1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



69 



as deftly as almost any other person, and he was just as clever 

 in placing over the " brimstone pit " in the fall any colonies 

 that were thought to be too light to winter. Those were the 

 days of "strained honey." 



After leaving home Mr. D. did not have much to do with 

 bees for 12 or 15 years, but he had not lost his old love — it 

 was just lying dormant. He went to Almonte, Out., in 1870, 

 and built the house he now lives in. He often thought of bees, 

 but living in a village he thought put an end to his aspira- 

 tions in that direction, especially as he was engaged in one of 

 the woolen mills, which took his time from 6:30 a.m. to 6 

 p.m. However, somewhere about the year 1880, the old love 

 blazed up more fiercely than ever before, and he " got the 

 fever," and had it bad. He thinks Wm. F. Clarke was mostly 

 too blame for this, for he was then writing for the Montreal 

 Weekly Witness. 



In the spring of 1882 Mr. Darling paid .?5. 00 for a strong 

 colony in a box-hive. It swarmed twice, and the old colony 

 became queenless. He sent for a few hives, an extractor, 

 smoker, etc., and an Italian queen for the queenless colony. 

 The man he purchased the colony from had some that were 

 too light to winter, and said if Mr. D. would leave him the 

 honey and hives, he could have the bees and combs. He ex- 

 tracted the honey, and putting three light colonies together, 

 gave him a fairly good colony, but not an ounce of honey, and 

 none to gather, as the frost had killed everything. He fed 

 granulated sugar syrup, and had it sealed over most beauti- 

 fully, and put the four colonies into the cellar for the winter. 

 In the spring the second swarm "played out," as well as the 

 old colony with the Italian queen. The prime swarm and the 

 fed colony came out all right, and he never saw drier, cleaner 

 combs in the spring than those in the colony that was win- 

 tered on pure sugar syrup. 



That spring he bought 12 more box-hive colonies from the 

 same man, and although it was the 21st of May, three of 

 them dwindled out before the honey season, leaving him with 

 11 colonies at the commencement of the honey-flow. He in- 

 creased them to 26, and sold .$100 worth of honey, which 

 settled his determination as to keeping bees. He bought seven 

 more box-hive colonies, and wintered the 33 without losing 

 one. 



The next season (1884) he Increased to 51, and bought 8 

 more, making 59 which he wintered without loss. In 1885 

 he put away 110, which he brought through the winter, but 

 one or two "kicked the bucket" shortly after being put out 

 in the spring. Since that time he has lost more or less every 

 winter, sometimes so many as to make him feel very sad. 



Mr. Darling is not in the best locality for honey, and his 

 average has been from 72 pounds per colony, spring count, in 

 a good season, to one or two pounds per colony in a very poor 

 season. His success in wintering has been better when there 

 had been a better crop of honey, and poor when the honey 

 crop was light ; especially if what little he did get was gath- 

 ered early in the season. 



He sent a little more than half a ton of honey to the In- 

 dian and Colonial Exhibition held at Kensington, England, in 

 1886, which would compare favorably with the honey from 

 the other parts of the Province. He was appointed one of the 

 Directors of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association in 1888, 

 which position he has held ever since, and last year he was 

 elected Vice-President of that association. 



As a politician Mr. Darling is not known. Of very strong 

 and decided convictions personally, he prizes highly, and ex- 

 ercises with determination, his right of franchise, but his voice 

 has never been heard at a political gathering, unless it might 

 be in the cause of temperance. He was converted at the age 

 of 12 years, and joined the Methodist Episcopal church, of 

 which his parents were members. He has been an official 

 member of the Methodist church for nearly 30 years, and has 

 been an active worker in the Sunday school for nearly 25 

 years. 



Mr. D. is now carrying on a garden of vegetables and 

 small fruits, and doing the best he can with his bees, having 

 left the woolen mill 10 years ago. He put away 140 colonies 

 of bees last fall in fine condition, and hopes for good things 

 another year. So do we all. The Editors. 



Honey as Kootl aiKl Medicine. — A new and revised 

 edition of this ,32-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use of honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are : Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for $1.25 ; 100 for $3.00. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



Report of the Illinois Slate Bee-Keepers' Conven- 

 tion Held at Chicago, Jan. 9 and 10, 1§96. 



REPOETED BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



The convention was called to order at 10 a.m., Jan. 9, by 

 the President, Dr. C. C. Miller, and E. R. Root opened the 

 meeting with prayer. The Secretary, Jas. A. Stone, being 

 absent, Mr. Root was chosen Secretary pro tern. The Presi- 

 dent explained that there was no pre-arranged program, and 

 that he would have to call upon the members to hand in ques- 

 tions. The first question for discussion was : 



PLANTING FOR HONEY AND FORAGE. 



" What, in your opinion, will prove the most profitable to 

 plant for honey and forage ? or what should we encourage as 

 a honey-plant ?" 



Pres. Miller — I would not encourage planting for honey 

 alone. As there are only a few here this morning, compara- 

 tively, I think we can get at the matter by calling for votes. 

 First, let us have a list of the plants. 



The various plants named were alfalfa, sweet clover, 

 Alsike, crimson clover and buckwheat. 



President — What is your first choice ? 



The responses showed that Alsike had the preference. 

 When the second choice was called for, sweet clover was 

 awarded the palm. On the third choice there was a division 

 between crimson clover and buckwheat. 



President — Alfalfa is a new plant, comparatively, and It 

 is only lately that it has come into prominence. 



Mr. Finch — I voted for alfalfa because Mr. Stone praised 

 it very highly at our last convention. 



Mr. Baldridge — I did not vote for it, because I never see 

 any bees on It at St. Charles. It is not much of a honey-plant 

 with us. 



President — There was only one patch of It in my vicinity, 

 but I found no bees on it. 



Mr. Schrier — I sowed three acres of it tour years ago. I 

 was very anxious to see the bees work on it, but saw none. 



Question — What do you know about Alsike ? 



Mr. Schrier — I sowed about 20 acres with Alsike. Some 

 of my colonies stored as high as 100 pounds of comb honey, 

 and the average from the whole -yard was from 80 to 90 

 pounds per colony. It Is a successful forage crop with me 

 every season ; and while the clover is not as large as the red, 

 it makes No. 1 hay, and sells for more than the red. I should 

 rather have It with timothy than alone. Without the timothy 

 it sprawls on the ground, and does not grow as well. 



Mr. Baldridge — Peck Brothers, of Geneva, are large 

 sheep-growers. They sow all their land (about 200 acres) 

 with Alsike and timothy, and have no bees. 



President — That is the point. We want to emphasize, as 

 bee-keepers, the forage side of our valuable honey-plants, be- 

 cause this appeals to the farmers. 



Mr. Holmes — My experience is the same as Mr. Schrier's. 



At this point a recess was taken. The following paid 

 their dues then and at various times during the meeting : 



C. A. Stewart, St. Charles. 

 C. Schrier, Peotone. 

 Wm. Blume, Norwood Park. 

 E. R. Root, Medina, Ohio. 

 J. Roorda, Thayer. Ind. 

 W.C.Lyman, Downer's Grove. 

 W. A. Norris, Aurora. 

 Geo. S. Affolter, May wood. 

 N. L. Stow, Evanston. 

 Chesterton, Ind. 



A. H. Kennan, LaGrange. 

 M. H. Mandelbaum, Chicago 

 Geo. Thompson, Geneva. 

 J. C. Wheeler, Piano. 

 M. M. Baldridge, St. Charles 

 A. N. Draper, Upper Alton. 

 H. O. Miller, Manteno. 

 J. A. Green, Ottawa. 

 Ephraim West, Channahon. 

 E. F. Schafer 



There were a number of other bee-keepers present whose 

 names were not recorded, some of whom had paid their dues 

 at the Springfield meeting in November, 1895. After the 

 recess, the subject of honey-plants was continued. 



President — We will next turn our attention to sweet 



