the above counties, at 20cts. per pound, 

 not less than $150,000 to $200,000, pro- 

 vided it is put up in shape for market.— 

 Saturday Democrat. St. Joseph, Mo. 



Canadian Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



On Tuesday afternoon, 14th inst., 

 about 60 bee-keepers, representing all 

 sections of the Provinces, and several 

 from the United States and Manitoba, 

 met in the City Hall. Torono, Mr. R. 

 McKnight. of Owen Sound, in the chair, 

 and Mr. Greenslade, of Toronto, Sec- 

 retary. 



The Chairman, after briefly acknowl- 

 edging the honor conferred upon him, 

 referred briefly to the necessity for a 

 Canadian Bee-keepers' Association, 

 through which the freest interchange of 

 thought and experience in reference to 

 this important industry could be had. 

 There was sufficient indication given of 

 the capabilities of honey production in 

 Ontario in the case of Mr. Jones, whose 

 apiary yielded 70,000 pounds of honey 

 per annum, gathered from a single 

 township. He hoped they would en- 

 deavor to get as much practical informa- 

 tion as soon as possible during the meet- 

 ings of the Convention pertaining to 

 apiculture and the marketing of bee 

 products. 



On motion, a committee was appointed 

 to draft a constitution for the Associa- 

 tion, also a committee to select subjects 

 for discussion. 



The Chairman said that most of the 

 gentlemen present, like himself, had 

 come to sit at the feet of those who 

 Avere able to impart instructions in bee- 

 keeping. He was glad to see that they 

 had several old and experienced bee- 

 keepers present, and a relation of their 

 successes and failures would be of bene- 

 fit. He called on Mr. Jones, whose 

 name was widely known as one of the 

 most successful bee-keepers in America, 

 and to whose efforts they were mainly 

 indebted for the getting up the Conven- 

 tion, to address the meeting. 



Mr. Jones, in response, said he had 

 not expected to be called upon to ad- 

 dress the Convention at any length, and 

 he would only offer a few remarks on 

 the present styles of bee-keeping. He 

 was very sorry to see that the old modes 

 were still practiced by a great many 

 whom, he hoped, would soon abandon 

 them for something more sensible. It 

 would hardly be necessary for him to 

 say that the ordinary plan 'of bee-keep- 

 ing in box hives and killing with brim- 

 stone was a cruel one. He found in the 

 East, where the people were very much 

 behind in other respects, that they were 

 ahead in this. Instead of using the 



brimstone pit they had long clay cylin- 

 ders, and when the bees tilled a cylinder 

 they were driven to one end by the use 

 of smoke till the honey was extracted. 

 He thought however, that our modes of 

 bee-keeping had improved so much that 

 Canada stood second to no other country 

 in the world in this respect. Canada 

 offered better inducements to bee-keep- 

 ers than countries farther south, be- 

 cause in w r armer climates the honey was 

 poorer in quality than that collected in 

 a cooler climate. He then described his 

 methods of in and out-door wintering, 

 feeding, etc. 



Rev. W. F. Clarke, said that winter- 

 ing was the great difficulty in Canadian 

 bee-keeping. He said a most interest- 

 ing subject at the Convention in Chicago 

 was the question whether the tongue of 

 the honey bee could be elongated, 

 whether they could get a race of bees 

 with tongues sufficiently long to get at 

 the red clover, and they had a very in- 

 teresting series of experiments on this 

 point from Prof. Cook, of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, who was perhaps 

 the most scientific bee-keeper of the 

 age. It was generally believed, how- 

 ever, that there were races of bees in 

 advance of Italians in this respect, and 

 one of these especially was the Cyprian 

 bee, of which Mr. Jones, during his 

 recent exploring tour, had imported a 

 number. The quicker the Canadian 

 bee-keepers marched right into the fore- 

 front in this respect the better, and 

 Canada was one of the best honey-pro- 

 ducing countries in the earth. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Clarke it 

 was decided to hold an open-air meet- 

 ing in the bee department on the Ex- 

 hibition grounds this afternoon, at 5 

 o'clock, when Mr. Jones will give a 

 practical illustration of his methods. 



The meeting then adjourned, to meet 

 at 7;30 p. m. 



EVENING SESSION. 



The Committee on Constitution re- 

 ported and the Constitution as reported 

 was adopted. 



The Committee on Subjects for Dis- 

 cussion, reported. " The old system of 

 bee-keeping— does it pay ?" was decided 

 by a ruling of the chair in the negative, 

 united with the hope that the bee-keep- 

 ers of Canada would abandon the old 

 style. 



The question of " Artificial vs. Natu- 

 ral Swarming" was discussed at con- 

 siderable length, the contest lying 

 principally between Mr. J. 13. Hall, of 

 Woodstock, who favored natural swarm- 

 ing in some cases, and Mr. A. J. Mc 

 Kay, of Underwood, who believed that 

 wherever practicable the artificial sys- 

 tem was preferable. Mr. D. A. Jones, 



