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164 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



bee-keepers as a whole are advancing. 

 They are better advanced, on an aver- 

 age, better educated in the science and 

 art of bee-keeping; and when he says 

 "we" I suppose he does not mean, has 

 there been something new learned that 

 was never known before? but have we, 

 the bee-keeping industry, learned any- 

 thing in the last 25 years? The most 

 of us have. 



Dr. Bohrer — I was, I believe, in the first 

 bee-keepers' convention in the United 

 States, and I do not know but one other 

 man now living that was in that con- 

 vention. That was Mr. M. M. Baldridge. 

 I am satisfied there is great progress 

 in one particular. Then it was almost 

 imposible for a bee-paper to live. Now 

 there are 5 or 6. I hope the subscrip- 

 tion list of the American Bee Journal 

 is much greater than it was then. I 

 was one of its first readers. There are 

 other bee-papers. Gleanings has a good 

 circulation. Mr. Hutchinson's paper 

 has a good circulation. There are 

 thousands of people reading bee-litera- 

 ture now. Now we do not call a man 

 insane for paying $10 for a queen in 

 order to Italianize a colony of bees. So 

 there is progress shown in that respect. 



Pres. York — I think Mr. Taylor can 

 remember 25 years. Does he think there 

 has been any progress made? 



Mr. Taylor — Why, yes. You can't stir 

 around 25 years without knowing some- 

 thing more than you did before. 



Pres. York — If so, what is it? is the 

 question. 



Mr. Taylor — That would be a pretty 

 long story if I told it. We have made a 

 great improvement in hive-fixtures, for 

 one thing. We get our honey in a great 

 deal better shape than we used to. When 

 I commenced keeping bees we would 

 have a box made of half-inch stuff to 

 reach across the hive. 



Dr. Miller — You are going back more 

 than 25 years, now. 



Mr. Taylor — Not much more. Have 

 a hole in one side and two pieces of 

 glass on the end and a board laid over 

 the hive, with a couple of holes in it; 

 set two boxes in it under the cap on top 

 of that board. There is quite a dif- 

 ference between that and the comb 

 honey that we produce now. I might 

 go on and tell you about 20 things of 

 that kind. 



Mr. Todd — How have the average 

 tons of honey increased in 25 years? 



Mr. Taylor — Well, they used to tell 



some big stories 25 years ago. One 

 thing we have lost in — we do not get 

 so much per pound. I h^ve paid 20 

 cents per pound for honey in those old 

 boxes, and some of it was not very good 

 at that. A good many of us have learned 

 a good many things, and some of us 

 have learned a good many things that 

 are not so, I think. But, on the whole, 

 of course, we have made a wonderful 

 improvement. 



Mr. Abbott — I asked that question to 

 bring out a point. It has not come out 

 yet, so I will see if I can not get it 

 out. I was just thinking over what 

 growth and progress had been made in 

 25 years. It is 23 since I came from 

 the East into the West. The growth of 

 the industry as a whole is simply re- 

 markable, when you think of it, the 

 way it has spread and the way it has 

 been reaching out, the growth of a fac- 

 tory here, a factory there, and factories 

 do not grow for the production of any- 

 thing unless there is a demand. The 

 factories sometimes push ahead and in- 

 troduce new things, and I think that 

 the manufacturers of bee-supplies have 

 done more for the country than any 

 other class of individuals, or more for 

 the bee-keepers of the country than any 

 other class of individuals, owing to the 

 fact that they have pushed to the front. 

 They have pushed to the front some 

 things that are worthless from my stand- 

 point, but they are not worthless from 

 the standpoint of other people, and 

 therefore they are good. If a man puts 

 to the front anything people want, he is 

 a benefactor. When we think about 

 the things that were not in existence, 

 that were not obtainable 25 years ago, 

 that are a help to the bee-keepers to- 

 day, it would take the whole afternoon 

 to tell about them, and these things 

 have come to us on account of the push 

 and energy of a half a dozen men in 

 the United States. Some of our people 

 say they have gotten rich, and are bloat- 

 e'd bondholders, and have got more fac- 

 tories and great institutions, and they 

 have done great things, and they ought 

 not to be permitted to speak. They 

 have gotten rich, they have made a few 

 dollars, but the bee-keepers of the 

 United States are millions of dollars 

 better off than they would have been 

 had these people not existed. 



Age When Queen Does Best Work. 



"How many think a queen does her 



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