Publisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. York, Editor. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Free. 



38th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., DECEMBER 15, 1898. 



No. 50. 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION. 



Report of the 29th Annual Convention Held at 

 Omaha, Nebr., Sept. 13-15, 1898. 



DR. A. B. MASON, SEC. 



SECOND DA Y— Afternoon Session. 



LContlnued Irom page 774.1 



After the reading of the above paper Mr. Eugene Seoor 

 read a paper, entitled 



Tlie First Half Century of Improved Bee-Keep- 

 iiig in Ameriea. 



Growth is the law of the universe, but all growth Is not 

 continuous or uniform. The giant trees of the forest have not 

 reacht their maturity by well-balanced annual accretions. 

 Their development has been dependent on moisture, sunshine 

 and nourishment, which are varying quantities. 



The evolution of society has not been constantly progres- 

 sive. Civilization sometimes leaps forward by cycles over a 

 lifeless and profitless condition which, for centuries, had ob- 

 structed the onward march of ideal government. 



The recent occupation of the West Indies and Philippines 

 by the Anglo-Saxon race may result in removing the cancer- 

 ous growth of Spanish tyranny from the world's body politic, 

 and In turning the dial of Eastern conservatism ahead 500 

 years. More history has been made in the last four months 

 than in four centuries during some periods of the world's past. 



In the fields of discovery and invention the same erratic, 

 inconstant tendency is noticed. 



Secrets which have been locktin the storehouse of Nature 

 since the morning stars sang creation's birth have only been 

 wrested from oblivion within the memory of some here present. 



The modern gang-plow, so perfect and useful, is the slow 

 out-growth of the first forkt stick that tickled the bosom of 

 Mother Earth ; but the greatest improvements in this imple- 

 ment are not too old to be remembered by some persons now 

 living. Thus it has been in many of the industries. It seems 

 to have been reserved for these latter times to develop and 

 perfect the appliances to relieve labor, to accelerate business 

 and travel, to stimulate investigation, and to make it possible 

 for everybody to attain to some degree of culture. 



What was the condition of the industry which we repre- 

 sent, half a century ago? How many people in the world at 

 that time understood the habits or natural history of the 

 honey-bee? Of course mankind had learned long before that 

 honey was good to eat. The sons of Jacob took honey with 

 them as a peace-offering when they visited Egypt the second 

 time to buy corn. Samson's riddle had been propounded to 

 the young men of Timnath about 3,000 years. Aristotle and 

 Virgil, Swammerdam and Huber, had all lived and died and 



had left to the world the results of their Investigations. Yet 

 the pall of ignorance and superstitious mystery rested upon the 

 mass of bee-keepers, whose tastes alone prompted them to ap- 

 propriate the sweets which God had provided by means of this 

 useful insect. Little progress had been made in the practical 

 application of the knowledge gainpd by these observers and 

 writers. The " king bee" was clothed, not only with kingly 

 power, in the imagination of the common people, but seemed 

 to be a dispenser of luck to a favored few. Not a journal in 

 America or elsewhere was devoted to bee-culture, not a book 

 had been Issued by the American press on the subject, and no 

 system of management was known save box-hives or hollow- 

 log " gums," clumsy surplus boxes, and brimstoning the weak 

 colonies iu the fall. Increase of colonies was the measure of 

 success ; or, if increase was not desired they knew not how to 

 prevent it. And when swarming-time caiie, many of the old- 



Hon. Eugene Secor. 



time bee-keepers believed that some sort of incantation was 

 necessary to charm the bees, to preventthem from absconding. 



With horn, tin pan, or old brass-kettle. 



The children thundered with all their mettle — 



The aim of which din was. no doubt, to settle 



The frisky young swarm 



By the ancient form 

 Of drowning a noise by making more rattle. 



