ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



173 



that publicity is a good thing for honey, 

 if^you talk right, and tell the truth. 



Mr. Burdette — Some misapprehension 

 seems to exist as to the nature of the 

 articles that we sent out. It was not 

 our purpose in doing this horticultural 

 work to trick anybody. We simply filled 

 a legitimate demand for horticultural 

 information. 



Mr. Todd— How to do. 



Mr. Burdette — Yes, exactly. For one 

 thing, we had the experience of Mr. 

 Keeley, Managing Editor of the Chicago 

 Tribune, who once conducted a depart- 

 ment of gardening on that paper, and 

 he told us it was astonishing the num- 

 ber of people who were absolutely ignor- 

 ant of the first principles of gardening — 

 people who would buy bulbs and plant 

 them upside down; didn't know how to 

 plant seed or anything of that sort. The 

 papers all seemed to know that there is 

 a great deal of interest in that sort of 

 thing, and were glad to get the informa- 

 tion that we furnished, and they under- 

 stood thoroughly that we furnished it, 

 and why we furnished it. We had a 

 large number of scientists on the Na- 

 tional Council — Professor Tracy, of the 

 Department in Washington; Professor 

 Taft, of the Michigan Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, and Professor Irish, 

 of Shaw's Gardens, in St. Louis. I be- 

 lieve there is also a great deal of in- 

 terest in bees all over the country, and 

 in honey, and that the papers would 

 be willing to print whatever we might 

 send out about bees and honey, provided 

 it was written in the right way. Of 

 course we could not send out what was 

 purely advertising, saying people ought 

 to buy honey. Papers could not print 

 that unless we paid them for it; but 

 I have gone on the assumption that 

 there is a great deal of information 

 about the use of honey, and facts about 

 bees, that the public would be glad to 

 know, and the papers would 'be glad 

 to print, and the effect of those articles 

 would be to interest the public in bees 

 and in honey, and the indirect effect 

 would be to increase the sale of honey. 

 Of course, the only thing projected here 

 is an experimental series to see just 

 exactly what kind of articles can be 

 prepared along that line, and what ef- 

 fect those articles will have. I think 

 it is worth trying. Don't you think 

 that there is material for articles on the 

 use of honey and facts about bees? 



Mr. Todd — Most people use honey 



simply raw. You might have one article 

 acceptable about honey, but you would 

 not have a series which would give it 

 the force of cuftiulative advertising. 



Dr. Bohrer — what was Mr. Burdett's 

 question ? 



Mr. Burdette — I was asking if there 

 was not material for articles of that 

 sort. I am not very well acquainted 

 with bee-keeping or with honey. I don't 

 know what material tnere may be. 



Mr. Todd — How many different ways 

 could honey be served up? 



Mr. Abbott — I want to say, without 

 any egotism, that I can sit down here 

 in an hour's time and write an article 

 on honey that will go into any paper in 

 the United States. There isn't a paper 

 in the United States that would not 

 publish it. 



Mr. Todd — And a second one? 



Mr. Abbott — Yes, sir, and a third one, 

 and I can write a fourth one that any 

 paper in the United States will print, 

 and pay me money for doing it, and 

 I can write a fifth one that the papers 

 will take and pay me for it, and there 

 won't be any nonsense in it. There 

 won't be any bees following their mast- 

 er to the grave or anything of that 

 kind. But you need not talk about any- 

 body that does not know the honey-busi- 

 .ness from A to Z and has jiot been in 

 it 25 years, as I have, because they 

 can't do it. You don't have to tell 

 people to buy honey. You have to tell 

 people to eat honey, and then if they 

 haven't got the honey they will come 

 to you and buy it. 



Dr. Bohrer — Isn't it also important, 

 and . of greater importance at this time 

 than anything else, to satisfy the people 

 that what they are getting is absolutely 

 pure? 



Mr. Abbott — ^Yes, sir. I could write 

 on the purity and the probability of be- 

 ing adulterated. There is no doubt 

 about the facts. The papers will pub- 

 lish that. 



Pres. York — I do not think I could 

 write many articles on photography, as 

 Mr. Todd could do, but I think I could 

 write a few articles on honey. 



Mr. Clarke — Probably I might give 

 an illustration in a small way of what 

 people want to know about honey. I 

 have conducted a bee-department in an 

 agricultural paper for 7 years in Iowa. 

 I have undertaken to answer any ques- 

 tion anybody asks me pertaining to bees 

 or honey, and I do not know exactly 



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