650 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



swarming, would do mnch to prevent 

 further swarming. 



To put it in brief, the Heddon method 

 of preventing after-swarms is this : 



Suppose your colony swarms June 1st. 

 Hive it on full sheets of wired founda- 

 tion, put the new hive on the old stand, 

 set the old hive a few inches to one side, 

 facing at right angles to the position of 

 the new hive. On June 3rd, turn the 

 old hive back, facing the same way as 

 the new one. On June 6th or 7th re- 

 move the old hive to a new location, at 

 a time in the day when the bees are 

 well at work in the fields. 



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EDWIW FRANCE. 



The subject of this biographical 

 sketch is perhaps the oldest among those 

 who answer questions for our depart- 

 ment of "Queries and Replies," being 

 nearly 70 years of age. His experience 

 as a large honey-producer makes his 

 bee-writings, though very few, of par- 

 ticular interest and value. It is with 

 pleasure then that we present the fol- 

 lowing short story of his life, which was 

 written for the " A B C of Bee-Culture," 

 by Dr. C. C. Miller: 



Edwin France, of Platteville, Wis., is 

 noted as a producer of extracted honey 

 on a large scale. He was born in Herki- 

 Y., on Feb. 4, 1824. 

 furnace-man, molding 

 ; and, having a large 

 family to support, had difficulty in mak- 

 ing both ends meet. At the age of eight 

 young Edwin was sent to live with his 

 mother's brother, returning home at 16. 

 He then served an apprenticeship of 

 four years at the furnace, when his 

 father bought forty acres of timber, 

 which they cleared up as a farm, work- 

 ing at the furnace winters. At tho. age 

 of 24 his father died, leaving him the 

 main stay of the family. He gave up 



mer county, N. 

 His father was 

 and melting iron 



the furnace, and worked part of the time 

 making salt-barrels in summers, and 

 cutting sawlogs in winters. About this 

 time he got, and kept on this little place 

 in the woods, a few colonies of bees. 



At the age of 32 he took the "West- 

 ern fever," and settled on a 200-acre 

 prairie farm in Humboldt county, Iowa, 

 marrying and taking with him a wife, 

 leaving his mother in care of her older 

 brother, a single man, amply able to 

 care for her. Here again he kept a few 



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EDWIN FRANCE. 



bees. He lived here six years, farming 

 summers and trapping winters, when 

 the breaking out of the war brought 

 prices of farm products down to a ruin- 

 ous point, and he went on a visit to 

 Platteville, Wis., intending to return 

 when times brightened. Desiring some 

 employment, he answered an advertise- 

 ment, " Agents wanted, to sell patent 

 bee-hives," and was soon the owner of 

 the patent for his county. He made the 

 hives himself ; and as at that time 



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