AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



651 



nearly every farmer kept bees, the busi- 

 ness paid well, and he soon bought two 

 more counties. 



In his trades he got some bees, his 

 starting-point as a bee-keeper. These 

 he increased until in 1871, when he 

 went into winter quarters with 123 col- 

 onies, bringing out 25 in the spring, 

 and 14 in the spring following. En- 

 larging his hives, and studying the 

 wants of the bees, led to better success, 

 reaching 500 colonies in the spring of 

 1888, kept in six apiaries. In 1886, 

 from 395 colonies, he took 42,489 

 pounds of honey, increasing to 507. In 

 1885 his 320 colonies averaged 113 

 pounds each, and his 410 colonies in 

 1887 averaged 12 pounds each. He 

 owns 11 acres in the city limits of 

 Platteville, devoted to garden truck and 

 berries. 



Mr. France and his son do all the 

 work, jBxcept during a few weeks in the 

 busy season, when he hires eight assis- 

 tants from 12 to 18 years old. The 

 whole ten go to one of the different api- 

 aries each day, making a sort of picnic, 

 and returning at night. Mr. F. has not 

 written much for the press ; but what 

 he has written bears the marks of ripe 

 experience. 



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CONDUCTED BY 



Greenville^ Texas. 



Report of the Texas State Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention. 



(Continued from page 622). 



SECOND DAY— Continued. 



Dr. W. K. Marshall gave an interest- 

 ing lecture on the subject of 



Primitive Bee-Keeping in Texas. 



He described the method of making 

 straw-hives, and the appearance of 

 them. There were no lumber mills here 

 then ; after saw-mills were established, 

 and box-hives were made of lumber, 



every bee-keeper looked upon his pos- 

 sessions with pride, and the hives were 

 constructed according to the taste and 

 mechanical genius and notions of their 

 maker. « 



He was first to attempt an improved 

 hive in his vicinity ; it was so construct- 

 ed that he could remove one-half, with 

 the idea that he could increase his colo- 

 nies without the natural process of 

 swarming ; his first experiment was a 

 success, and he thought he had the hive 

 — it was perfection ; but he was discour- 

 aged by the failure of his next experi- 

 ments to succeed. 



His first impression, when he began 

 the study of bees was, that the queen 

 was the ruler, and that the drones laid 

 the eggs ; on this he was about to es- 

 tablish a beautiful theory, when he dis- 

 covered that he must be mistaken ; then 

 he concluded that the workers laid the 

 eggs. His first movable-frame hives 

 wei-e made with top-bars, without side 

 or bottom bars, and he had often won- 

 dered why he had not discovered the 

 movable-frame before Mr. Quinby did. 



When Quinby had perfected his first 

 movable-frame hive, soon many inven- 

 tions made to sell to the unwary, by per- 

 sons totally ignorant of even the primi- 

 tive management of the honey-bee ; 

 these " patent gums " were sold by men 

 equally as ignorant as their inventor ; 

 and after the bee-moth made its appear- 

 ance in the West, which was back in the 

 '50's, nearly 50 years after it had been 

 introduced into this country from Eu- 

 rope, the hive vendor had moth-proof 

 hives, moth traps and various arrange- 

 ments to prevent the moth from enter- 

 ing the hives and " destroying the bees " 

 (?). This new feature had the effect of 

 procuring new victims, increasing the 

 patronage, and bringing forth new in- 

 ventions fashioned to suit the theory of 

 the inventor, on moth questions. Mr. 

 Quinby was the first man to solve this 

 moth question, and his public assertion 

 that strong colonies were able to protect 

 themselves against the ravages of the 

 moth, was received at first with derision. 

 Dr. Marshall had used the Quinby 

 frame seven inches deep, and secured 

 more honey, and induced the bees to en- 

 ter the upper chamber with less diflSculty 

 than with the deeper frames. His ex- 

 perience is that a shallow frame is the 

 best. He exhibited a Langstroth frame 

 six inches deep, which he was willing to 

 endorse as the most practical frame, 

 and he was thoroughly convinced that 

 ten frames of this size was large enough 

 for the brood-chamber, and if he were 

 going to engage in the business again, 



