ilj:,inois state bee-keepers' association 



117 



been called in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. Mr. Rice was temporarily in the 

 chair, and then a set of officers were 

 elected. I think I didn't come into the 

 meeting until just about the time of 

 that election, and to my surprise I 

 was elected president. 



There was no program — no prepara- 

 tion whatever, and I was to preside 

 over that meeting, and what was going 

 to be done, I didn't know. Well, I took 

 Mr. Langstroth'g bee-book, and looked 

 over the index and checked the 

 things from the index that I thought 

 might be interesting to talk about, and 

 presented those as they came along; 

 then I said. If any of you have any 

 questions, put in your questions. And 

 that question thing grew until it was 

 all questions. 



Now I don't know, I would not pre- 

 tend to say it is best to shut out all 

 papers, but I do believe that the inter- 

 est centers largely on these discus- 

 sions. 



I can read a paper after it is pub- 

 lished, and I can't hear you men talk, 

 and I would not come here to hear 

 things read. I can read about things 

 in the bee-paper, but I would come 

 quite a long way to hear any of you 

 talk about bees. Like attracts like. 

 Here is Mr. Holtermann. He would 

 not come here if he didn't think there 

 would be some wide-awake men to 

 talk, whom he wants to hear; he can 

 read about these things in the papers, 

 but he comes here to hear you talk. 



Mr. President, you can bring in all 

 the papers you like. I have kind of 

 prejudiced the minds of these people; 

 I know they will want the Question- 

 Box. I don't say altogether Question- 

 Box. I felt a little bit uneasy when I 

 saw so many papers'; the Question-Box 

 is my baby. 



Dr. Bohrer — I only want to add a 

 word in regard to the papers. While 

 some papers we get are excellent, a 

 great many are not worth the paper 

 they are written on. The question -box 

 is the most valuable source of informa- 

 tion. Bee-keepers come here from long 

 distances, and they put questions be- 

 fore a body like thi^ that some one is 

 able to answer in some form or other; 

 it is a sort of distributing information 

 among bee-keepers. I regard the 

 question-box as an excellent thing — 

 .the best of all; but it won't do to ignore 



the papers entirely, because once in a 

 while there is an excellent paper. 



Mr. Holtermann — I might say what 

 brought me here was, I read from the 

 notice of the convention the men who 

 were going to be here, and I made up 

 my mind there was some pretty good 

 material going to meet with you, and 

 I wanted to come and see what was 

 to be said. In regard to the question - 

 box drawer, I am standing between Dr., 

 Miller and the president, at present. 

 The question-box drawer has degene- 

 rated in some places into one man an- 

 swering all the questions, and I don't 

 consider it worth very much. Once or 

 twice I have been asked to take the 

 question-box, and I said: "No, I don't 

 pretend to be^ able to answer every 

 question." The right way to conduct 

 the question-box is as you are doing 

 it. I am in favor of saying that such 

 and such men are coming to the con- 

 vention. I think it reflects great credit 

 on your secretary to get out notices of 

 that kind, and to have one or two 

 spaces definitely announcing short pa- 

 pers is an advantage, and I think that 

 is what you both think. 



Mr. Wilcox — I never like to go to 

 an institution and see all the discus- 

 sions on one side. Those who advocate 

 the question-box exclusively ignore 

 one important fact. Now, in all our 

 agricultural conventions, conducted un-' 

 der the direction of State officials and 

 others interested, they have in mind 

 the presentation of certain facts; cer- 

 tain things they want to talk about; 

 certain things they want discussed, and 

 to ask for papers on those subjects that 

 you wish to bring before the people. 

 Then you may have as many quesitions 

 as you please, after the papers are 

 read. In this' way you get subjects 

 discussed in which the managers are 

 particularly interested. 



President York — Mr. Wilcox "is a 

 man after my own heart," on that sub- 

 ject! 



Mr. Kannenberg — It is all right, as 

 Mr. Wilcox expresses himself, but at 

 the same time, when these papers are 

 read and the man who wrote a certain 

 paper is not here himself to give an- 

 swers to the younger bee-keepers who 

 want to know about the things set up 

 in their papers, we would not be able 

 to answer it because the man is not 

 here himself. If the man is here, he 

 can answer those questions; I think 



