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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



69 



where the farmers are rapidly awaken- 

 ing to the importance of this line of 

 work and its association and intimate 

 relationship with that of agriculture. 

 Not alone for its association with agri- 

 culture, but I may say that there are 

 men in Pennsylvania today that are 

 making handsome incomes from the 

 sale of the bee and its products, and it 

 is only the beginning, as it were, in 

 that line. 



This Association, we all know, has 

 important business before it today, 

 and it is not my object to infringe 

 upon your time or the importance of 

 the work further than to say that in 

 so far as the division of farmers' in- 

 stitutes is concerned it joins with you 

 heart and hand in the furtherance of 

 this work in the state and in the na- 

 tion. I thank you for your attention. 

 (Applause.) 



The President called on Prof. Sur- 

 face to address the convention on the 

 subject of "Bees and Agriculture." 



Prof. Surface: Mr. President and 

 Fellow Bee-Keepers: As the Irishman 

 said, I want to say a few words before 

 I begin to talk. I cannot resist the 

 temptation to say I am very much 

 gratified with the words that Director 

 Martin spoke to us. It shows our 

 Pennsylvania bee-keepers first, that 

 there is a desire on the part of the 

 state authorities to co-operate in the 

 work of agricultural extension. We 

 hear a great deal about agricultural 

 extension now-a-days, and apiculture 

 is one of the parts of agriculture. It 

 shows also our visiting friends from 

 other states something about how we 

 can do it in Pennsylvania. I believe 

 that this is an ideal condition for our 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association com- 

 posed chiefly of local societies and or- 

 ganizations to co-operate with the 

 state authorities. Mr. Martin has 

 placed in his hands an appropriation 

 of $40,000 every year for the farmers' 

 institutes. He proposes to use a part 

 of that to supply the calls for speak- 

 ers in bee-keeping, appointing such 

 speakers as our state association may 

 wish to recommend. I believe that is 

 almost an ideal condition of co-opera- 

 tion of our state association with the 

 state authorities, and the utilization of 

 the state funds appropriated for such 

 purposes. (Applause.) 



It is especially gratifying to me to 

 have Mr. Martin here this morning to 

 say what I assure you he would have 

 said had he been present last night. 



that he would co-operate with us in 

 this work of promoting the study of 

 bee-keeping in Pennsylvania. 



Lest perhaps I may not have another 

 opportunity to take up another topic 

 that is not exactly in relation to horti- 

 culture, I wish to show you another 

 way in which we are extending the in- 

 terests of bee-keeping in Pennsylvania, 

 and this is by local demonstrations and 

 field meetings to which the public is 

 invited. I have two photographs taken 

 here in the Capitol Park. The tree im- 

 mediately to the southeast corner of 

 the next building contained a box of 

 squirrels. Last summer a very large 

 swarm of bees appropriated one of 

 those boxes, and I appointed a day and 

 named it in the newspapers when I 

 would take the bees down from that 

 box and hive them, to show the public 

 how it was done. The crowd was so 

 thick that at first I was unable to work. 

 They were slightly afraid at first, but 

 after a while they became very much 

 interested in the subject of fbees and 

 bee-keeping. I know of considerable 

 money as well as I know of several 

 persons who went into keeping just a 

 few bees for themselves, for the in- 

 terest or study or profit, as the result 

 of such a demonstration as that. 



The other picture I have to show you 

 is taken in my own apiary in Mechan- 

 icsburg. There were some persons 

 present in the room at the time, who 

 are shown in this picture, besides my- 

 self. I show how to change the bees 

 from the old style box hives, which is 

 the curse of bee-keeping in Pennsylva- 

 nia, to the modern bee-hive, which is 

 the only means by which we can keep 

 bees properly. This was done publicly, 

 and the picture shows the visitors 

 crowding around us as were transfer- 

 ring the bees from the old hive to the 

 new. 



Now, I hope to commence to talk on 

 "Bees and Horticulture." This is an 

 old, time-honored subject. If it at- 

 tracted the attention of the early horti- 

 culturists and bee-keepers it was be- 

 cause of its importance to them, the 

 consequence being that it is a subject 

 that has been turned over and looked 

 at from almost every possible side. 

 We can add just one or two new 

 points, and those points become more 

 important in relationship to that sub- 

 ject than something entirely outside of 

 it. I mean to say I believe that a new 

 point added to the subject of bees 

 and horticulture is of more importance 



