THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



219 



off the board where he has held a faithful 

 position from the beginniuj^ and which was 

 more honored by his seat than he was 

 honored by occupying it. He was according- 

 ly a year ago voted off through means 

 which I do uot for a moment hesitate to 

 stimatize as contemptible. " Here Mr. 

 Pringle makes some grave charges. Let 

 us for a moment glance over some of them. 

 If Mr. McKnightis "disinterested," has no 

 interest in the matter, then it seems to me 

 he should mind his own occupation and let 

 us alone. Of course, Mr. McKnight was 

 dropped off the board, and I ask is it no., the 

 righteous privilege and duty of all associa- 

 tions and legal bodies under British rule, 

 or United State rule either, to drop those 

 who wilfully and persistently, not only re- 

 fuse to carry out the wishes of their con- 

 stituents but tight them ? What are the 

 duties of a representative ? Is it any part 

 of his duty to oppose and thwart the wishes 

 and best interests of those whom he repre- 

 sents, 'i 



Mr. Pringle claims that the board was 

 " more honored by his seat than he was by 

 occupying it. " Think of that ye humble 

 members of the board— all put together 

 have less honor than Mr. McKnight. These 

 views may be new to some of you but not to 

 all the members. 



Now, as to the alleged "contemptible" 

 means at Stratford. Mr. Pringle, may I 

 ask you to say what they were ? I was 

 there, and I know of no other means being 

 used than honest canvassing. And I am 

 told the vote stood two to one for Sherring- 

 ton. 



Further along Mr. Pringle says " Mr. 

 Darling occupied his position of Vice Pres- 

 ident of the Society last year, and ought, 

 by all fairness honor and precedent to have 

 succeeded to the Presidency. " Well, now, 

 really, I cannot understand Mr. Pringle, 

 for the record of the Association shows 

 that thereis not one case as a precedent in 

 which a Vice President of the Association, 

 since its legal existence, succeeded to the 

 Presidential chair without waiting from one 

 to four years. Mr. Pringle was Vice in 

 188.5 but did not reach the chair until 1891. 

 Mr. -T. B. Hall was Vice in issj and several 

 times since, but did not reacti the Presidency 

 until 189.'). So Mr. Darling should not com- 

 plain if he, like others, should wait a few 

 years. But Mr. Pringle had not the fair- 

 ness to say that Mr. Holtcrman was Vice 



President in 1891 and therefore had a better 

 claim to the coveted chair than had Mr. 

 Darling who had uot waited a year or more 

 as all the other Vice Presidents had. If it 

 be wrong to accept the Presidency over the 

 Vice President, then both I and Mr. Pringle 

 are sinners ; for in ISSC, Mr. Pringle was 

 Vice and I "usurped" the Presidency; 

 and in 1891 Mr. Gemmill was Vice, and Mr. 

 Pringle "usurped" the chair and Mr. 

 Gemmill " was set aside " for a " more am- 

 bitious, but less competent man. " 



Mr. Pringle threatens to leave the Associ- 

 ation. Well Mr. McKnight and I have also 

 made the same threat, and I beg to assure 

 Mr. Pringle that if we three leave, the Asso- 

 ciation will go right on just as though 

 nothing had happened. If this controversy 

 is followed up it may be necessary to show 

 how the elections to certain positions in the 

 gift of the Association were conducted for 

 some years. 



Belmont, Ont., Can. July 1, 1896. 



Scanty Stores for Winter. 



0. p. UADANT. 



T F I remember right, the quantity of honey 

 i needed to carry a colony of bees safely 

 through the winter, has been estimated 

 at different times by different writers at 

 amounts ranging from .5 lbs to 40 lbs. This 

 question is surely of some importance to 

 bee-keepers, for if an average colony of bees 

 may be wintered safely on live lbs. of hon- 

 ey it is of no use to let them consume any 

 more, and we might as well save the H5 lbs. 

 of the higher estimate. But I very much 

 fear that a thorough investigation into the 

 details will evidence the fact that scanty 

 stores are a nuisance. 



In the first place, I believe that it would 

 be a mistake to set down a stated amount as 

 absolutely and exactly sufficient, for the 

 reasons that, not only colonies differ in num- 

 bers, age of their bees etc., but winters also 

 differ in duration, in suddenness of changes, 

 and the number of sunshiny days or stormy 

 days even has some influence upon this 

 question. 



Colonies which are wintered in the cellar 

 consume less honey than those wintered 

 out of doors, but in localities where the 

 winters are comparatively mild, if the bees 

 are strong in the fall, the difference be- 

 tween outdoor and indoor wintering is 



