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96 



THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



largely. I have thought sometimes of starting a booth there 

 myself, and selling buckwheat cakes and honey. 



Mr. France — Right on that line of the Fair at St. Louis — 

 someone, I believe, made a suggestion at Los Angeles, of 

 having some central head to the St. Louis Exposition, and 

 that the various States, through the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, could, by some system, make the honey display 

 there a credit to the bee-keeping industry. Some of the States 

 have very liberal appropriations, so that they will have fine 

 .exhibits, but I am ashamed to say that my own State has put 

 so much in other exhibits that if there is anything it will 

 have to be individual donations. A good many of the States 

 are going to wait a little too late, and the honey product of 

 this year, which is so fine, will have been disposed of, and what 

 will we have to make the earlier of the display at St. Louis? 

 I am afraid that we are now even a little late, and if the 

 various State societies, through their secretaries, could come 

 in touch with the National Association through correspond- 

 ence, I believe we can, even yet, systematize this matter to 

 make that exhibit a little more creditable. 



Mr. Duby — May I ask if there are any here who have ever 

 made exhibits at fairs, and what the results were? 



Mr. Johnson — I exhibited honey once, in Allen County, 

 Kan., about 15 years ag-o, and I got the first premium. There 

 was no other honey there. 



Mr. Abbott — I might say that I have exhibited at 

 fairs, scores of times. At the last one I had $1,200 worth of 

 stuff, and it all burned up, and I have not made any more 

 exhibits since. I had no insurance on it. But I think that 

 anybody in any community where there is a fair, can go to 

 work in four or five years, by working the matter properly, 

 and get liberal premiums offered — premiums enough to pay for 

 setting up their exhibits, and build up an excellent honey- 

 trade. When I came to St. Joseph there was nothing there 

 in the way of honey exhibits ; but I soon had them so that 

 they were paying $250 premiums. One season I got it-^ 

 my wife bossed the job. She set the exhibits up and bossed 

 the job, and I furnished the money. But really there is a 

 wonderful possibility to it, especially if you have a city like 

 St. Joseph behind you ; and you have no idea, if you have not 

 studied the matter, how -it will attract the attention of 

 people, if you put out colonies of bees. The people would 

 come along there, of those worthy 400 — they live to eat, and 

 eat to live — and they would say, "Oh, there, see the wax! 

 See the bumblebees!" Or, "What is that? Is that maple 

 syrup, or is it beeswax?" And they would ask you questions 

 for awhile, and say, "Oh, mamma, I wish you would buy a 

 case of that fine honey." And they buy it, maybe people who 

 had not used a case of honey in their lives, and the next year 

 they would have more honey, and the next year the coach- 

 man would drive around and say that Mr. So-and-So wanted 

 a case of honey, and he always paid a good, big price. Charge 

 him t; cents a pound extra for it. And the problem was 

 solved as to where there was a market for some honey: 



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