52 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



I am certainly glad to visit the State 

 of Texas. It has been more than 40 

 years since I was here, and it is not 

 so warm as it was then. I have had 

 a warm reception, but not so warm as 

 I had then. I happened to be a soldier, 

 and was probably in the last engage- 

 ment of the war, at Brownsville, Texas. 

 There was one man killed. I was 

 in the medical department of my regi- 

 ment. Another soldier, a Texan, was 

 dangerously wounded. Both were 

 splendid men, and each had a wife and 

 six children at home, and I never will 

 forget the conversation I had with the 

 wounded man. I went into the hospital 

 and he said, "I suppose you are one 

 of the doctors." Then he said, "Will 

 I be neglected because I am a Con- 

 federate soldier?" I said, "Not a par- 

 ticle, you and I are not responsible," 

 and that I was but one of those who had 

 to settle the great question, and that 

 we did not hold a personal grudge. 

 Since then the North and the South 

 have united. I never think of Texas 

 but what I think of that unfortunate 

 occurrence. There was a gulf between 

 the two sections of the country at that 

 time that seemed to be impossible to 

 fill up and bridge over. Now, tonight 

 I don't think there is a man here or 

 elsewhere but what would be willing 

 to concede that it is not only bridged 

 over, but almost entirely obliterated. 



The daughter of the Confederate, sol- 

 dier falls in love with the son of the 

 Federal soldier, and they are mixing 

 up and making the grandest people the 

 world ever knew. No other country has 

 ever reached that high degree of civili- 

 zation that has built- it up, but the end 

 has not come yet; everything, like bee- 

 keeping, is in its infancy. When bee- 

 keeping was introduced in this country, 

 it was my lot to buy the first queen 

 that was ever purchased in the State 

 of Indiana. The people did not know 

 what that meant, — the idea of sending 

 oflf and getting a select queen and in- 

 troducing it to a black colony of bees; 

 that it would change that colony to 

 a colony of Italian bees ! Why, the 

 man that considered this idea was not 

 considered of sound mind, and they 

 laughed at me. I was a physician, and 

 several families refused to employ me. 

 But after I had succeeded they would 

 come 15 and 20 miles to see my bees, 

 and one man said, "the blamed fool 

 has ac*^'"'ally done it!" I paid $10.00 for 



that queen, and I paid $20.00 for the 

 second one. We have advanced in the 

 matter of queen breeding so the finest 

 queens can be bred for $5.00. 



I want to say to you that I am not 

 engaged in the business of bee-keeping 

 with the hopes of making a single dol- 

 lar, but I do hope and expect to bene- 

 fit somebody, and engaged in that pur- 

 suit for pastime. I have only about 

 30 colonies but they keep me busy. 



I want to say that a great many Italian 

 bees in this country are not so good as 

 the bees from Mr. Langstroth. We are 

 too careless as to how we handle them. 

 We take great pride in advising with 

 a man who wants to do the best he 

 can. If 3'^ou can breed two superior 

 and distinct breeds, don't breed them 

 less than 20 miles apart. There is 

 something in the Carniolan blood that 

 makes them a little crosser than I want 

 bees to be. I have gotten from one of the 

 best queen-breeders in the United 

 States, and from a gentleman of the 

 South, too, a Carniolan queen. I went 

 on for some length of time, thinking 

 it was due to some imperfection of the 

 queen; the brood would begin to die, 

 and keep on from the time they began 

 to hatch; many of the queens did not 

 fly. I simply pounded the life out of 

 that queen and gave them brood from 

 another queen that I got fsom a Ten- 

 nessee queen breeder. I say to you, 

 gentlemen, that there is great danger 

 of this thing happening in this country, 

 and in my opinion this has gone on 

 long enough. If the queens are worthy 

 of being introduced, let them be tested, 

 and don't you breed them less than 12 

 to 15 miles apart." 



QUESTION-BOX. 



"Will a list of bee-keepers' names be 

 printed for distribution, as at Chicago?" 



Pres. Dadant — I make this explana- 

 tion, that it costs us a little each year 

 to make this distribution ;• our daily 

 papers are only too glad to report who 

 were at this convention. 



Mr. France — Last year there was a 

 motion- that but two answer a question 

 briefly and decidedly. I don't think 

 that is the intent this year, but to make 

 the question-box the most important of 

 the whole meeting. 



Mr. York — That was done near the 

 close of the last session, and because 





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