INTRODUCTION. 



ly enlaif^ed until, in 1876, the price was changed to $1.00. During all this time it has 

 served the purpose excellently of answering questions as they came up, both old and new; 

 and even if some new subscriber should ask in regard to something that had been discussed 

 at length but a short time before, it is an easy matter to refer him to it or send him the 

 number containing the subject in question. 



When (fUaniugswns about commencing its fifth yeai', inquirers began to dislike being 

 referred to something that was published half a dozen years before. Bebides, the decisions 

 that were then arrived at perhaps needed to be considerably modified to meet present 

 wants. Now you can see whence the necessity for this ABC book, its office, and the place 

 we propose to have it till. 



December, 1878. A. I. Root. 



Introduction to the 1908 Edition 



The Development of Bee Culture in the United States. 



Before the reader plunges into the subject-matter of this work he may be interested in 

 knowing something of the early beginnings and the phenomenal growth of bee culture to 

 its present stage of development. It will not be necessary to trace the early history of 

 apiculture in foreign lands any more than to state that it was not until the invention of 

 movable combs, handled in a very crude way, that the science of bee culture began to take 

 any step forward; and it was not until a little later that the perfected frame of our own 

 Father Langstroth was brought out that bee culture may be said to have assumed any 

 commercial importance in this country. 



In the early '60's bees were kept only in box hives, and in a very small and primitive 

 way. A yield of ten or fifteen pounds of dirty chunk honey per skep was considered a good 

 yield; but after the Langstroth invention, by which the brood-nest of the colony could be 

 investigated and manipulated, yields of anywhere from thirty-five to seventy-five pounds 

 per colony of beautiful honey were common averages, and one hundred or two hundied 

 pounds of extracted nothing extraordinary; indeed, a single colony in a good locality has 

 been known to furnish anywhere from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. While 

 such an output per hive is extraordinary. It goes to show what was made possible through 

 the Langstroth invention. So important was it that it may be truthfully said that the art 

 of keeping bees was almost entirely revolutionized, not only in this country but in many 

 parts of Europe as well. 



In the early '60's the honey-extractor and comb foundation were brought out. Thes^e, 

 together with the invention of the movable frame, lifted bee culture up to a plane where 

 there was '' money in it." Very soon a large number were keeping anywhere from iilty to 

 one hundred colonies. Others began to have a series of out-apiaries running anywhere 

 from five hundred to three thousands colonies. In the meantime bee-supply factories 

 sprang up all over the United States. Thousands and thousands of queen-bees were reared 

 and sent through the mails, to improve stock. Periodicals on bees came into existence; 

 the old American Bee Journal, edited by the lamented Samuel Wagner, a contemporary of 

 Langstroth, did much to expound the ne?, principles in the early days of modern bee cul- 

 ture. Shortly after, Gleanings in Bee Culture, edited by A. I. Root, came into existence. 

 A devoted follower of Langstroth, he threw his whole soul into the keeping of bees So 

 ardent was his enthusiasm that his little quarterly, and shortly after a monthly, grew 

 amazingly; and, even after the editorial management was transferred from father to sons, 

 as noted in the preface, it continued to grow until it now has a circulation of over thirty- 

 three thousand copies. It has passed from the stage of a small monthly to a dignitied 

 illustrated magazine issued twice a month. 



The honey business continued to develop from small beginnings so that there was a 

 total aggaegate of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-live million 

 pounds of honey produced and marketed annually in the United States. These figures can 

 scarcely be comprehended; but if this amount were all loaded into freight-cars it would 

 make a si.lid traiuload, without a break, something like fifty miles long. Some States, in 

 good years, notably California, have been known to produce as much as five and even six 

 hundred cars in a season. Other States will produce anywhere from f-ne hundred to two 



