124 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT 



paper, of course, but they swear by some poultry paper, and 

 they go out and talk it up amongst their friends, and they get 

 subscribers for the different papers; they are talking it up at 

 institutes and poultry meetings, and all the time interested 

 in pushing the circulation of their papers. But it seems to» be 

 a crime to mention a bee-paper at any bee-convention. The 

 editors are so modest they will hardly distribute sample copies 

 for fear some one will say they are trying to drum up trade. 

 If they are, they are drumming up trade that helps us. Take 

 the American Bee Journal, the only weekly bee-paper that is 

 published on this continent and it has a paltry circula- 

 tion say of less than 10,000 copies, and perhaps there are 

 less than 30,000, all told, that read bee-papers, and we are told.. 

 and we tell the world, that there are over 300,000 bee-keepers 

 in the United States. Are there less than 30,000 out of 300,- 



000 who have enough pride in the industry to spend one 

 dollar a year to learn what is going on in the industry? It 

 seems they must think it a very small business if it is not 

 worth investing a dollar in. There is no other kind of an 

 industry but what the people who belong to it are willing to 

 take three or four different papers. The hog people, the sheep 

 people, and the poultry people, take three or four papers. A 

 man came into my place the other day who is just an ordi- 

 nary poultry fancier in the city, and before he went out he 

 had subscribed for four poultry papers in addition to mine. 



1 said to my wife, "That fellow has some pride in his indus- 

 try." If a man happens to take two or three bee-papers, and 

 spends two or three dollars a year for bee-literature, he seems 

 to think he is making a bank account for some fellow, that 

 lives in the city. I can't understand how it is we have so 

 little industrial pride in our papers. If the American Bee 

 Journal, instead of having less than 10,000 had 100,000 sub- 

 scribers, what a power it would be. Then when Mr. York 

 opened his mouth in the American Bee Journal in regard to 

 such a thing as we have just been discussing it would mean 

 something, because he would have a constituency behind him, 

 and he could make himself heard all over this land. I say, 

 the way to do it is for the bee-keepers of the United States 

 to take an interest in the circulation of our bee-papers. Mr. 

 York, Mr. Root and Mr. Hutchinson will all be gone soon, 

 their hair will soon be as grey as mine — mine is not very 

 grey yet, but I am getting old, and I know it — and Dr. 

 Miller there, and somebody rnust come into their places, and 

 this industry is to be perpetuated and the bee-papers are 

 what perpetuate it, and I say we ought to take more interest 

 in it than we do, as individuals and bodies. 



Dr. Miller — I must say a word in defence after such a 

 lambasting as that. I very much doubt whether there is a 

 larger percentage of poultry men take the poultry papers 

 than the percentage of bee-men that take bee-papers. Did 

 you tell us how many poultry subscribers there are and how 

 many poultry keepers? Please remember this, that there are 

 more people that keep hens than keep bees, very many more; 

 there are more than five times as many. 



