154 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



I feel we are under more than or- 

 dinary obligations to our friends from 

 the other side of the line. They have 

 come to us from time to time in our 

 State and in our National Conventions, 

 and we have felt their influences with 

 us; and I say the people of the United 

 States are^Tmder obligation to the Bee- 

 Keepers of Canada ; and it has been 

 my purpose for the past three years in 

 meeting with this Association in Chi- 

 cago, and again at San Antonio, Texas, 

 and last year at Harrisburg, Pa., to 

 bring this Association w^here we now 

 have it, in order that we might be so 

 closely allied to our friends across the 

 water that their numbers might pos- 

 sibly exceed ours; and I am not sure 

 in looking over the faces but what the 

 ladies and gentlemen from Canada per- 

 haps exceed those from the United 

 States. They have always been so 

 loyal to the cause of bee-keeping and 

 have been so kind to us that I say 

 again we are under obligations to them. 

 I congratulate them on being able to 

 come and sit with us under the Stars 

 and Stripes, under the flag that Amer- 

 ica so well loves, and I feel there is a 

 kindred love on the other side for that 

 flag, whose Star is the emblem of 

 peace, and every Stripe a bond of 

 union. 



"Well do I remember the last Na- 

 tional Convention that met in the city 

 of Dtroit. As I remember it, it was 

 about twentj^-five years ago. At that 

 time Father Langstroth w^as with us; 

 and that grand old man. of which this 

 gavel reminds me, planted the tree 

 from which this gavel is made, upon 

 the bands of which are the inscription 

 and dedication to him; and it shall be 

 the property of this Association so 

 long as the Association shall last. It 

 was dedicated at the Convention at 

 Chicago some three years ago. 



Many years have transpired since 

 that time. I think one Convention has 

 been held in Canada since then, and 

 one only. "We have been nearly all 

 over the United States; from California 

 to the State of New York; the conti- 

 nent has been well traversed; and 

 where it will go next time I do not 

 know, but I do know that wherever it 

 goes there will be loyal hearts, men 

 and women true to the keeping of the 

 fraternity that they represent; and I 

 feel it an honor to stand before you 

 this morning. I think I once said that 



to be permitted to stand before an 

 audience of American <;itizens vras an 

 honor that could not be conferred upon 

 king, prince or potentate under a mo- 

 narchial government, and so here with 

 that freedom of atmosphere we breathe 

 we are glad to welcome those from 

 the other side and from all nations of 

 the earth to us. We cannot reach out 

 too broadly; and our pursuit is one 

 that is widening and deepening both 

 in interest and otherwise, representing 

 as we now do about 700,000 bee-keep- 

 ers with an annual output of about 

 fifty millions of dollars. This we get 

 from statistics which I think are quite, 

 accurate. It may sound large to us, 

 but only a few days ago I clipped from 

 a paper that is published by that vet- 

 eran publisher who publishes the Sun- 

 day School work in Chicago this clip- 

 ping. "Where he got the information I 

 do not know but it reads like this: 



"Work of Bees." 



"Three hundred billion bees made 

 enough honey during the current year 

 to fill a train of cars long enough to 

 reach from New York to Buffalo. At 

 the low wholesale rate of ten cents a 

 pound it was worth $25,000,000, and if 

 the 700,000 bee-keepers of the country 

 had worked as industriously and skill- 

 fully as did the bees, the weight of 

 the output would have been three 

 times as great and the value $75,- 

 000,000. 



"In one year the beehives sent to 

 market a product worth nearly as 

 much as the barley crop, three times 

 as much as the buckwheat crop, $6,- 

 000,000 greater than the rye crop, and 

 nearly $9,000,000 greater than the rice 

 crop. All of the rice and buckwheat 

 grown on an aggregated area of 2,126 

 square miles did not reach to the value 

 of the money by $151,259. 



-"To appreciate these results, one 

 must necessarily strive also to appre- 

 ciate the number of insects at work. 

 That is rather difficult, for three hun- 

 dred billion stretches a long way be- 

 yond intelligent human comprehen- 

 sion. The human mind doesn't work 

 well in anything mathematically 

 greater than thousands." 



So you see we are not small, and 

 yet I feel that sometimes we almost 

 belittle ourselves. I don't think we 

 have had ourselves up where we real- 

 ly belong. Our work does not end in 



