220 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



to three divisions; supplies, honey 

 and wax and queens. The society 

 medals of award should mean much 

 judging apiary products. Our Na- 

 tice if you will what the poultry 

 shows under the auspices of the 

 American Poultry Association mean 

 to the Poultrymen. Why not as 

 much to the bee-keeper? 



As yet there is no standard for 

 judging apiary products. Our Na- 

 tional Association is of no valiie 

 to us if it does not stand for some- 

 thing. Every judge is a law unto 

 himself and has no precedent or 

 guide in placing his awards aside 

 from his own judgment. This Asso- 

 ciation should appoint the most 

 scientific men in its membership 

 to prepare a standard for queens of 

 the various races. They should re- 

 port only after they have carefully 

 examined hundreds of queens of 

 pure parentage of the various races. 

 This standard should be improved 

 from time to time as its defects be- 

 come apparent until it reaches as 

 near the ideal as it is possible to 

 attain. The same thing should be 

 done with honey and wax. This 

 will require a large number of sam- 

 ples of the principal kinds of honey 

 and the score card should be pre- 

 pared with the greatest possible care. 

 The influence of the Association 

 should then be used to make it the 

 standard for judging every exhibit 

 large or small. 



We hear much talk about a na- 

 tion-wide campaign of advertising 

 t.o increase the consumption of 

 honey. This is manifestly impossible 

 because of the fact that each pro- 

 ducer has but a small part of the 

 product to market, and his margin 

 of profit is too small. With the 

 right kind of show as a foundation 

 on which to build, a man who un- 

 derstands the game of publicity, 

 can secure for the bee-keepers of 

 this country advertising from Maine 

 to California and from Canada to 

 the Gulf: Advertising on front page 

 space that could not be bought at 

 all with a cash price and which 

 will bring results that you could 

 not bring for half a million dollars 

 of cash spent in newspaper adver- 

 tising. The man in charge must un- 

 derstand the needs of the press and 

 know what has a news value. When 

 he gets hold of a good story he 

 must play it up big, weaving in the 

 information that he desires to get 



before the public. The newspapers 

 are as anxious to get such material 

 as the Association is to get it 

 into their pages. 



Once it becomes apparent that 

 the Association is offering some- 

 thing of value to its members 

 there will be no trouble about 

 membership. It is very important 

 to do something different, some- 

 thing new. The honey day recently 

 proposed in Indiana is alright, but 

 there have been apple days for so 

 long that the public no longer 

 thinks much about such a proposi- 

 tion. However when at the Iowa 

 Association it was proposed to be- 

 gin a campaign to add honey to 

 every Christmas menu and to pro- 

 vide the honey for the poor who 

 were unable to buy it for them- 

 selves, the papers gave it wide no- 

 tice. The association printed large 

 window cards in two colors with 

 the greetings of the Iowa Associn- 

 tion and asking everybody to eat 

 honey with their Christmas dinner. 

 When this has lost its force we 

 will try something else and try 

 something that has not been tried 

 and worn out in other lines. 



The cards used by some of the 

 members cost the association more 

 money than the member had paid 

 the society for fees. What of that? 

 The use of these cards boosted eve- 

 rybody's product and we were able 

 to offer the member something 

 worth while as an inducement for 

 affiliating with us. The bee-keepers 

 interests have been kept before the 

 public almost constantly during thr 

 past twelve months. The business of 

 honey production has received 

 more publicity from the press of 

 the state in that time than alto- 

 gether for many years before. This 

 year we produced a record crop 

 and in the fall everybody expected 

 a glutted market, yet at the con- 

 vention in December most of the 

 members reported their crop sold 

 and largely on local markets. The 

 publicity given the industry during 

 the season kept the honey constant- 

 ly in the public mind and it sold 

 easier than ever before. All that 

 is necessary to put bee-keepers on 

 the front seat is to wake up, quit 

 whining and get busy. 



Be busy as a bee and see if you 

 dont' get your share of the sweets 

 of life. 



