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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 6, 



sources and methods during the seven months which he re- 

 mained on the Pacific Coast, as this firm were probably the 

 largest owners of bees at that time in the United States, oper- 

 ating about 2,000 colonies ; the management of several api- 

 aries devolving upon Mr. Hill. Circumstances which necessi- 

 tated leaving the employ of these gentlemen were a source of 

 regret to himself as well as to employers, as evinced by letters 

 from both members of the firm requesting his return. 



On Dec. 28, 18S9, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Kate A. 

 Nelson, of Titusville, Pa., and on Dec. 2, 1890, a son came to 

 cheer and brighten their home ; but the joy of his presence 

 was cut off by death seven months later, while the father was 

 away in California; this shock, added to the already ill-health 

 of Mrs. Hill, rendered his return to her side imperative, as 

 her health continued to decline ; and in order to remain at 

 home until she might be restored to health, he secured a few 

 colonies of bees and re-engaged as salesman and frame-maker 

 in an art store, with a former employer whom he had served 

 during a part of the four years of failure of the honey crop 

 referred to in the foregoing, prior to his California pilgrimage. 

 Continuing for two years in this capacity, he then. In partner- 

 ship with his employer, established a job printing ofliee, to 

 which was added, a few months later, the necessary equipment 

 for the publication of a 6-column folio newspaper, issuing the 

 first number Dec. 22, 1892, which was continued weekly 

 until January, 189-i, with a good subscription list and liberal 

 advertising patronage, when Mr. Hill sold his interest, and, 

 on Feb. 1, started South to look up the honey-producing pros- 

 pects in Florida. After spending several weeks traveling in 

 the State, being satisfied with the outlook as a future location, 

 he returned to Pennsylvania, interested his present partners, 

 and organized the "South Florida Apiary Company." 



October 1st found Mr. Hill again in the " Land of Flow- 

 ers," and there (for the little company) he purchased 70 colo- 

 nies of common stock and 50 nuclei of 5-banders, to which he 

 added two colonies of fine 3-banded Italians at very " fancy " 

 prices ; selected a location at New Smyrna for an apiary, but 

 had not yet taken all the bees to their new homo when the 

 unprecedented freeze of 1894 blasted every hope of a honey 

 crop for several years. While yet undecided as to a future 

 course, by feeding several hundred pounds of honey they were 

 carried along with slight loss until July, when cabbage-palm 

 bloom came to their rescue, and in August were moved south 

 to the St. Lucie river, to await the blooming of pennyroyal in 

 January, and there left in charge of a resident bee-keeper 

 while Mr. H. returned to Pennsylvania, to earn expenses in 

 the old " print shop." 



Mr. Hill returned to Florida last January to take charge 

 of the business again, but his courage to " stem " the tide of 

 obstacles which beset the industry on the East Coast since 

 the great freeze, took a drop to several degrees below zero 

 when he found foul brood In two colonies. To these, however, 

 he promptly applied the Sir John Moore method (burial at the 

 dead of night), with highly satisfactory results, as that was 

 several months ago, and not a sign of the malady has devel- 

 oped in any of the others ; hence, newly awakened hope and 

 determination, assisted somewhat by a small crop of honey 

 already secured, with some prospects of getting more at their 

 apiary in Indian river narrows, from mangrove. 



The management of the company affairs devolves entirely 

 upon Mr. Hill. 



Being one of a large family, reared upon a dairy farm, and 

 the poor health of his father, rendered it quite necessary that 

 the elder children (H. E. being the second) assist in the farm 

 work, so that the education which he coveted, ended in a com- 

 mon country school ; that which he has since acquired being 

 the result of diligent application to private study at every 

 opportunity. When but 10 years of age. It fell to him to 

 herd cattle on his father's farm, before fences could be con- 



structed ; this he continued to do for three summers, which 

 afforded ample time for a thorough perusal of Thomas' text- 

 book of bee-keeping, and other study. Twenty years have 

 elapsed since those days, and in a practical way he is still 

 studying bees, realizing to-day that he has yet more to learn 

 than seemed to confront him then, yet with his rather wide 

 range of experience — from the Georgian bay to the Carribbean 

 sea, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, aggregating over 

 20,000 miles of travel wholly in the Interest of bee-keeping; 

 observing various methods in different lands, his contact with 

 hundreds of bee-keepers, and almost every race of bees known 

 in America, and some practical experience with varieties of 

 which but little is generally known ; with Apis dorsata and 

 Plorea in " pickle " in his private collection ; having observed 

 the busy workers on 16 Quinby frames in a glass hive which 

 occupied a corner of his dining-room for years, and roughed it 

 in the mountains and wilds of the South, and loaded cars with 



Mauler Lowell (J. Uill. 



comb and extracted honey — he begins to regard himself as 

 tolerably familiar with the various phases of honey-produc- 

 tion. And if you can furnish him with the address of another 

 man In America, of his years, who has had a more diversified 

 bee-keeping experience, you would thereby incur his lasting 

 obligation, as he might then condole with a co-victim of the 

 bee-fever. 



On March -4, 1893, another baby boy— Master Lowell — 

 came to occupy the vacant chair in their bereaved home ; so, 

 to paraphrase Mr. Choat, as Mr. Hill's parents are yet both 

 spared to him, there Is no man whom he envies, and the only 

 one he would wish to be, if he were not himself, would be the 

 present Mrs. Hill's second husband. A Fbiknd. 



A. Ne-w Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mail, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 15 cents. It is called "The Wood 

 Binder," is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directions accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should get It, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are Invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get it yearly. 



