THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



307 



time and money in securinj^ legislation in 

 tlie interests of bee keeping, as well as in 

 preventing the passage of laws that were 

 opposed to its interests. 



He is one of the speakers at Farmers' 

 Institutes, often neglecting his own inter- 

 ests to work in the interests of bee keep- 

 ers. He manages sereral apiaries and has 

 produced hundreds of tons of honey. 



l''or several years he was Secretary of 

 the Southwestern Wisconsin Bee Keepers' 

 Association, and for ten years was its 

 I'resident. He was Secretary of the Wis- 

 consin State Bee Keepers' Association sev- 

 eral years, and, for the past four years, 

 has been its President. 



He .secured tlie passage of the foul brood 

 law in Wisconsin, and since then has been 

 her most eflioienl Stale Inspector of 

 .\piaries. 



I know of no one in our ranks better 

 fitted to fill the office of General Manager 

 than is Mr. France, and I hope that he 

 will receive the hearty suoport of the 

 members at the election in December, 

 next. 



A. B. MASON. 



Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1902. 



I have known Mr. France for years, en- 

 joyed an extensive correspondence with 

 him, visited at his home for days at a time, 

 met him at conventions, and am as thor- 

 oughly acquainted with him as is possible 

 for one man to know another, and I can 

 say amen most heartily to all that Bro. 

 Mason has .said. Mr. France has never 

 sought the olTice, but would accept if 

 elected. He has had no connection with 

 the late unfortunate "General Manager- 

 Director-Muddle," and can come before 

 the Board and the Association untram- 

 meled by any old troubles or prejudices. 



It is a critical time now in the life of 

 the .Association. Not only do we need a 

 man upon whom all factions can unite, 

 but need the man best fitted for fulfilling 

 the duties of the office, and I believe Dr. 

 Mason is correct in naming Mr. F'rance 

 as that man. I shall vote for him, and" 

 hope all who read these lines will do 

 likewise. 



COMMKRCI.A.I. ORGANIZATION AMONG 

 BKE KEEPERS. 



Before taking up the subject proper, I 

 wish to say a few words to mv brother ed- 

 itors. While we may be no brighter nor 

 smarter than our readers, I do feel that 

 the position we occupy, and the advan- 

 tages we enjoy, call upon us to be teach- 

 ers and leaders. We meet with bee keep- 

 ers at conventions, we visit them in their 

 homes, we read all of the bee books and 

 journals that are published, there flows 

 through our hands a constant stream of 

 correspondence from bee keepers all over 

 the country, we are shown so many dif- 

 ferent views of the subject, we see so 

 many different facts and thtir relation 

 one to another, that we, of all others, 

 ought to be able to grasp the situation, 

 and guide our readers in the right direc- 

 tion. 



It is not sufficient to simply sit in our 

 offices and publish articles telling how to 

 perform this, that, or the other operation 

 in the apiary. Implements and manipula- 

 tion are not all there is to bee keeping. 

 For instance, a man must keep tlie right 

 kind of bees, and enough of them, and 

 nmst market his crop at the best price. 

 We editors ought to notice these things, 

 discuss them, and urge them upon our 

 readers until some action is taken. 



Just at present the business end of bee 

 keeping, the marketing of the product, is 

 the factor most in need of attention. To 

 be sure, our present methods of marketing 

 are some improvement over those of the 

 past, but not vastly such. We are still 

 competing one ivitli another in the sale of 

 our product. The poor man with a small 

 crop must sell, and the buyer takes ad- 

 vantage of his necessities. The poor man 

 suffers; but this is not all. The man with 

 the large crop, yes, and the man with the 

 average crop, in fact, every other bee 

 keeper suffers, because the price is there- 

 by set at which future sales must be made. 

 This is the complaint continually heard: 

 "The small producer sells for what he 

 can get, for whatever is offered him, and 

 breaks down the market. " A bounteous 



