May, litl4. 



American Hee Journal 



sive experience with foreign races of 

 bees. His central position enabled 

 him for years to import bees from all 

 over the Old World. So he has tried 

 not only the Italian, Carniolan, Cyp- 

 rian and Palestine bees, but bees from 

 the Balearic Islands and from Tripoli. 

 These bees are yellow. They were 

 very cross, though they are said to be 

 gentle in their country. Our host sug- 

 gested that their temper may have been 

 changed by the change in climate and 

 conditions. He cited as an example 

 the white donkeys of Egypt, which 

 were imported into France. It appears 

 that at the time of the digging of the 

 Suez canal, the Empress Eugenie, of 

 France, visited Suez and was very 

 much pleased with the little white don- 

 keys put at her disposal and that of her 

 ladies in waiting, by the Khedive of 

 Egypt. They were so gentle and pleas- 

 ant for riding that she expressed the 

 desire to take some of them home with 

 her. She was immediately presented 

 with some of the finest specimens 

 which the Khedive could find. 



The white donkey is the beast of 

 burden of Suez, and we are even told 

 that some of the sand dug out of the 

 canal was carried out on the back of 

 donkeys. But the white donkeys, when 

 housed in the imperial stables at Paris, 

 proved so cross and unmanageable 

 that they had to be promptly disposed 

 of. Perhaps the change of treatment 

 they received was, as much as the cli- 

 mate, the cause of their changed be- 

 havior. In how many instances will 

 not our bees prove cross because ill- 

 managed ? 



While at our friend's home, we re- 

 ceived some 20 different invitations, 

 from Switzerland, from Italy, from 

 Marseille, from Bordeaux, etc., and we 

 found it necessary to settle upon a 

 definite itinerary for the balance of 

 our trip. It became just like a fairy 

 tale, and the constant kaleidoscopic 

 changes of scenery, the successive re- 

 ceptions we were given would have 

 caused everything to blur in our minds, 

 had we not daily put our thoughts 

 upon paper. These notes were regu- 

 larly forwarded to our people at home, 

 and it is from them that I now take the 

 most interesting portions. The mem- 

 orandum book which I mentioned in 

 the March number also served a good 

 purpose, and received much praise 

 from Mr. Bertrand. He assured me 

 that the investigation which I was thus 

 carrying on would be of great benefit 

 to bee-culture. He evidently overesti- 

 mated my ability. 



We had bought a cloth map of 'Switz- 

 erland and a Baedecker guide. These, 

 with the little railroad map contained 

 in our " passes," enabled us to trace 

 our itinerary for the month. 



Our next step was to take a little 

 snow-capped mountain experience. The 

 knowledge of kind Mrs. Bertrand was 

 very useful in this. She is acquainted 

 with all the fine Swiss points, and ad- 

 vised us to begin with Zermatt and the 

 "Mont Cervin " (Matterhorn). So we 

 departed for Zermatt on the afternoon 

 of Aug. 8, after having promised our 

 hosts to again visit them at their Nyon 

 home before leaving for Italy, at the 

 end of the month. In the meantime 

 we were to visit beekeepers in both 

 French and German Switzerland and 

 compare the two systems. 



Apiary of Mr. Cljenat at Delemont — (Photographed by J. Walther.) 



Overprodaction in Ontario 



BY MORLEY PETTIT, PROVINCIAL APIARIST. 



|R. EDITOR, much that has been 

 said on the above subject in 

 the Bee Journal is very flatter- 

 ing to the work done. But I cannot 

 claim any credit for the abnormally 

 large crop of 1913. It was largely due 

 to the unusual weather conditions. It 

 was produced by producers, and not by 

 bi-g-t/i/icrs created at Guelph. 



Our work may be classified as fol- 

 lows : 



1. Apiary inspection. This is done 

 among those who already have apiaries. 

 A few men have been chosen from 

 among the students and given training 

 as inspectors. But they were mainly 

 already beekeepers before coming to 

 college. 



2. Education in beekeeping at the 

 college, consisting of lectures to all 

 first year students. These are given 

 most directly among those who are not 

 beekeepers. " Langstroth on the Honey 

 Bee " is used as text-book and followed 

 closely, chapter by chapter. Next comes 

 the experimental and demonstration 

 apiary work. Then the short course. 

 This seems to be one of the bones of 

 contention. The courses have been 

 held May, lHll, January, 1912, 191:! and 

 1911; two weeks' courses all except the 

 first, and the attendance has been, in 

 round numbers, l-"i, .50, 75 and 90 re- 

 spectively. I am safe in saying that 75 

 percent of this attendance has been 

 among those who were beekeepers 

 already. Of the other 25 percent, prob- 

 ably half have not bought any bees yet. 

 Several complaints were made that the 

 instruction was all for the "old heads" 



and could not be followed by the in- 

 experienced. 



The experimental work consists of 

 co-operative experiments among bee- 

 keepers. To get their co-operation, as 

 complete a list as possible of those 

 who have bees in Ontario was collected 

 and application forms for the experi- 

 ments are sent to this list each winter 

 or each spring. These beckei-pcrs de- 

 rive benefit from these experiments. 

 No beginner need apply because the 

 experimenter must first have his own 

 bees with which to experiment. 



When I became secretary of the 

 Ontario association, in order to spread 

 the benefits to more beekeepers, I had 

 a slip printed with a list of benefits of 

 membership on one side and a form of 

 application for membership on the 

 other. It was sent to beekeepers all 

 over the province. It worked like 

 magic. In one year the membership 

 jumped from 500 to 1500, the addi- 

 tional 1000 being nearly all at $1.00 

 each, and not at 50 cents as thought by 

 Mr. Byer. Previous to that the pro- 

 portion was two to one the other way. 



I think it will be plain from what I 

 have said that these 1000 new members 

 are by no means new beekeepers, but 

 men and women who, by their mem- 

 bership will become br/ler beekeepers, 

 producing more honey perhaps, but at 

 a reduced cost to themselves and of 

 better quality. This should be taken 

 into account by the " pessimists." 



The demonstrations in apiaries have 

 been beneficial to beekeepers, espe- 

 cially in dealing with foulbrood, it be- 

 ing the purpose to make every bee- 

 keeper his own doctor. At fall fairs 

 they have been in the nature of a pub- 

 licity campaign which tends more to 



