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honey, so when I consider all the conditions I feel sure Hatzic must be a 

 good district for bees. It is a region largely given over to the cultivation 

 of rhubarb, strawberries, small fruits, apples and pears. The sources of 

 spring nectar are excellent and plentiful. In the honey-flow season rasp- 

 berry, fireweed, clover and snowberry are in abundance. 



The bees in Hatzic are better housed than in Agassiz and Chilliwack, in 

 fact most of them are in modern hives with frames that are movable. The 

 credit for this condition is due to Mr. J. A. Catherwood who introduced bees 

 into the region and handled them by modern methods. His example in- 

 fluenced the community. 



On July 5 I moved to Dewdney, expecting to cover the ground there in a 

 couple of days at the most. On the first day I found two apiaries that 

 were doing well, one with a creditable showing of section honey. The 

 other, which was run for extracted honey, was well taken care of so far as 

 the brood chambers were concerned, but although the colonies were in 

 powerful strength and a good honey-flow was on, more than half of the 

 hives were without supers so that a fine honey-crop was running to waste. 

 At four o'clock that afternoon rain began to fall, and cool wet weather 

 continued for about a week. 



From July 18 to 23 I spent between North Wellington and Ladysmith, 

 on Vancouver Island, calling on 23 beekeepers, only one of whom was on 

 an extensive scale, namely Mr. C. G. Stevens of Nanaimo, who owns about 

 50 hives. This apiary was the only one that had a crop. 



Next week was devoted to the Islands in the Gulf of Georgia, where I 

 visited 15 apiaries, none of them with more than 7 colonies. To my mind 

 there is really little hope of successful bee culture in this region for years 

 to come as so little impression has been made upon the virgin forest, and 

 consequently there is very little acreage in clover and nectar-bearing plants. 

 One ranch on Fender Island got a crop of fine honey from an acre of 

 alfalfa growing in ground sloping towards the sea-shore. 



On August 3 I proceeded to the Comox district where in ten days I made 

 30 visits. This district appears to be admirably adapted for bee culture as 

 in the valley many hundreds of acres have been brought under cultivation, 

 while clover abounds along the sides of the roads. The apiary of the Rev. 

 T. Menzies is situated on the edge of the valley, at Sandwick, not the best 

 location by any means, yet from its 7 colonies, spring count, he secured 

 1100 pounds of fine clover honey. Here is the obverse side of the shield 

 78 other colonies produced a total crop of 93 pounds, an average of little 

 more than a pound to the hive. The yield secured by Mr. Menzies shows 

 very plainly the possibilities of the district; the meager returns gained by 

 the others is a fair measure of their apiarian knowledge and skill. 



My summer's work thus far indicated that in the western half of the 

 Province the bees were in good healthy condition, and that there was 

 no cause of anxiety. The crying need of the ranchers clearly was education 

 in the elementary principles of beekeeping, so the facts of the case were 

 presented to the Minister of Agriculture who agreed it was worth while 

 covering the same territory a second time, to prepare the hives for the 

 winter, learn the facts of the honey-crop, what were the possibilities of each 

 district, and what was the ratio of success to the opportunities offered. 



In my opinion the second visit was really worth while. The data secured 

 provide a quick and definite answer as to the honey possibilities of a 

 region, and this is part of the information so many new arrivals are 



