isys. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



341 



and unadulterated article, and they are willing to pay me a 

 fair price for my honey. Thus I care little at what prices 

 Chicago, Si. Louis, Kansas City or Omaha commission men 

 quote honey, and I have even a customer in St. Louis as well 

 as in Kansas City, who pay me 15 cents per pound for ex- 

 tracted honey, and order annually. 



In the summer of 1880 1 began with but two colonies of 

 bees, which by swarming increast to six colonies. By proper 

 feeding, and guarded by the advice obtained from the columns 

 of the "old reliable" American Bee Journal, I was fortunate 

 enough to winter them well, altho for 105 days in one stretch 

 they had no flight. 



Now, the following is a correct statement for each year 

 succeeding — 1st, of the number of colonies, spring count ; 2nd, 

 the surplus honey taken ; and 3rd, the average per colony 

 secured : 



The next table shows the amounts realized, as well as the 

 annual disbursements, from 1880 to Jan. 1, 1898 : 



The amount realized over and above expenses is $3,722.- 

 83, which gives me an average income of about $213 per year 

 for my work and investment. Bees are, of course, a side-issue 

 with me, but they are also a hobby, and I see, first of all, that 

 they are well supplied for winter before I take a pound of 

 honey away from them. I never extract from the brood- 

 chamber, altho one-half of my standard hives carry 14 frames 

 llJ^xllX, and the rest 10 to 11 frames of the same size. 



During the 17 years I have sold 68 colonies of bees at a 

 total of $690, and besides 74 empty hives at different prices, 

 according to the quality of the hive sold. 



I do not pretend to deal in apiarian supplies, but was 

 somewhat compelled to have some extra hives and foundation 

 on hand for those who bought bees from me. 



At the present I have a little, but model, apiary of 36 col- 

 onies, in a well-built bee-shed of 90 feet in length, together 

 with all appliances needed. Of course, if I would keep hun- 

 dredsof colonies in several separate apiaries my mode of man- 

 agement would not answer. But the particular pains and 

 care which I take with each colony Is the very pleasure I get 

 out of it, and that is in the first place the very thing I am 

 after in keeping bees. 



As I have said, I often have a boy to assist me when 

 needed, and nearly always work with the bees in the afternoon 

 so as to take advantage of the shade. 



I think that bee-keeping on a small scale pays me in pro- 

 portion to the capital invested as well as anything else on the 

 farm. 



If a person Is not adapted to bee-keeping — if he has not a 

 genuine love for his pets, and the business — such a person 

 would much rather let fooling with bees severely alone. That 

 is my unqualified opinion about keeping bees. 



Hall Co., Nebr. 



Report of the Ontario Convention- 

 Being' tlie I8II1 Animal, Held at llaniilton, I»ec. 



Mr. J. K. Darling delivered the following: 



President's Annual Address. 



Another season has past by, and we are again met to- 

 gether to compare results and lay plans for the future. The 

 past season has been a varied one, the bee-keepers in some 

 localities securing a fairly good yield of first-class honey, 

 while in others there was very little, and in some places none 

 whatever of a first-class article stored by the little workers. 

 In some sections there was a small flow of dark honey in the 

 fall, and in others the bees secured barely enough tor winter 

 stores, and a goodly number of colonies have had to be fed. 

 As a consequence prices are firm, and the surplus of last year 

 is likely to disappear before another season opens. 



As an Association we can congratulate ourselves on mak- 

 ing progress. Some years this advance is not as pronounced 

 as at other times, yet " Onward " is the word, and we are liv- 

 ing fairly up to it. If we take a statement made by the 

 President of the Dairyman's Association of Eastern Ontario 

 at their annual meeting, held in Brockville last January, and 

 compare our work with theirs, we will have no cause to feel 

 disheartened. After referring to the vast amount of butter 

 and cheese which Ontario exports to England, he says : 



" Now, how has this been brought about? In the first 

 place, by organizing a dairyman's convention at Ingersoll 30 

 years ago this spring, with the motto uf ' Progress.' For the 

 first 14 years all that (he association did was to hold conven- 

 tions, to teach cheese and butter making while attending and 

 holding of cheese shows." 



Surely, our record is as good as that, and while we can- 

 not hope to accomplish as much as the dairymen can accom- 

 plish, or to increase the industry of bee-keeping to the magni- 

 tude of the butter and cheese trade, there is plenty of room 

 for advancement. The work of the association must be mainly 

 along the line of education, and I think we ought to begin at 

 once to push that branch of our work with more vigor than 

 we have ever done in the past. It is that kind of work that 

 has placed the dairy interest of the Dominion in the front 

 rank as it stands to-day. 



ADULTERATED HONEY SCARCE. 



There have been no complaints of adulteration during the 

 past year, owing, no doubt, to the efficient work done in the 

 Inland Revenue Department at Ottawa; and it is my opinion 

 that with the law as it is now, and a proper watchfulness on 

 the part of honey-producers, we will not have much trouble 

 with adulterated honey. It Is a matter upon which we can 

 congratulate ourselves that not one of the adulterated samples 

 was traced to a bee-keeper, and that most of the samples 

 which were adulterated with glucose were traced directly or 

 indirectly to one firm in Montreal ; and, further, that the 

 most of the adulterated samples secured were secured within 

 a radius of that city. This is a matter that ought to be pro- 

 claimed from one end of the Dominion to the other, thus allay- 

 ing the distrust that has arisen regarding pure honey. Only 

 one sample in 15, and that in a limited area. 



Regarding the standard for the specific gravity of honey, 

 we are very much at a loss as yet how to proceed. The fact 

 that the percentage of water in the samples analyzed at 

 Ottawa ranged all the way from 12 to 33 per cent, would 

 show at once that much more must be done before any definite 



