TIIK BEE-KHEPRRS, REVIEW. 



243 



ers who have paid their hard earned dol- 

 lars in coming to a convention where they 

 expect to learn something that will help 

 them to make their business more pleas- 

 ant and profitable. 



I should not like to have anything that 

 I have written discourage any one from 

 talking at a convention. Goodness, 

 knows, it is hard enough, sometimes, to 

 get people to talk, or to get the right ones 

 to talk. The difficulty is that some of 

 them feel, when they get up to speak, 

 that they nmst make a speech; and they 

 talk on, and on, and wander off into by 

 paths, and describe minor details, and 

 touch upon irrelevant matters, until the 

 main point is lost and the audience 

 wearied. 



This tendency, on the part of some 

 speakers, to wander from the topic under 

 discussion, is one of the difficult things 



with which a presiding officer has to con- 

 tend. Suppose that the topic under con- 

 sideration is the use of queen traps. Some 

 member says that he does not approve of 

 their use. He prefers to clip his queens. 

 This is all right and proper, and to the 

 point. If he proceeds to give reasons ivhy 

 he prefers clipped quueens, to the use of 

 the queen trap, that is still near enough 

 to be allowed. But the next thing we 

 know, some one wishes to know "how he 

 clips his queens," and, presto, the whole 

 convention is discussing the clipping of 

 queens, and telling how it ought to be 

 done. The proper thing to do is to finish 

 up the discussion of queen traps, and then 

 if the discussion of methods of clipping 

 queens is in order, take up that, yes, and 

 finish it, before allowing it to run into a 

 consideration of whether clioping queens 

 causes the bees to supersede them. 



.ATTEXDIN'G CONVENTION'S. 



Some of the Benefus that may he Derived 

 From the Practice. 



I presume a great many of our readers 

 are still debating in their minds whether 

 or not they will attend the coming con- 

 vention at Denver; to all such I would 

 recommend the reading of the following. 

 It is an extract from a paper read last 

 winter, by Mr. Jacob Huffman, at the 

 Wisconsin State Convention. Among 

 other things Mr. Huffman said: — 



If a man chooses to be a mere cipher in 

 the bee-industry, he can possibly afford 

 to let our conventions go unattended; 

 but if ambitious, he will seek a wider out- 

 look, take up bee-culture with its diversi- 

 fied activities, educating the head and 

 strengthening the judgment. It is at 

 these gatherings we get the very extract 

 of success; possibly given in a nut-shell. 

 It was in our conventions that the ques- 

 tion of foul-brood law was agitated. 



Through our organization we have been 

 able to kill bills introduced, which, if 



passed, would have been detrimental to 

 the bee-keeper. We must admit that a 

 vast amount of fraud has been perpetra- 

 ted through unjust legislation. In this 

 organization we have men of back-bone 

 w'ho are not afraid to inquire into the sit- 

 uation, put in our protests, and demand 

 our rights. It is possible through the 

 medium of our society to educate apiarists 

 so that they may be able to take a great 

 step in advance of where they are even 

 at the present time. 



Through these discussions we are able 

 to distribute light and practical informa- 

 tion which leads to scientific queen-rear- 

 ing, successful wintering, the building up 

 of a trade for our products; the hive found 

 to be the most convenient and practical; 

 the best and safest packages for shipping. 

 Thus, we are enabled to make our deal- 

 ings so plain, straight and honest that no 

 outside concern can gain any foothold 

 upon our transactions — a code of fair hon- 

 est and equitable prices. 



As we confer together it is inevitable 

 that we differ in opinion, but the current 

 of friendship and brotherly love courses 

 through all our transactions — important 

 not only as regards dollars and cents, but 

 important as regards social acquaintance. 

 It is a mistake to think we are smart 



