Caledonian Apiarian Society. 



A general meeting of the above Society 

 was held in the Tent, Showyard, Perth, on 

 Thursday, for the purpose of nominating 

 officers for the coming year. The follow- 

 ing were unanimously chosen : Hon. Pres- 

 ident, the Right Hon. Earl of Rosebery : 

 President, Charles Howatson, Esq., of Dor- 

 nal ; Vice Presidents, James Lumsden, 

 Esq., of Arden ; James Laughland, of Kil- 

 marnock ; Rev. John Irving, of Innellan ; 

 Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, Robt. J. Ben- 

 nett, 50 Gordon Street, Glasgow. The fol- 

 lowing resolutions were then unanimously 

 passed : 



"That it is incumbent upon all bee-keepers 

 to lend their aid and influence in forming 

 local Societies to affiliate with the Caledon- 

 ian Apiarian Society to encourage the sci- 

 ence of apiculture throughout Scotland. 



"That silver and bronze medals be 

 awarded to the Perthshire Bee-Beepers' 

 Society for competition at their local show 

 for the year. 



" That as the season this year has been so 

 unpropitious as to prevent honey gathering, 

 the September honey show in connection 

 with the Glasgow Horticultural Society 

 shall be abandoned this year. 



"That our silver medal be presented to 

 Mr. Thomas G. Newman, of Chicago, Presi- 

 ident of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, as a souvenir of his visit, and 

 for the valuable services he has rendered to 

 the present session of the Caledonian Apia- 

 rian Society. 



" That as in a poor season like the pres- 

 ent, much spurious honey may be put into 

 the market, all members should have their 

 honey assorted and labeled by the Society, 

 showing both its quality and genuineness." 



A competition for the medal presented by 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society for 

 the driver of bees was held yesterday in the 

 small tent adjacent to the Apiarian Society's 

 handsome marquee, when six gentlemen 

 entered. The judges were Mr. John Ellis, 

 Bridge of Earn, and Mr. Steele, Fowlis 

 Easter. The colonies were balloted for and 

 the skeps inverted, and by gentle tapping 

 the bees were induced to leave their stores 

 of honey and brood in their old hive and 

 take refuge in an empty skep. Atter a 

 keen competition the winner of the medal 

 was found to be Mr. John Wilkie, Gourock, 

 whose previous achievements in this line 

 are well known. The object of the compe- 

 tition was to demonstrate to bee-keepers the 

 science of bee swarming. 



From the British Bee Journal. 



The Late Abbe Collin. 



G. F. PEARSON. 



I feel that you and many other readers of 

 your Journal will lament the death of the 

 old French apiculteur the Abbe Collin, in 

 his 79th year, from an accident while 

 engaged in hiving a swarm of bees on the 

 14th of last month. Monsieur Collin had 

 devoted, so to speak, his whole life to the 

 study of apiculture ; and though too old 



readily to accept the new and improved 

 methods now so generally adopted, had in 

 his time added many steps to the ladder by 

 which these improved methods have been 

 reached. His work on the "Bee and Bee- 

 Keeping" has reached the fifth edition, 

 which alone will show the share he has had 

 in promoting the science of apiculture, and 

 in superseding the use of the brimstone pit 

 in France. 



Monsieur Collin was born in the first year 

 of the present century, and in or about 1824 

 was appointed cure of Tomblaine, a village 

 distant about two miles from Nancy. There 

 he remained 37 years, and he carried on his 

 studies in bee-keeping and bee habits. He 

 was a man of much esprit, witty and pleas- 

 ant in his conversation, and a fine classical 

 scholar— the love for the Latin poets break- 

 ing out from time to time as he talked with 

 you, even to the last. As a churchman he 

 was a fine specimen of the old Gallican 

 clergy, utterly tree from any sort of bigotry 

 or intolerance. 



Monsieur Collin was still fairly strong, 

 considering his great age. The last 18 years 

 of his life he passed as honorary canon of 

 the Church of Bon Secours at Nancy, to 

 which a residence is attached, and where he 

 kept usually from 12 to 20 colonies in his 

 garden, but entirely for his own experi- 

 ments. Indeed, he never kept bees in any 

 sort of way for profit, and rather looked on 

 the ordinary taking of honey from a hive as 

 a sort of theft, which in a certain sense was 

 an unfair proceeding to his little friends, 

 who had labored so hard to store it, and to 

 whom his whole life had been one long- 

 continued devotion. 



The Abbe Collin died in harness much as 

 any soldier ever did on the field of battle. 

 One of his colonies had swarmed on the 

 morning of the 14th of June, and having no 

 one to call to his aid at the moment, he got a 

 ladder and with the help of his old servant 

 placed it against the tree. He had mounted 

 about 4 feet, when feeling the ladder shake, 

 he unfortunately leaped to the ground, 

 shattering his right ankle-bone and the 

 bone of the leg in several places. He had 

 every possible medical attention ; but even 

 to a young and strong man the accident 

 would have been of the most grave nature, 

 and at his advanced age amputation was 

 impossible. A naturally good constitution 

 enabled him to struggle against it for some 

 time, but at his age the shock was too great, 

 and he died peacefully on the 25th of June, 

 11 days after the accident. 



Translated from L' Apiculteur Alsacien-Lorrain, 

 by Frank Benton. 



Comb Foundation— No. 6. 



Liepore, Dec, 1878. 

 My Dear Friend.— Turn bottom up- 

 ward one of those fine large basket-like 

 hives in which you formerly hived your 

 bees ; cut out a piece of comb foundation 

 the size of the hive across the middle less 

 about one centimeters (three-eighths of an 

 inch), and 1)4 centimeter shorter than 

 its heighth ; round off the lower edge in 

 such a manner that it will fit as nearly as 

 possible to the bottom of the hive ; tnen. 



