AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



393 



having been sold in the forepart of the 

 season for $15 and $20 each. She was 

 accordingly introduced, as per the in- 

 structions sent, but the result of the in- 

 troduction was not known until the 

 spring following, when he had the satis- 

 faction of seeing young Italians disport- 

 ing themselves on fine days in April. 



The subject of our sketch has not 

 been what is now termed "an extensive 

 apiarist," never having owned more 



FRANCIS A. GEMMILL. 



than 75 colonies at any one time. 

 Neither has he always kept bees from 

 1863 until the present time, as circum- 

 stances prevented his always remaining 

 in the same locality ; still he has never 

 lost his old-time interest or enthusiasm 

 for the pursuit, and was preparing him- 

 self to extend his sphere in this line, and 

 establish a permanent out-apiary, when 

 foul brood — the scourge of the apiarist — 

 slightly manifested itself in his apiary in 

 the fall of 1879 ; hence his action, com- 

 bined with a few others, at the meeting 



of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 held in Belleville, in January, 1890, 

 urging the necessity of securing Legisla- 

 tion in regard to this disease, with good 

 results, and also took a prominent part 

 in the Act preventing the spraying of 

 fruit trees while in bloom, now in force 

 in Ontario. 



Mr. Gemmill has used almost exclu- 

 sively the eight-frame Langstroth, and 

 latterly the New Heddon hive ; and has 

 wintered bees, with fair success, both 

 out-doors and in the cellar. He thinks 

 both methods have much to commend 

 them. Cellar-wintered bees, in his esti- 

 mation, should be protected in spring 

 with packing, in order to secure the 

 best results. 



His present location, although an 

 average one, is, he finds, over-stocked, 

 there being within the city limits (Strat- 

 ford) about 250 colonies. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, he secures fair crops, but 

 nevertheless is in the habit of moving 

 his apiary some miles distant, in order 

 to secure the benefit of a fall flow, 

 which so far has been successful as to 

 the amount of honey gathered, but he 

 is not sure about the colony being bene- 

 fited in the end ; experience rather tend- 

 ing to show better results in wintering 

 from colonies that have gathered no fall 

 honey — buckwheat, however, is not in- 

 cluded in the list of fall flowers. 



Besides having done considerable at 

 queen-rearing, he is a great lover of pro- 

 ducing comb honey, but the late poor 

 seasons have turned his attention more 

 to the extracted article. Although not 

 given to trying every new-fangled de- 

 vice, he is not slow in adopting some, 

 merely because they are new, hence his 

 preference for labor-saving apparatus, 

 such as bee-escapes, etc., including a 

 hive cart, a la Boardman, with some 

 improvements considered of advantage 

 in his special case. 



In addition to the above he has been 

 President of two local associations for a 

 number of years in succession. He has 

 also been a director of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation for some time past, as well as 



