24 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Black, S. N Clayton 



Coppin, Aaron Wenona 



Dadant, C. P Hamilton 



Dadant, Chas Hamilton 



Draper, A. N Upper Alton 



England, P. J. (first President) . . 



Fancy Prairie 



England, A. J Fancy Prairie 



Hambaugh, Hon. J. M Spring, 111. 



Lyman, Hon. J. S Farmingdale 



Mills, Col. Chas. F Springfield 



Robbins, Geo. F Mechanicsburg 



Stone, Jas. A. (Bradfordton) now 



R. F. D. No. 4 Springfield 



Wallace, Thos. S Clayton 



Yocom, C. E ' Sherman 



Yocom, J. "VT Williamsville 



Of these 15 members, five are dead; 

 and how many are present? 



Answer: Three — A. Coppin, C. P. 

 Dadant, and J. A. Stone. 



The next year we had a membership 

 of 108, mostly through the efforts of 

 A. N. Draper, who got about half of 

 them in Alton — just any one who would 

 pay their fee — and, of course, that kind 

 of a membership list would not last. 



The next year we only had those in- 

 terested in bee-keeping, and the list 

 dropped to 56. 



In 1894 we had 40 members. 



In 1905 we had 172. Nearly one- 

 half of these came through the Chicago 

 Northwestern. 



In 1906, we had a membership of 

 236 — ^^124 members direct; 91 through 

 the Northwestern Association; 21, 

 Western Illinois Association." 



In 1907, 148 members — 142 members 

 direct; 6 through Northern Illinois and 

 Southern Wisconsin; none from any 

 other Association. 



In 1908, 132 members — 120 members 

 direct; 6 t'hrougii Western Illinois; 6 

 through Northern Illinois and South- 

 ern Wisconsin. 



In 1909, 256 members — 179 members 

 direct; 59 through Northwestern; 18 

 through Northern Illinois and Wiscon- 

 sin. 



^ :}: ^ 



Since the National Association has 

 permitted our Association, as well as 

 others, to join in a body at 50 cents 

 per member, we feel sure we will be 

 able to 'get a still larger list of mem- 

 bers as time goes on. 



The different associations affiliating 

 as at present, we are all helping -one 

 another, wlhile we at the same time 

 help ourselves, and thus are all ena- 



bled to share equally in the State ap- 

 propriations. 



As we said in the beginning of our 

 report, the past season has been the 

 poorest on record for our State. There 

 was no early crop, except honey dew, 

 and it was as black as it ever gets. 

 Our experience has been, on one oc- 

 casion, that the honey dew at first was 

 almost as light as heartsease, and 

 after a dry, windy spell of weather 

 th« leaves that were covered with the 

 honey dew were also covered with 

 dust, and as black as the ground, and 

 the honey gatjiered at the latter date 

 was just as black, and seemed to have 

 settlings in it. 



The prospect for another year will 

 surely be better, as there seems to be 

 a good lot of white clover in the pas- 

 tures. 



We have observed during the year 

 that, in the first place, the fruit bloom 

 secreted but little 'honey to call the 

 bees, and the result was a light crop 

 of fruit. 



The effort in nature is to reproduce 

 itself in forming seed, and if the blos- 

 soms are not fertilized the result is 

 no "seed, and, therefore, no fruit. 



We noticed, and were told by bee- 

 keepers here in town, that the white 

 clover had no honey in it, and it pro- 

 duced no seed, because the bees were 

 not called there to fertilize it. 



The Linden trees bloomed as full as 

 we ever saw them, and in nice weather, 

 but t'he bees did not work on them, 

 and in consequence they did not seed 

 at all. 



After harvest we made the predic- 

 tion, along with our crop report •that 

 the Daily Journal requested of us, that 

 if the red clover flowered in the same 

 course as other blossoms had, there 

 would be no honey, and, therefore, no 

 seed, but they thought (I suppose) that 

 I was trying to advertise something, 

 and if they ever published it I did not 

 see it- 



It is the seed in the white clbver 

 that makes horses slobber from eating 

 it, and we have noticed that -^hen the 

 bees had nothing to call them to the 

 white clover — the absence of seed was 

 proven by the fact that it did not make 

 the ihorses slobber. 



4: ^ ^ 



During the State Fair, parties asked 

 us why the red clover had no seed (or 

 so little) this year; so we found our 



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