ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASiSOCIATION 



135 



Mr. Wilcox — I "had a friend who was 

 :a prominent exhibitor of flowers, and 

 I asked her to walk around to the 

 honey exhibit and tell me which was 

 the finest display. She happened to 

 come to the same conclusion that I 

 did. She looked at it with reference 

 to the beauty of the display; that the 

 word "display" was intended to con- 

 vey the idea of good' appearance; that 

 is my judgment of it. Some contend 

 that the quality of the honey is what 

 is to be considered. 



Mr. Holtermann — ^It would seem to 

 me it would be well to give the prize 

 not solely on display — count some- 

 thing on quality and something on dis- 

 play. 



Mr. Wilcox — Quality does not cut 

 any figure with me on display, because 

 I don't sample the honey. 



Mr. Holtermann — ^It would if it read, 

 200 pounds of extracted honey. 



Mr. Wilcox — ^We give the premium 

 for the best, then; then quality is 

 considered, but not the word display. 

 When it is display, it is attractiveness 

 that counts, arrangement of packages, 

 etc., taken into consideration. 



Dr. Bohrer — I have been at a num- 

 ber of Fairs, and it has been my lot, 

 also, to judge exhibits at Fairs a num- 

 ber of times, and I have found this to 

 be the case, that the exhibits are not 

 as largely educational at Fairs as they 

 should be. I hold that all exhibits, no 

 difference of what kind, or department 

 of industry it may originate from, it 

 should be for the general benefit and 

 instruction of the people, not simply to 

 take a premium. That is not the only 

 thing; it should be instructive to the 

 people. 



I have seen, at Lyons, Kans., the 

 bee-keepers' department of our State 

 always have quite an extensive ex- 

 hibit of bees, honey, hives, and bee- 

 supplies of different kinds. Some are 

 instructive, and others are not. For 

 instance: One man had there twenty 

 -different observatory hives; it takes 

 up space, and for no good purpose, 

 that I can see on earth; simply the 

 largest display of observatory hives, 

 and on that they pay a premium. 



Another man has three different 

 kinds of bees he wants to exhibit, and 

 I even condemn that; I don't want but 

 one kind on my premises. The ex- 

 hibits are oftentimes too massive — too 

 many queens — too many bees — too 

 many observatory hives — one fellow 



tries to get a little ahead of the other 

 one. 



Another thing that I condemn, and 

 I told them at the Topeka State Fair 

 that they were simply wastin'g money 

 in hiring men to go there for no good 

 purpose. A man came there and stood 

 in a cage arid talked for three long 

 hours, and if he said one word that 

 was instructive to the people, I don't 

 know wha4; it was. He didn't say one 

 word to the people who attended that 

 Fair that they could understand. The 

 impression that he sought to make 

 was, that he had some wonderful 

 magnetic influence over the bees that 

 no one else possessed, it seemed. I 

 don't want to see anything of that 

 kind at a Fair; it is of no value what- 

 ever. He should have gone on to ex- 

 plain the reason why — he could have 

 done it in two minutes. 



Mr. Holtermann — The fault was not 

 with the prize list there, or with the 

 demonstration, but with the man. 



President York — That was in Kan- 

 sas, was it not? Maybe "locality" had 

 something to do with it! (Laughter.) 



Dr. Bohrer — It was in Kansas, but 

 not a Kansas man who did it. I won't 

 say whether he was from Illinois or 

 not! (Laughter.) These exhibits can 

 be made instructive to the people. It 

 is one way of letting the world know 

 what we are producing in the different 

 States, to show them at the different 

 Fairs, County and State. When we 

 have a County Fair out there, men 

 bring hogs, cattle, horses, and things 

 that I didn't know were in existence 

 in the county at all. It is so with the 

 bee-business all over the country. 

 People are surprised when they come 

 there and see so much honey, and so 

 many bees. 



In Kansas, about thirty- six years 

 ago, when I located in Central Kan- 

 sas, a colony of bees could not exist 

 there without being fed, I was satis- 

 fied it was not adapted to bee-keeping 

 at that time. Today it is getting bet- 

 ter every day, and we have the grand- 

 est display you ever saw of alfalfa 

 honey, short of California or Colorado. 

 They are older than we are, and have 

 got more of it. 



But what I would aim at is, to make 

 your exhibits profitable and instructive 

 to the people; do away with all fraud 

 in the exhibiting of bees; let the people 

 know just how things are done. 



