February. 1915. 



American Hee Joarnal 



siderable that th paint on the homes 

 looks as if it had just been applied 

 and everything looks new. 



We give two photos of Mr. Verrefs 

 apiary. This gentleman is a bee- 

 keeper of long e-xperience. He has 

 been for years a subscriber of both 

 the American Bee Journal and Glean- 

 ings and has these magazines in bound 

 volumes carefully treasured. His li- 

 brary is mainly bee books. 



His experience with the Italian bee, 

 on some 20 colonies, would indicate 

 that the lower end of the Province of 

 Quebec is unsuited to this race, owing 

 to the same conditions of short sum- 

 mer and cool nights which make it 

 undesirable in Switzerland. The very 

 qualities of the Italians, of rising 

 early, coming home late, and breeding 



all summ r seem to militate against 

 them, in that region. They have no 

 fall pasture and the crop is at end 

 by the beginning of August, l)ut the 

 Italian bees persist in breeding plenti- 

 fully until fall, so that they go into 

 winter strong but destitute. 



But this condition does not prevail 

 through the entire Province. In the 

 western counties which we visited 

 later, for instance at St. Francois-Uu- 

 Lac, where the secretary of the pro- 

 vincial association. Dr. Comire, re- 

 sides, there is a well defined fall har- 

 vest, from buckwheat, and the Ital- 

 ians are there considered most de- 

 sirable. Everybody agrees that they 

 are much more successful than the 

 blacks in overcoming European foul- 

 brood, which has not vet reached the 



MR. VERRET IN HIS .\PIARY IN" SUBURB OF QUEBEC-Photo by Miss I. Renaud 



A VIEW OF THE VERRET APIARY AND BEE HOUSE 

 Photo'tby Miss Renaud.) Note the hieh board fence required when close to neiebbors 



eastern confines of lower Quebec. So 

 useful are they, that the Secretary of 

 Agriculture of the Province has ap- 

 propriated $.500 to i)ay for half the 

 cost of queens purchased by the 

 apiarists who apply to him. The on- 

 ly trouble has been that this sum 

 proved altogether insufficient to pro- 

 vide as many queens as were desired 

 and they are in hopes that the appro- 

 priation may be doubled or trebled, 

 hereafter. 



We spent two days at Charltsbourg, 

 getting acquainted with the French 

 Canadians. They raise large families 

 and I was told that the population 

 doubles every 20 years, which com- 

 pels the young generations to make 

 new settlements in the Far West, 

 Saskatchewan, Alberta and British 

 Columbia. The mother of our friend 

 had had 14 children, 44 grandchildren 

 and told us, as to the great-grand- 

 children, that she was making no at- 

 tempts to keep tally on them. No 

 danger of the race becoming extinct. 



Reaching St-Francois-Du-Lac, by 

 way of Montreal, we were welcomed 

 by Dr. Comire, who took great pleas- 

 ure in making us acquainted with 

 everything that might interest us, 

 while his wife and daughter showed 

 us as much hospitality as we had met 

 with the wife and mother of Mr. Ver- 

 ret. 



Without any hope of reward, except 

 the satisfaction of helping bee cul- 

 ture, Dr. Comire has freely spent time 

 nnd money to organize the Provincial 

 Beekeepers' Association, to secure 

 statistical information and to spread 

 knowledge of progressive methods 

 among the beekeeping farmers. That 

 he has succeeded is shown by the 

 strong attendance at the Montreal 

 meeting, about 150. Since everybody 

 speaks French, the meetings were 

 held in the French language. I was 

 selected as one of the judges of the 

 honey exhibit. I had noticed that the 

 numerous displays were exceedingly 

 similar, both in comb and extracted 

 honey and of very high grade. I felt 

 it would be a difficult task to make a 

 selection for alloting the prizes and 

 so I made a feeble attempt to escape 

 the duty with a joke on the danger of 

 making enemies among the unreward- 

 ed exhibitors. But the smiling Presi- 

 dent of the Association, Dr. Lalonde, 

 replied promptly: "That is just why 

 we selected you. You live 1200 miles 

 away. W'hy should you care?" Luck- 

 ily, I was given a very good partner 

 in the person of Mr. Beaulne, of the 

 Ottawa Experimental Farm. Togeth- 

 er we did the best we could, in a case 

 of such uniform quality of exhibits. 



I will not try to give a synopsis of 

 the meetings. But it will be of in- 

 terest to the U. S. beekeepers to learn 

 that in the Province of Quebec much 

 more attention is given to the pro- 

 duction of extracted honey than to 

 that of sections. Many of the pro- 

 ducers use very large hives. 12 or 14 

 frames, Langstroth size, with supers 

 of equal capacity. The crops harvest- 

 ed would astonish some of our warm 

 climate beekeepers. The honey crop 



