ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



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quiring the bee-keeper to guarantee the 

 purity of the honey. I will do that, 

 and I have now ordered labels, and as 

 long as the package upon which I place 

 the label is unbroken, I will guarantee 

 it to be absolutely pure as the bees 

 stored it in the combs; but if the dealer 

 that purchases it from me breaks that 

 package and repacks it, I won't agree 

 to be responsible any farther. 



Mr. Moore — I have been making quite 

 a number of calls on the grocery trade, 

 and in every grocery I am met by the 

 question, "How do you know this is 

 pure?" And it was sugested here that 

 we voluntarily offer to guarantee our 

 honey. That is good business sense. 

 You must not wait until they come with 

 a club and make trouble for you, but 

 you must meet them more than half way 

 about these matters. For my own spec- 

 ial trade I have gotten this up ; at the 

 top is my heading, you see : "I hereby 

 guarantee my honey to be pure at all 

 times, in all sized packages, and to com- 

 ply with all new and old pure food 

 laws." I sign this and hand it to my 

 customers, saying, "There is your 

 guarantee," and it satisfies every one. 

 In the absense of anything better, I 

 shall continue to use that, and I am in- 

 clined to think that it covers the ground. 



' Foul Brood Law. 



"Is there a foul brood law framed to 

 sen-d to the legislature this term?" 



Pres. York — I suppose that means the 

 Illinois legislature, or it may perhaps 

 mean any other State that has a meet- 

 ing of the legislature the coming winter. 



Mr. Moore — The President of the 

 Illinois State Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 Secretary and the Treasurer, are an ex- 

 ecutive committee who have charge of 

 this, and they, in conjunction with some 

 of their friends who are in close touch 

 with politicians at Springfield, get up 

 the foul brood law — or the bee-keepers' 

 law, more correctly speaking — and have 

 it introduced by some of their friends in 

 both the House and the Senate. I don't 

 know definitely what has been done. 



Pres. York — I don't think that is an 

 answer to the question, Mr. Moore. The 

 question is : Is there a foul brood law 

 now framed to present to the legisla- 

 ture? 



Mr. Moore — I do not know of any- 

 thing being done, but I know that Mes- 

 srs. Smith, Stone and Becker have at- 



tended to heretofore and probably will 

 attend to it in the future. 



Pres. York — The committee of this 

 Association is Mr. Dadant, Mr. Wil- 

 cox, and Mr. McCain. 



Mr. Wilcox — No member of the com- 

 mittee has said anything to me about 

 it. I have not heard anything about it 

 from any other source, or done anything 

 about it myself, and I rather doilbt the 

 propriety, myself, of making any ap- 

 plication to the Illinois legislature. I 

 might join with the Illinois members, 

 but I do not think the legislature of 

 one State is in the habit of listening 

 very much to people from other States, 

 unless concerning some matter in which 

 they are particularly interested. 



A Member — You will remember, at 

 the last meeting, we came to the conclu- 

 sion that this matter better be done by 

 the Illinois State Association, and this 

 committee was appointed to work with 

 them. 



Pres. York — I think we ought always 

 to remember that this organization cov- 

 ers a number of States, an-d that we 

 ought not to help one State more than 

 another represented here. Perhaps 

 hereafter it will not be necessary for 

 us to have a foul brood committee. We 

 decided not to join the Illinois State 

 as a body, and of course all of us will 

 not be members hereafter; but there 

 will be individual members that live in 

 Illinois. So unless this body moves 

 to have a committee appointed, or con- 

 tinues the pres'ent foul brood committee, 

 I suppose it will not be continued. What- 

 ever a majority of this Association says, 

 of course, will be done, because we de- 

 cide things by a majority vote. Now is 

 there anything else on the question? 



Mr. Moore — I believe it is best to 

 take some action on the foul brood 

 committee. I think the committee 

 would better make a report and be dis- 

 charged. I do not think any good can 

 come of its further continuance. I 

 would advocate, however, that as indi- 

 viduals we write letters, every one of 

 us, to the members of the legislature in 

 favor of the law that is introduced, be- 

 cause it is no doubt better to "have a 

 half loaf than nothing, and the thou- 

 sand dollars the legislature gives the 

 bee-keepers in this State will do them 

 good. 



Dr. Miller — I believe Mr. Moore has 

 the right view, and, in accordance with 

 that view, I move that the foul brood 



