126 



April, 1916. 



or three yards of bees besides inspec- 

 tion work and the rearing of Italian 

 queens, for which he finds a good de- 

 mand. He rears his queens from im- 

 ported stock, believing such to be more 

 satisfactory than queens reared from 

 American mothers. 



Mr. Yates, with Messrs, Latham, 

 Coley and Rockwood have, I believe, 

 been the largest exhibitors at the Char- 

 ter Oak Fair and carried off the largest 

 number of prizes in recent years. 



If there is anything I admire in a 

 beekeeper it is the ability to think for 

 himself. Such a beekeeper is Mr. A. 

 W. Darby, of Alburgh, Vt., the extreme 

 northwest corner town of the State. 

 Some years ago European foulbrood 

 came down on him from Canada when 

 much less was known about this dis- 

 ease than at present. Yard after yard 

 among his neighbors with hundreds 

 of colonies were wiped out while he 

 carefully studied it, finding its weakest 

 points, and has practically overcome it 

 and succeeded in securing good crops 

 in spite of it. One of his methods of 

 fighting this disease is never to use a 

 queen reared in a hive where the dis- 

 ease exists as colonies with such queen 

 are sure to prove very susceptible to 

 disease. Another is to rear queens for 

 his use from resistant strains of Italian 

 bees. And yet another is to keep his 

 colonies strong, which he has been 

 pretty successful in doing. 



Mr. Darby has worked out methods 

 adapted to his location, and has been 

 producing chunk honey and selling it 

 successfully. One can hardly visit him 

 without getting some new ideas worth 

 carrying away with him. 



Mr. E. Clinton Britton, of Canton, 

 Mass., for a number of years president 

 of the Massachusetts Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation, has been very successful in 

 wintering large colonies of bees in his 

 attic, from which he has secured crops 

 of honey from early bloom that have 

 surprised those accustomed only to 

 small colonies wintered in the usual 

 way. He has found and proved quite 

 conclusively that if a colony has the 

 strength it can secure a large amount 

 of honey from fruit bloom. 



Mr. Geo. C. Spencer, of Addison, 

 Vt., president of the Vermont Beekeep- 

 ers' Association, is an extensive farmer 

 in addition to his large yard of bees. 

 A few years ago I found his yard of 

 100 colonies in bad shape from Euro- 

 pean foulbrood. Scarcely a healthy 

 colony in the whole lot. He is now 

 on top, and he told me some time since 

 that he found but one colony afflicted 

 with this disease the past summer. This 

 for the encouragement of others who 

 are getting their first taste of it. 



R. H. Holmes, of Shoreham, Vt., has 

 been a very successful beekeeper, and 

 has carried off many of the prizes on 

 honey offered by the New England 

 Fair Association. He keeps his shop 

 and honey rooms the tidiest and neat- 

 est of any beekeeper I have ever vis- 

 ited. He stores his honey up under a 

 hot roof to ripen before cleaning the 

 sections for maiket, a most admirable 

 practice as it greatly improves the 

 quality. 



Mr. M. F. Cram, of West Brookfield, 

 Vt., living at the geographical center 

 of the State, at an elevation of 2000 feet 

 above sea level, where the seasons are 

 too short to grow corn, has had good 



American Hee Journal 



success with bees, his main crop being 

 raspberry, with a good early yield of 

 maple and dogberry honey. He was 

 for some years president of the Ver- 

 mont Beekeepers' Association. 



Mr. Chas. A. Monroe, a mail agent 

 on the railroad between Albany, N. Y., 

 and Burlington, Vt., while not a large 

 beekeeper is a good one and has suc- 

 ceeded in keeping his yard free from 

 diseas :, while all around him yards 

 were going down with European foul- 

 brood. His home is in South Shafts- 

 bury, Vt. His method is to keep only 

 very strong colonies. 



Much of the success of our Vermont 

 beekeepers' associations has been due 

 to men like Dr. Frank Bond, of Corn- 

 wall, Vt., H. L. Leonard, of Brandon, 

 Vt, G: W. Larabee, of Shoreham, Vt., 

 and others like them. 



There are many other most excellent 

 beekeepers in New England if there 

 were room to speak of them. 



Middleburry, Vt. 



Dean of New England Bee- 

 keepers 



BY BENAJMIN P. SANDS. 



■ WANT to tell a little about Mr. 

 Joseph H. Chase, our dear old man 

 of Massachusetts, a charter member 

 of the Eastern Massachusetts Society of 

 Beekeepers, organized under the name 

 of the Massachusetts Society of Bee- 

 keepers in March, 1906. 



Mr. Chase was born in Salem, in our 

 State, received his education in the 

 public schools, learned the trade of 

 cabinet maker, and for many years fol- 

 lowed the craft. He has always been 

 interested in fruit, flowers, and bees, 

 has been a beekeeper for (56 years, and 

 has, for the last 40 years, given his en- 

 tire time to the nursery business and 

 rearing of bees, on his beautiful estate, 

 comprising five acres, on Mt. Vernon 

 Street, in Maiden, one of our beautiful 

 suburban cities. 



Mr. Chase will be 90 years of age on 

 April 19, is a very much respected 

 citizen, hale and hearty, reads without 

 glasses, attends to his daily work, and 

 his place is kept up to a standard of 

 excellence which is admirable. 



He attends regularly our winter meet- 



JosEPH H. Chase and Wife. 



ings which are held the first Saturday 

 afternoon of every month, and always 

 has some new idea of interest for our 

 members, and is a well-known figure at 

 all New England Field Days. 



He is the father of six children, five 

 of whom are living. The youngest, Mr. 

 I. N. Chase, 50 years of age, is the pro- 

 prietor of one of the largest lumber 

 concerns in our city. 



Mr. Chasa is easily the Dean of New 

 England beekeepers, and our society 

 has arranged to visit him in a body at 

 his home on his coming birthday. 



Boston, Mass. 



New England Beekeepers' So- 

 cieties 



MISS JOSEPHINE MORSE. 



IN preparing this article I was greatly 

 surprised to find that only four of 

 the six New England States boasted 

 beekeepers' societies. These four are 

 Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and 

 Connecticut. 



It would be strange if there were no 

 association in Vermont, since that 

 State probably produces more honey 

 than the balance of New England. The 

 Vermont Beekeepers' Association is 

 the only organization in the State. It 

 meets regularly once a year, and held 

 its 41st annual convention in February. 



EXHIBIT OF 25 VARIETIES OF GRAPES RAISED BY JOSEPH H, CHASE 



