108 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



secretion of nectar and the relation 

 of bees to horticulture. I believe the 

 only way we can get the answer is to 

 get down to it by the trained scientist 

 who will devote his whole time to 

 things of this kind; to watch for 24 

 hours at a stretch the movements of 

 the media, just to see what it does 

 and to do the microscopical work with 

 his own eye; and if he has to go away 

 to his lunch, have his assistant place 

 his eye to the glass until he returns. 

 If we could have this kind of investi- 

 gation applied to bee-keeping we 

 would commence to get somewhere; 

 and if this action on our part does 

 nothing more than to put the machin- 

 ery in motion, it will be doing some- 

 thing of importance. 



The President stated the motion. 



Dr. Phillips: This subject comes 

 pretty close home and perhaps I might 

 be permitted to say a word or two in 

 regard to the work at Experimental 

 Stations on Agriculture. It has been 

 a matter of regret to me ever since I 

 have been connected with the Federal 

 work that such stations have not tak- 

 en a greater interest in apicultural 

 work. I have thought about it a great 

 deal and have talked to a good many 

 entomologists in regard to the matter; 

 and there is one difficulty which is 

 almost insurmountable. When a man 

 is dealing with the treatment of some 

 injurious insect in the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, there is a man in almost ev- 

 ery State who will be able to under- 

 stand his point of view, who is already 

 a trained entomologist, and who can 

 appreciate that work. But I have had 

 some experience within the last year in 

 trying to get men who were able to 

 carry on experimental work in apicul- 

 ture, and I know positively that it is 

 a very hard thing to get men who 

 are able to make observations in api- 

 culture which are worth anything at 

 all, and for one very important reason, 

 first of all, a man must be a scientist, 

 he must know how to observe, and 

 the most important thing is that he 

 must be a bee-keeper; he must have 

 a general knowledge of the practical 

 working. If you ask State Entomolo- 

 gists to carry on investigations in api- 

 culture they are scientists perfectly 

 competent to do it, but they are not 

 bee-keepers. Several states have un- 

 dertaken to carry on this kind of work 

 and it has resulted, in almost every 

 case, in a general bulletin on bee-keep- 

 ing such as any bee-keeper can com- 



pile himself to better advantage, and 

 we have enough of those. The im- 

 portant thing in furthering apicultural 

 investigations is to get schools inter- 

 ested in bee-keeping, not to teach it 

 to everybody, but to advanced students 

 in Entomology, who are zoologically 

 interested in the bee as an insect for 

 study; until that is done the State ex- 

 perimental work will not amount to 

 anything. 



The President: The point that Dr. 

 Phillips has made is well taken, and 

 it becomes a question whether any 

 good results will flow from this resolu- 

 tion. Shall we put the question? 



Mr. Holterman: I want to say that 

 what Dr. Phillips has said is perfectly 

 correct. I want to add something 

 more to that, and that is, we as bee- 

 keepers have not taken our profession 

 seriously enough. We have belittled 

 our own profession. We have been 

 satisfied with the appointments which 

 were made through wire-pulling and 

 political influence, when far better 

 might have been done; although I will 

 admit that even when the best has 

 been done we might have wished for 

 more. I for one think the right thing 

 is to impress upon your State and Fed- 

 eral and our Provincial and Dominion 

 Governments, or those in control, that 

 we want these investigations, and that 

 we feel we need them just as much as 

 horticulture or agriculture does, and 

 we are going to stand for the very 

 best appointments being made. When 

 we do that we will have done already 

 much better than is being done at the 

 present time; and at the same time let 

 us aim at w^hat Dr. Phillips says. 



The President: Now, we have, right 

 in the previous motion which was car- 

 ried, that Mr. Pratt be the Committee 

 to select two more to do this very 

 work, to make such investigations; 

 and this organization has men that can 

 do just as well as the Scientist. 



Dr. Phillips: The point is this, a 

 scientist is not necessarily a man who 

 spends a lot of time studying certain 

 things; a scientist is a man who can 

 put facts together, and a man who can 

 do that can make observations, and not 

 every man can do that. I think. Prof. 

 Surface, if we carry out the original 

 motion that committee will be able to 

 accomplish what this motion of yours 

 calls for. 



Mr. Selser: I hope this motion will 

 prevail. 

 Mr. Hershisher: Perhaps I may not 



