STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 35 



iiing-wheel of our grandmothers, and neither of them is 

 brought to Hght, except as a rehc of the past. The essential 

 questions today are: How to market our honey, and how to 

 protect ourselves against damage, either through the con- 

 tagious disease, foul brood, or through the ignorance or dis- • 

 honesty of those who oppose our interests? The comb- 

 honey manufacture s^arns, the spraying of fruit-trees in bloom, 

 the prejudice against bees because of the untrue accusation 

 that bees damage flowers or injure sound fruit — all these 

 and many others are to be warred against. To do it safely, 

 we must unite. 



We hear on every side of the success of the great trusts 

 which are formed in the manufacture of everything, and of 

 the enormous profits derived by cooperation. The truth is, 

 that association is the key-note to success today. I dare say 

 that of those who will hear this paper read, there are, very 

 few, if any, who do not belong to some association, for profit 

 or comfort. The life insurance and fire insurance companies 

 are nothing but trusts for our benefit. The secret societies, 

 for mutual help — ^Masons, Odd Fellows, etc., are all in the 

 direction of cooperation. Our bee associations, no matter 

 how insignificant and weak they may be, are all evidences of 

 the need of association for mutual information, and ultimate 

 increased comfort. 



Some of our State associations have already secured 

 some very positive benefits from association. A number of 

 States have efficient foul-brood laws and foul-brood inspec- 

 tors, who help keep down this disease, which is really the 

 only disease that nature has put in our way. As bees in- 

 crease in numbers throughout the country, the danger of 

 epidemics increases, and therefore the precautions against all 

 possibilities of disease should increase. When bee-keepers lived 

 25 miles apart, and bees existed only in the forests, an epi- 

 demic was soon stopped, like a fire without fuel, by want of 

 something to feed on. But since bees are becoming one of 

 the institutions of the farm or of the suburban, garden, there 

 is an increase of risk which must be warded off. 



I notice the same danger in other lines. A small vine- 

 yard runs less risk of black-rot than a large one. A farm 

 yard containing a couple pigs is in less danger from hog 

 cholera than one containing a couple hundred. So, as we be- 

 come more and more numerous there is more and more need 

 of cooperation, to defend ourselves by mutual understanding 

 and instruction. It is necessary to obtain laws in each State 

 regulating the .control of foul brood, and sustaining the honest 

 producer against the adulterator who tries to sell a manu- 

 factured product as a product of the farm. 



There is also need to advertise our business so as to help 

 the sales of a healthy and pure product; there is need of 

 placing before the masses a very plain statement showing 

 that the canards concerning the alleged manufacture of comb 

 honey by machinery are all a fake. For these purposes, and 

 for many others which do not come to my mind now, and 



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