26 First Annual Report. 



A paper was then read by Hon. J. M. Hambaugh, as follows: 



What Laws are Bee-Keepers in Need of? 

 "It seems to me that the needs of bee-keepers in this direction are not 

 very many . Yet, probably, they should stand before the eyes of our sister 

 industries as one worthy of consideration, and as having rights which they 

 should respect. We are not sure that the laws as they stand upon the 

 statutes are sufficient to guarantee to us that liberty and rights under all 

 circumstances as guaranteed other industries and occupations, and in fact, I 

 believe there has never been but one law passed in our Honorable Legisla- 

 tive body that was specially in the interest of that worthy avocation, and 

 that exception, as you are aware, was the bill granting the annuity of $500 

 for the publishing of our Bee-Keepers' report. There was another bill pre- 

 sented before that honorable body, prohibiting* the poisonous spraying of 

 fruit trees while the same were in bloom. This bill met with defeat in the 

 Senate after having passed the House, and after all amendments were made 

 and adopted, read as follows: . 



M BILL 

 For an act to protect bees from poison through the spraying or otherwise 

 treating of fruit or other trees, shrubs, vines or plants with London purple, 

 Paris green, white arsenic or other virulet poison, while the aforesaid trees, 

 shrubs, vines, or plants are in bloom. 



Sec. I. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented 

 in the General Assembly: That it shall be unlawful for any person to spray 

 any fruit- bearing trees, shrubs, vines or plants with Paris green, London 

 purple, white arsenic, or other virulent poisons, or to scatter upon such 

 trees,^shrubs, vines or plants, powdered London purple, Paris green, white 

 arsenic, or other virulent poisons, while such trees, shrubs, vines or plants 

 are in bloom, and so may be visited by honey bees in quest of nectar or 

 pollen. And that any person who shall spray such trees, shrubs, vir.es or 

 plants with London purple, Paris green, white arsenic or other virulent 

 poisons upon which same while in blossom, shall be deemed guilty of mis- 

 demeanor, and for tlie first offence shall be punished by fine in any sum 

 not less than five dollars, and for the second offence by fine in any sum not 

 less that twenty-five dollars, and in default of payment of the same, by im- 

 prisonment in the county jail not. more than ninety days. 



\ 2. All fines and penalties specified in this act may be recovered by 

 information, complaint or indictment, or other appropriate remedy, in court 

 of competent jurisdiction, and when recovered, shall be paid into the 

 County Treasury of the county in which the offence was committed . 



"It remains with you, brother bee keepers, as to whether or not this bill 

 shall be presented again at our next General Assembly. If you consider it 

 of sufficient merit, and bring it iip properly before your representatives, there 

 will be but little opposition to its passage. The principal opposition that 

 developed itself at the last General Assembly was, "that it was antagonistic 



