State Bee-Keepers' Association. 23 



On motion, Mr. G. F. Robbins was appointed a committee' of one to 

 confer with the other associations in session in the State House — the Illinois 

 Shorthorn Breeders, Illinois Swine Breeders, and Illinois Sheep Breeders — 

 comprising the Illinois Farmers' Club, to make the arrangements for a 

 union meeting. 



The committee, on his return, reported the finding of only six men and 

 ten cigars, and the prospect of a union meeting vanished. 



Minutes of last regular and intervening meetings read and approved. 

 Secretary's report was read as follows: 



SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



This year has been one of the poorest, if not the poorest year for apiarists 

 since the improvement in tee culture. And not only for our State, but for 

 nearly all the other States as well. 



We remember no year in which there has been such a complaint of the 

 darkness in the color of honey. 



We have in years past heard of the value of honey dew, but never be- 

 fore such general complaint as to the color o{ honey dew honey 



Our President in the early part of the honey dew season, in writing to Us, 

 said : "My bees are doing exceedingly well on honey dew, and it appears 

 to be light in color and very nice." Later he said in a letter "My! O! My! 

 how dark T' 



In the early season of honey dew we made a visit to the timber and ob- 

 served that there was an immense quantity of honey dew on all kinds of 

 leaves, and it had a clean, nice appearance. On visiting the same place 

 about a week later— of windy, dusty weather — the first thing that attracted 

 our attention was the dirty, black, sticky looking leaves that greeted our at- 

 tention everywhere. And our first thought was — will our bees gather such 

 stuff" as this? While on our first tiip we had wished for such pasture for our 

 bees. . 



Later in the season the question, whether our bees would gather it, 

 found its own solution . 



When we began to search for honey for the fair we found only about a 

 half dozen cases that were well filled. 



Out of these half dozen cases only two of them were at all presentable, 

 and we supposed they must have been gathered from Alsike clover, and the 

 remainder from the much talked of honey dew. (We will not call it bug 

 juice, we do not like that name). The color of the two cases was a clear 

 golden, but on tasting we found it the same flavor as the dark. Then we 

 began to compare dates, as found on our little slates, and we noticed that 

 the cases containing the lighter honey had been placed on the hives previous 

 to our first visit to the timber, and the other darker ones later. We can all 



f. 



