State Bee-Keepers' Association. 43 



" 'O, yes,' says the man ever ready to jump at conclusions, 'I have seen 

 them puncturing and sucking the juices from my grapes, peaches and plums, 

 and sometimes even the apples, and think they do great injury.' 



"Half the world go through life with their eyes shut, at least without 

 making any careful investigations, and these heedless people, when they see 

 the bees gathering up this wasting sweetness, thoughtlessly conclude that 

 they have punctured the fruit to get the juice, while every entomologist and 

 horticulturist knows that they never injure perfect fruit. 



"It is therefore evident that these two industries are very nearly related 

 and that ever}- horticulturist should be a bee-keeper and to a certain extent 

 every bee-keeper a horticulturist. 



"There is to some minds an idea that spraying trees and plants to 

 destroy insects is necessarily a blow at the life of the bee, as well as danger- 

 ous to human life and health. If done while trees are in bloom, I think there 

 is no question as to the existence of this danger. But entomologists and 

 horticulturists who have made careful experiments and watched the effects 

 of arsenical sprays on bloom fruit and leaf, are unanimously of the opinion 

 that it is worse than useless to spray until the bloom has fallen and the 

 young fruit is as large as peas. It is about this time that the eggs of the 

 Codling Moth are laid and hatched, and the minute particles of poison 

 deposited in the calix are eaten by the young larva, and its days of mischief 

 are suddenly brought to a close. 



"If horticulturists and apiculturists would attend each others conven- 

 tions and discuss these questions of mutual interest it would be found to be 

 very profitable to both, and it is a satisfaction to know that they are 

 becoming better acquainted and beginning to see that there is no antagonism 

 between their interests." 



A resolution was offered by Hon. J. M. Hambaugh and adopted. 



Resolved, That each member of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation be transformed into an information bureau, with the object of giving 

 the Secretary such information as would enhance the interests of the pursuit 

 and make the first report a model, and of incalculable benefit to the public. 



Adjourned sine die. . 



Paper by Chas. Dadant, Hamilton, III. 



BEE-KEEPING AND ITS DEVELOPMENT. 



"When we came to this country from France, some thirty years ago, the 

 number of bee-hives scattered among the farms was very small, so small, 

 indeed, that it was impossible to buy honey anywhere except at the drug 

 stores, who used to buy it from wholesale firms that imported it from Cuba, 

 when it could not be purchased here from the bee-hunters. 



"This strained honey, obtained by melting the combs containing the 

 honey, together with bee- bread and sometimes larvae, was dark, muddy and 



