June, 1932              WISCONSIN BEEKEEPING                          Page
45 
 
 
relating to bees and hbney. 
   At the dedication  of   the  Miller 
Memorial Library,    Dr.  Phillips,  a 
member of the committee, presented 
the following paper, which not only 
expresses  the  facts concerning   the 
building up of a library, but also paid 
a great tribute to Dr. Miller, and, I 
believe should be   included  in  this 
memorial issue.   Dr. Phillip's paper 
rads as follows- 
    THE MILLER MEMORIAL 
 
How It Can Be Made the Finest and 
    Best Beekeeping Library in the 
                World 
          By E. F. Phillips 
 
   I should like to point out the great 
good which the proposed library may 
do for the advancement of beekeeping 
in this and other countries, and in this 
way to show the value of the move- 
ment. There are published in the var- 
ious countries of the civilized world 
a large number of journals devoted 
solely to beekeeping. The Bureau of 
Entomologyreceives a few of the more 
important ones from foreign countries, 
and Various college, and university li- 
braries subscribe to, some.   A  small 
number of individual beekeepers are 
subscribers to a few of them. Yet the 
fact remains that there are probably bee 
journals of which not a single copy 
comes to the United States, or if 
they do come they, are not kept and 
are not available for general use. We 
can not ignore the fact that from time 
to time all these journals contain ar- 
ticles of great interest and value, and 
it is a pity that there is not some re- 
pository in this country in which all 
these journals may    be permanently 
filed ready for use. This, the Miller 
Memorial Library can do with a little 
effort.  If the library were confined 
solely to the obtaining of bee journals 
of the world, it would be one of the 
 
 
finest additions to belkeeping facili- 
ties that one could imagine, and would 
constitute a worthy monument to the 
man whom we wish to honor. 
   Since the invention of printing, in- 
numerable books have been publish-d 
on bees and beekeeping, how many no 
one knows, but it runs into the hun- 
dreds and thousands.   A few libraries 
contain a considerable number of the 
older books, especially those which at 
the time of publication were printed in 
large numbers. Some college libraries 
have startCd collections of this kind, 
and there are a number of individuals 
who, through their interest in bees, 
have collected such books.   There is 
today no place in the country wh-re 
the beekeeping books are collected to 
a degree which is adequate, and here 
again the Miller Library should be able 
to surpass any previous effort in this 
line. 
   I can hear some    practical, hard- 
headed individual speak up and ask 
what good it will do to have all this 
stuff gathered together. We have, it 
is true, good practical books on bee- 
keeping which are quite satisfactory as 
guides for apiary work, and we have 
books which go into. the more scien- 
tific aspects of the subject. Yet one 
can scarcely read any of these older 
books without getting something good 
from them which is not contained in 
the recent books. Furthermore, to un- 
derstand our present status in beekeep- 
ing we ought to know the history of 
the art, and we do not get that by 
reading only the modern books and 
journals. For those who are engaged 
in work for the advancement of bee- 
keping, familiarity with the old lit- 
erature is necessary to prevent blunders. 
Neither will it do, for us to wrap our- 
selves in a mantle of satisfaction and 
decide that American books are good 
enough- for us, totally ignoring the 
excellent work which has been done in 
 
 
June, 1932 
 
 
WISCONSIN BEEKEEPING 
 
 
Page 45