262 THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



will do all the work and pay all the bills. Newspaper men have had 

 plenty of experience with efforts to obtain free advertising and 

 have successful methods of combating such work. If we want 

 honey and bees to receive the attention in the press which they 

 should normally have, the indiscreet public discussions of pubhcity 

 plans should be stopped. 



The Field of the National Beekeepers' Association in This 

 Work. — We all know, even though we may not care to admit it, 

 that the National Beekeepers' Association lacks a policy. This 

 plain statement is not intended to give offense to those who have 

 earnestly tried to make something of the association. Some of 

 the best informed beekeepers in the United States have several 

 times within the past year conferred together to see what could 

 be done, but in no case that has come to my notice has there seemed 

 much hope. If the National Beekeepers' Association is to live, it 

 must settle on a definite policy and carry it out. 



Not all are agreed as to the rightful function of a national 

 association. In view of the widely diversified interests of the mem- 

 bers, many believe it best to avoid the financial side of the bee- 

 keepers' dealings. It might be possible to help members in the 

 purchase of supplies but it is of questionable propriety for an asso- 

 ciation so far in debt as the National Beekeepers' Association is to 

 assume such large financial obligations. 



While I, personally, am of the opinion that such transactions 

 are wrong in principle, it is well within the province of this asso- 

 ciation to help members to make or save money. The marketing 

 of honey to better advantage to the producer is certainly one of 

 the problems which might be taken up and many feel that the 

 National should take this up before the other problems which 

 present themselves. Those who want the National Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation to do something — anything — will unquestionably be glad 

 to fall in line with this project. It has been shown that a national 

 co-operative society would not be worthy of support and it would 

 probably not receive much support. To prevent glutting the chief 

 honey markets, honey must be kept away from there and, further, 

 the beekeeper, the man in whom we are interested, can make most 

 by the development of a home market. I therefore desire to pro- 

 pose that the National Beekeepers' Association conduct a vigorous 

 campaign among beekeepers to encourage them to sell their honey 

 locally wherever possible, to help them to get additional honey 

 directly from other producers who have no home market, and 

 wherever possible to point out unworked retail markets. If these 

 things can be done without spectacular notoriety, it will revolution- 



