March, 1908. 



American Bee Journal 



ping for furs in the winter. Thirty- 

 eight years ago he bought the place 

 where he has lived ever since, clearing 

 oflf the heavy timber and building the 

 house with lumber hauled by team from 

 Galena, 111. He and his son engaged 

 in market gardening, small fruit-grow- 

 ing, and bee-keeping. He purchased the 

 first honey-extractor shipped into Wis- 

 consin, then increased the size of his 

 apiary so that from 395 colonies of bees 

 in 1886, he took 42,489 pounds of honey, 

 besides increasing them to 507 colonies. 

 Several poor seasons followed, but each 

 year he obtained some honey. He and 

 his son did all the work except for a 

 few days during the honey season when 

 some help was hired. He never allowed 

 his hired help to use profanity or in- 

 dulge in intemperance. 



While living in New York State, for 

 several years, Mr. France was leader of 

 the Methodist Church choir, often us- 

 ing his violin, but in his later years, 

 owing to defective hearing, he did not 

 attend public gatherings. 



July 23, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. France 

 celebrated their golden wedding. Octo- 

 ber 9, 1907, he fell from a wagon, se- 

 riously injuring himself, from which 

 his death resulted later. 



He leaves a widow and son, N. E. 

 France, so well known to all bee-keep- 

 ers as the General Manager of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The death of Mr. France removes one 

 of the greatest naturalists in Wiscon- 

 sin. He was one of the best-informed 

 men on the habits of animals, especially 

 those that inhabited this country in the 

 early days. He did not class himself 

 as a scholar, but his knowledge of ani- 

 mal and bird life was gained through 

 personal experience, and he derived his 

 greatest pleasure from their study. He 

 would often tell of his early experience 

 when on trapping expeditions, which 



were often full of danger not only from 

 wild animals which he hunted, but from 

 the Indians that often camped on his 

 trail. It was only during the past few 

 years that he has given up his annual 

 outing on tlie Mississippi River, where 



ElAVI.N" Fr.^nce. 



he enjoyed the outdoor life of earlier 

 days. 



Mr. France never wrote very much 

 for the apiarian press, cut what he did 

 write always bore the marks of ripe ex- 

 perience. 



At Mr. trance's funeral all the pall- 

 bearers were former helpers in his 

 apiary. 



bnfribufed 

 flrficle^ 



Preparing for the Honey 

 Harvest 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes, asking when 

 he should prepare for the honey harvest, 

 saying if he goes about this during 

 the winter, all of his bees, or a part 

 of them, may die, and, if so, he will noi 

 need all or any of the preparation he 

 has made. I often get such letters, and 

 when I received this one, some way I 

 felt like "speaking my mind" on this 

 subject right out in print where more 

 than just one person could hear what I 

 was saying. 



This putting oflf preparing for the 

 honey harvest, is one of the hidden 

 rocks on which manv a would-be bee- 



keeper's "vessel" has been run, and gone 

 ' to ruin. The question is not. Are the 

 bees going to live? but. Am I going to 

 make a bee-keeper? If I am going to 

 make a bee-keeper, I must have bees; 

 and if those I now have die, / will get 

 more. Therefore, I am going to leave 

 no stone unturned to make a success 

 in this undertaking; and if a success 

 is to be made I am always to be pre- 

 pared for the harvest when it comes. 

 And always to be prepared means to 

 know what I want, and as fast as possi- 

 ble have everything in readiness as 

 long before the harvest comes as it is 

 possible for me to do. In other words, 

 I will commence preparing for the next 

 harvest as soon as the last one is over. 

 The first preparation after the honey 

 harvest is over, is to know that the bees 



arc all ready for wintering in the best 

 possible shape. \nA that this may be 

 so you will commence this knowledge in 

 Sc'ftembcr, not put it off till November 

 or December, as so many are prone to 

 do, and then write Dr. Miller, Alex- 

 ander, Root or Doolittlc how the bees 

 ran be fed in cold weather, because you 

 li.ive just found out that some of your 

 . iilonics are weak in numbers, and many 

 if them short in stores; giving as an 

 ' xcuse for such a state of aflfairs, that 

 \ou went off hunting, or fishing, or on 

 -ome pleasure excursion when you 

 ■ught to have been attending to the 

 liees. 



Having the bees all in "apple pie" 

 -hapc for wintering, the next thing is to 

 I'xpect that nine-tenths of the number 

 of colonies you have in September will 

 come out strong enough to do success- 

 ful work in the harvest of the next year, 

 :ind go about your preparations accord- 

 ingly. If you have not hives enough, 

 in good shape, repair the old ones and 

 make new till you do have. Then pre- 

 pare surplus frames filled with founda- 

 tion, if you do not have combs enough, 

 to meet the wants of those colonies and 

 hives, allowing room enough, if you are 

 working for extracted honey, for the 

 storing of 200 pounds of surplus to each 

 colony; and 150 for each colony worked 

 for section honey, making and prepar- 

 ing your supers and sections during the 

 winter months. 



Don't be "side-tracked" by the one 

 who tells you to wait about putting the 

 foundation into the frames and sections 

 till just before the harvest, because the 

 bees take more kindly to fresh-made 

 foundation than they do to that which 

 has been made longer and gotten old 

 and hard, for such talk is a myth; and, 

 besides that, if you are to be 'a suc- 

 cess in apiculture, you will have all your 

 time fully occupied just before the har- 

 vest with things more profitable thar> 

 putting foundation into frames and sec- 

 tions. Thus you will keep on till every- 

 thing you need for work in the apiary 

 is all in perfect readiness by the time 

 spring comes. If you get this work done 

 a little before this, then go over the 

 books and papers you have on bees, 

 and finish "posting up" on these, where- 

 in you have failed to do so, during the 

 long winter evenings. Then if you have 

 any new plans or experiments you ex- 

 pect to conduct the coming season (and 

 if you are a live bee-keeper, you will 

 have more of these than you can prop- 

 erly look after each year), lay out these 

 plans by pencil sketches or wooden mod- 

 els, so that you will have all "at your 

 finger-tips" when the time comes for 

 proving them of value- or worthless. 



Don't let any one dissuade you from 

 trying any plan you may wish to con- 

 duct by telling you that "we old heads" 

 have things all worked out regarding 

 hives, etc., so it will be better for you 

 to take "the beaten path," for, even 

 though you may not bring out some- 

 thing which will "revolutionize" the 

 world, your planning and working out 

 those plans will "rivet" you to the pur- 

 suit you have chosen, enlarge your 

 views, and teach you very much more 

 of apiculture than could possibly come 

 by keeping each step of "your feet" 



