The bees.were then stored in the cellar until the spring, when they were set out in the bee yard, or I might say orchard, with its beautiful fru1t trees so nicely kept and surrounded by a hedge.

There would always be a considerable loss of bees over winter.

For the first few years he borrowed a two-frame honey extractor from his uncle Alexander Cairns of Freetown, who also had bees. Later he purchased an extractor which had to be turned by hand, now by electricity.

In 1917 nine hundred pounds of honey went through the extractor. After having spent twenty years in the business it was learned that packaged bees could be brought here from Florida.

Robert ordered three or four packages; he was the first in the Maritimes to receive packaged bees. At first it wasn’t profitable as they were not understood and a lot were lost. However, as time went on, more was learned about them and how to care for them; they now come

through in perfect condition.

The bees are smoked off in the fall and are replaced with new packaged bees in the spring brought here from Florida. Two pounds .of bees with a young queen is as good as one wintered colony.

Weather has a lot to do with the amount of honey the bees produce. On a good year two pounds of bees can produce up to two hundred pounds

of honey.

The Apiary of R. E. Moase has at present everything modern. Last year he had his usual fifty colonies of bees. A honey shop is located in the yard Where he sells a lot of honey; he also fills a great many

orders for outside the province.

It is sad to think that this business is on the way out for the want of someone interested in bee keeping.

FARM FENCES

In the early days as settlers cleared their land, they fenced the plots with stumps, brush and stones.

After larger areas became available zig-zag fences were made of poles cut in uniform length and placed on top of one another to a height

of about four feet.

In later years using the same type of poles, stakes were driven

into the ground and the poles were fastened to them by wire giving it the name of combination fence. In the 1890’s long strands of wire formed

the major part of the fence.

About 1900 with the invention of barbed wire, many of the fences were rebuilt using several strands of barbed wire fastened to the stakes. Woven wire fences came in later. Of late years many fences have been done away with owing to the large machinery which is now being used.

Electric fences are quite common now.

34

P—_V'4 ‘——r"—"‘_"————