultivated, properly cul- 

 tivated, a field that is cultivated every 

 day, every hour, and during all the 

 months of the j'ear. Every time we go 

 into a new field like this we find new 

 men. I knew there were great things 

 out here in Colorado, but I had no idea 

 there were such men as there are here, 

 that there was as much material to 

 make Association workers as there is 

 here : and, mark me, my friends, we 

 will hear from these Colorado people 

 in the future with regard to the work 

 we have to do, and we will have that 

 much more help to carry on the great 

 work that is before us. 



So then, in conclusion, our most 



