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American H^e Journall 



attention to the interests of beekeep- 

 ers. The association receives the bene- 

 fit of his services as secretary, besides 

 getting an annual grant of money from 

 the government to assist in carrying 

 on its business. Having office facili- 

 ties and time to devote to the interests 

 of the association, he was able to in- 

 terest beekeepers who had not pre- 

 viously been reached and thereby more 

 than double the membership in one 

 year. There are now between 1100 and 

 1200 paid up members. 



Perhaps the most valuable service 

 rendered to members has been the 

 annual crop report and price recom- 

 mendation, which has been given each 

 year for the last 13 years. This has 

 done much towards stabilizing the 

 honey market. In conjunction with 

 this, the secretary is often able to 

 bring buyer and seller together, and in 

 1913 when the crop was unusually large 

 sold about 75,000 pounds of honey for 

 members of the association. 



Another service provided by the sec- 

 retary, which is used freely by members 

 is the purchase of queens for improve- 

 ment of stock. By this the small order 

 receives as prompt attention as the 

 large and at the same price. Orders 

 which might otherwise be sent to a 

 breeder who was behind with shipments 

 are diverted to men who have equally 

 good stock and are known to be filling 

 orders promptly. Thus the secretary's 

 office becomes a clearing house for 

 queen orders and the member not only 

 gets prompt delivery, but good stock 

 as the breeder knows that he is not 

 selling to an unknown individual but to 

 the Ontario Beekeepers' Association. 

 The breeders on the list are carefully 

 selected, any not giving satisfaction 

 one year being eliminated the next. 



To continue the account of Ontario 

 beekeepers it might be in order to speak 

 of the number of women who are tak- 

 ing up beekeeping as a means of pin 

 money, if not of making a livelihood. 

 Amongst these might be mentioned 

 farmers' daughters, nurses, school 

 teachers, to say nothing of the numer- 

 ous wives of farmers and of beekeep- 

 ers who take an active interest in this 

 work. It is not uncommon to find a 

 woman who finds the apiary work 

 more congenial and profitable than 

 some of the indoor occupations which 

 women are expected to follow. There 

 are at present over 80 women mem- 

 bers of the Ontario Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation, and of these I might mention 

 a few typical cases. The Scott sisters 

 of Myersburg, Northumberland County, 

 when European foulbrood attacked 

 the apiary and the father decided to 

 give up, took charge of the bees and 

 cured them. The two girls not only 

 cured the disease, but developed an 

 apiary of about 40 colonies, which was 

 very profitable. This was four or five 

 years ago. The older one has since 

 married and left home ; and the younger, 

 Miss Nellie Scott, continues the apiary 

 work with her young brother. Miss 

 Ethel Robson, of Ilderton, took up bee- 

 keeping to pay her way through col- 

 lege. Being successful and a good 

 speaker she was made a director and a 

 vice-president of the Provincial Asso- 

 ciation. She also acted as secretary 

 of the Middlesex Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion. .Miss R. B. Pettit, a sister of the 

 present writer, undertook the manage- 



ment of a good-sized apiary without 

 previous experience. By careful appli- 

 cation and study, and through many 

 mistakes and some losses, she has 

 reached a point in a few years where 

 she is quite capable, by employing 

 labor, of managing several hundred 

 colonies with profit. 



Another type is the English woman, 

 who comes out to make her living. She 

 brings with her the Englishman's per- 

 sistency, which is more than half the 

 battle. Take the case of Miss L. Live- 

 say, now of Rt. 2, Cainsville, who has 

 had some experience under Isaac Hop- 

 kins, at the Government Experiment 

 Station in New Zealand. She wrote 

 from England, asking what the oppor- 

 tunities were for a woman getting em- 

 ployment in a Canadian apiary. The 

 reply sent was intended to be discour- 

 aging to any one without capital to 

 invest. She came on the next boat. 

 Fortunately, she was found employ- 

 irient in an apiary, where she worked 

 the next two seasons and then pur- 

 chased one of her own. The second 

 season she was joined by Miss M. L. 

 Newland, another Englishwoman, and 

 both of them worked for the same bee- 

 keeper. When they started on their 



course, be mistakes and losses on a 

 larger scale than would be experienced 

 with two or three hives, but with atten- 

 tion to the instruction which is so 

 freely given at conventions and in re- 

 ports and bulletins, there is no occa- 

 sion for a disaster, such as a heavy 

 winter loss. Such disasters only come 

 as a result of going contrary to the 

 well-known principles of successful 

 management. The one who starts with 

 a good-sized apiary may have the mis- 

 fortune to meet one or two crop fail- 

 ures, which will be a heavy tax on 

 financial resources, but when success 

 finally crowns persevering efforts, the 

 profit is so much greater than it would 

 be with two or three hives that it is 

 well worth the venture. 

 Guelph, Ont. 



[To be continued.] 



Marketing Honey 



BY C. P. DADANT. 

 {Read at the Wisconsin Convention in lO'S) 



MR. FRANK C.PELLETT, the Iowa 

 State Inspector, has recently 

 brought to me the suggestion 

 that the neglect of honey as an article 



PACKED IN QUADRUPLE CASES AT THE ONTARIO EXPERIMENT APIARY 



own account, they purchased apiaries 

 and located them not far apart and are 

 now making a comfortable living from 

 bees. They are now helping other 

 English girls to get experience and a 

 start in the business. 



These and other beginners who have 

 started in the right way and have per- 

 severed, have discredited, beyond the 

 peradventure of a doubt, the old advice 

 so commonly given to beginners to 

 start with one or two hives and go 

 slow. I well remember the late E. W. 

 Alexander's assertion that " go slow" 

 would kill any young man. It is only 

 the question of getting a right start by 

 working for an extensive beekeeper, or 

 taking a course at an apicultural school, 

 and then securing enough bees to 

 occupy one's time. There will, of 



of food is due to the lack of official 

 support to our industry. He says that 

 honey is, towards glucose and all corn 

 syrups, in the same relative position as 

 butter is placed towards margarine. 

 Yet butter is not neglected for mar- 

 garine, as honey is neglected for glu- 

 cose. In fact, no one who can at all 

 afford it will eat margarine in place of 

 butter. Yet margarine is so much like 

 butter that deception is very easily 

 practiced. I myself remember eating 

 breakfast, side by side with a drummer 

 of margarine, at a small country hotel, 

 and hearing my companion exclaim: 

 "I thought they could afford butter in 

 country towns!" He had recognized 

 the taste of his own product. But even 

 after I was told of it, I could not dis- 

 tinguish it from common butter. With 



