BIOGKAPIIIES OF NOTED BEE-KEEPERS. 



iiud clerk of the board of trustees. He was a leader 

 in Sabbath-school .work at houie and in adjoining- 

 couiities. One year he was secretary of eight differ- 

 ent organizations, four of them religious. Dr. Ma- 

 son has always been an earnest temperance worker, 

 neither lie nor any of his children vising tea, coffee, 

 loliiieeo. or licjiior in any form. 



DK. A. B. MASON. 



Tn 18fi9, a brother left in his care two colonics of 

 Ik'cs III! convenient lo move tlieni. Watciiing tliese 

 aroiisfd an interest in bees, and, as usual, tlie way to 

 liee keeping in full was not long. In 1W;5, frequent 

 and sevei-(^ attacks of rheumatism obligul him to 

 gi\c up the office practice of dentistry, and he has 

 since made a specialty of bee-keeping, making it a 

 si)\irce of revenue. 



In 1874 he moved to Ohio, where he has always 

 been prominent in apicultui'ai matters. Through 

 his (efforts the Tri-State Fair Asso(!iation at Toledo 

 was induced to offer premiums for the display of the 

 l)rodu(!ts of the apiai'y, and this display has increas- 

 ed in attractiveness each year since. He was ap- 

 pointed superintendent of tlie department the first 

 yeai', and still holds tlie position. He was chosen su- 

 Ijcrintendent of the Apiarian Department of the 

 Ohio Centennial Exposition, held at Columbus in 

 1888. In 1882 and "3 liis apiary of 7.5 ct)lonies suffered 

 from foul brood, nearly every colony bcnng infested 

 in the latter year; but he cured it, and has had no 

 return of the disease. Dr. Mason is a poultry- fanci- 

 er, and was for four j'ears secretary of th(! Buckeye 

 l^nion Poultry Association. 



Large in size, and of fine form, Dr. Mason is always 

 prominent at conventions, where he is still more 

 conspicuous by his never-failing joviality and good 

 nature. In 1887 he was made president of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Society. He was re-elected 

 to that position for 1888-89. 



CHARLES DAD ANT & SON. 



Charles Dadant was born in a village of the old 

 province of Champagne (now department of Haute 

 Marne), France, May 23d, 1817. When a young man 

 he was a traveling agent for a dry-goods firm, and 

 afterward became a wholesale dry-goods merchant 

 himself, subseciuently leaving this business to asso- 

 ciate himself with his father-in-law in the manage- 

 ment of a tannery. In 1863 he came to the United 

 States, intending to make a business of grape-grow- 

 ing, with which business he had been familiar from 

 childhood, as it was the leading business of his na- 

 tive phu-e. He did not know a word of English at 

 this time; but by the aid of a dictionary he became 

 acquainted with it, so that, four years later, he 

 could write articles for the papers, but he never 

 learned to pronounce English correctly. 



In 1864, a love for bees, which had shown itself in 

 childhood, asserted itself anew, and he obtained two 

 hives of bees, from a friend. After trying movable- 

 frame hives side by side with the old European 

 "eke" horizontally divided hives, the latter were 

 cast aside, and in 1868 he tried to get the French api- 

 arists to try the Langstroth system, but was re- 

 buked by M. Hamet, the editor of a French bee- 

 journal, who has never ceased trying to fight against 

 tlie invading progress of movable frames, although 

 other bee-magazines have started in France which 

 have done the work he might so well have done. 

 About this time Mr. D. tried to import bees from It- 



CHARLES DADANT. 



aly. In 1873 he went in person to Italy, but was not 

 entirely successful till 1874, when he succeeded in 

 importing 2.50 queens. These importations were 

 kept up for years. In 1871 he started an out^apiary, 

 and steadily increased the number of his colonies 

 from year to year. In 1874 he took into partnership 

 his son, Camille P. Dadant, then ;J3 years old, who 



