December, 1916. 



413 



American ^ee Journal 



i^-» 



They are 3 feet thick at the bottom and 

 18 inches at the top. 



In cellaring, '2 or 3 inches of planer 

 shavings are scattered on the floor, 

 then 6-inch timbers, on which the colo- 

 nies are placed, with bottom-boards 

 removed, which allow all dead bees to 

 drop to the floor. 



Cohocton, N. Y. 



M 



Some Prominent Ontario 

 Beekeepers 



BY MORLEY TETTIT, TROVINCIAL APIARIST. 



|R. R. H. SMITH, of St. Thomas, 

 was president in 1907. At that 

 time Mr. Smith conducted an 

 extensive bee business, exhibited annu- 

 ally at Toronto fair, and also made and 

 sold beekeepers' supplies. Failing 

 health, however, induced him to go to 

 western Canada where he was still living 

 at last reports. 



The president in 1908, was F. I. 

 Miller, of London. Mr. Miller is one 

 of a number of successful users of 

 Heddon hives in that district. He has 

 worked out the principles advanced by 

 the late Mr. Heddon, to their scientific 

 conclusion,and has developed a system 

 of apiary management by which he 

 looks after several hundred colonies of 

 bees with very little assistance outside 

 of himself. His honey is all bottled 

 and sold in high-class grocery stores 

 throughout the southern part of the 

 province. Mr. Miller does practically 

 all of the bottling himself, acts as his 

 own salesman, and so keeps himself 

 busily engaged throughout the year, as 



about 100 colonies on the side. His 

 interest in bees is always keen, and 

 every convention and official meeting 

 of any kind finds him in attendance 

 and ready with the advice which his 

 years of experience enables him to give 

 so well. 



The president, in lull, was W. J. 

 Craig, manager of the bee-supply de- 

 partment of the Ham & Nott Co., of 

 Brantford. Mr. Craig received his early 

 training in this line of work while em- 

 ployed by the Goold Shapley & Muir 

 Co., and was for a number of years 

 editor of the Canadian Bee Journal. 



During 1912 and 1913, the president 

 of the association was Mr. Denis Nolan 

 of Newton Robinson. Mr. Nolan comes 

 from a family of beekeepers situated 

 not very far from the old home of Mr. 

 p. A. Jones. He was one of the first 

 in Ontario to use a gasoline engine for 

 running the extractor. A little later 

 he purchased a Ford car for his apiary 

 work, and was soon drawn into the 

 Ford organization, becoming salesman 

 for his district. While Mr. Nolan is 

 still secretary of the Simcoe County 

 Beekeepers' Association, his interest in 

 bees is not so strong as it was, because 

 so much of his time is taken up with 

 the automobile work. 



During 1914 and 1915, the chair was 

 occupied by Mr. J. L. Byer, of Mark- 

 ham. Mr. Byer also comes from a bee- 

 keeping family, as his father and grand- 

 father were beekeepers in Markham 

 before him. He is now one of the 

 most extensive beekeepers in the pro- 

 vince, and with the assistance of his 

 father and son, and other members of 

 his growing family, he has upwards of 

 1000 colonies in different parts of the 





ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE APIARY 

 The hives are set in double rows with room to set quadruple winter case in flat between 



well as keeping down running expenses. 

 During 1909 and 1910, Wm. Couse, of 

 Streetsville, occupied the chair. Mr. 

 Couse had become secretary in 1886, 

 but because of more pressing duties in 

 his business, he gave up the books in 

 1908, becoming president for the two 

 following years. He is a successful 

 coal, wood and feed merchant, keeping 



province. However, Mr. Byer needs 

 no introduction to the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal, having until 

 recently conducted a department in its 

 pages. 



The present occupant of the presi- 

 dential chair is Mr. F. W. Krouse, of 

 Guelph. A few years ago Mr. Krouse 

 gave up a job as day laborer at the 



Ontario Agricultural College to start 

 market gardening, poultry raising and 

 beekeeping. He has been successful 

 in all three of these, but is gradually 

 reducing his interests in the former 

 two, so as to be able to devote his 

 whole attention to the production and 

 sale of honey. 



Now of these men who have succes- 

 sively occupied the chair of the organi- 

 zation which has done so much for 

 beekeeping in Ontario, all, previous to 

 1900, have joined the great majority 

 except R. McKnight, of Owen Sound, 

 who was one of the founders of the 

 association; R. F. Holtermann, who 

 was one of the earliest secretaries; 

 Martin Emigh, A. Pickett, and M. B. 

 Holmes. 



Starting in 1880, the Ontario Bee- 

 keepers' Association has made a steady 

 development up to the present. It 

 would be impossible to enumerate all 



MORLEY Pettit 



the benefits which Ontario beekeepers 

 have derived from this organization. 

 .\ll legislation which we enjoy has 

 been granted at its request. Under 

 legislation we might mention the Foul- 

 brood Act, which at present provides 

 a substantial annual grant for apiary 

 inspection and gives the inspectors 

 complete power to find and control 

 disease. The adulteration of honey is 

 well looked after under the Pure Food 

 Act of the Dominion, and bees are pro- 

 tected from poison by the improper 

 spraying of fruit trees by an Act, which 

 makes it illegal to spray fruit trees 

 with any poisonous spray while they 

 are in full bloom. 



Beekeeping is taught at the Ontario 

 Agricultural College. An experimen- 

 tal apiary is conducted there, and dem- 

 onstrations are held throughout the 

 province; all being under the super- 

 vision of the present writer who is em- 

 ployed by the government to give his 



