STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. 97 



Now it seems to me that you could do a lot of that in any 

 large city, or even in a small place. 



Mr, Whitney — I was simply going to say that I have 

 made a few exhibits at county fairs. I do not know whether 

 it resulted in any particular benefit or not. I never produced 

 any great amount of honey, but always got rid of it. 



Mr. Craven — I think Mr. Root can tell us more about 

 exhibits at fairs. He was at the Pan-American, and ought 

 to be able to give us a few hints. 



Mr. Root — I do not know that I can give any good in- 

 formation about this business. From the manufacturer's 

 standpoint it is of little value, if I am correct; that is, during 

 my stay at the Pan-American I did not sell enough goods to 

 pay my way, but it was simply in advertising and educating 

 people. I believe that it is a good thing to educate the people 

 at a fair. I will never forget some of the things I heard there. 

 People came in, and one very nice lady explained to another 

 how the bees bored a little hole into the cake of wax, and an- 

 other little hole next to it, and they bored so many little holes 

 that they had the combs, and the aueen-bee came along and 

 laid ah egg in each of these little holes ! It is very amusing. 

 I explained something to her after that that made her look at 

 it in a different way; but they don't seem to know anything 

 that is the truth of it. They called extractors "ice-cream 

 freezers," and they even called my frame of bees "cock- 

 roaches." These things 1 will always remember. But the 

 thing, it seems to me, that makes this exhibiting profitable 

 is educating the people. I do not see how anybody could buy 

 honey, or would want to eat honey, if he thought it was made 

 by cockroaches or turned out in ice-cream freezers. The peo- 

 ple came there and were so interested that they staid two or 

 three hours when they had only one, two or three days at the- 

 Pan-American ; and I am sure those people are going to buy 

 honey.- And then there is another thing: I don't know '. 

 whether it is of any great practical advantage or not, but that 

 is, a good many school-teachers came up and wanted to learn : 

 all they could about the bee-business, and they were going 

 home to teach the children in the public schools these very 

 things. I do not think that it does any harm, and the .: 

 school-teachers do not have an opportunity to find out about 

 such things. They don't seem to know where to get their 

 information. I think that it is a very good thing; but take it all . 

 in all, it's educating the people that makes it advantageous. 



Mr. Whitney — I happened to think that, speaking of edu- , 

 eating the people, I have had during the past summer three- 

 score of people visiting my bee-yard, and I have taken special 

 nains to give them all the education I could possibly impart 

 in the yard. Even Mr. Baldridge was there. I did not at- 

 tempt to tell him an->'^thing about bee-keeping, but there were 

 plenty of others who were very much interested in bees, and 

 in fact, I know of two or three ladies who are now keeping 

 bees, after visiting my yard ; and I think that I imparted some 

 information in regard to the use of extracted honey, and I 

 sold nearly all of mine granulated to that class of people after 

 they had been to the yard and saw what I was doing. 



