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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



hand at that time, rather than have a lesser 

 number at all times. 



With the above, comes the necessity for 

 each individual beekeeper to have a thoro 

 knowledge of just the source from which all 

 nectar comes. It is all right to read and 

 consider the experience of others, but each 

 man or woman must thoroly understand the 

 conditions of their locality, and govern 

 themselves accordingly, before they can hope 

 for the best of success. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. _ 



[It is with regret and sorrow that we have 

 to announce to our readers that we have 

 now printed the last of the ' ' Conversations 

 with Doolittle." A half dozen of these, pre- 

 pared by Mr. Doolittle before his death last 

 June, have apjieared in Gleanings since the 

 famous beekeeper completed his earthly la- 

 bors. But the pen has now dropped from 

 the lifeless hand, and he will appear no more 

 in these pages save as a quoted authority 

 and memory. — Editor.] 



A LIFE BEAUTIFUL 



A Tribute to the Late G. M. Doolittle by a Pastor 

 and Close Friend 



Nineteen years since I began a four years' 

 pastorate in the Methodist Episcopal Church 

 at Borodino, N. Y. This is a rural hamlet 

 credited with a population of about 150 peo- 

 ple. One of the first men whose acquaintance 

 I made was G. M. Doolittle. He lived a 

 mile distant and was connected with a Bap- 

 tist church a little farther on. I had met 

 him and learned of his standing as a bee- 

 keeper and writer on bee topics while I 

 was located on an adjacent charge a few 

 years before. We look to each other as 

 congenial friends and brothers beloved. The 

 friendship has lasted. For 15 years I have 

 seen neither place nor people, but have kept 

 in touch with him by correspondence. He 

 was large in body, mind, and soul. With- 

 out offspring, he reckoned himself indebted 

 to humanity to the extent of the good he 

 could do. One of his quiet kindnesses was 

 support of a crippled English widow. He 

 proposed to the town board to meet half 

 the expense of her keeping instead of al- 

 lowing her to be sent to the poorhouse. The 

 board failing to meet the suggested half, 

 he paid her board in the home of a widow 

 who needed a companion. His wife was 

 lame from childhood. His courtship was 

 discouraged by his friends. He replied that 

 he liked her all the better for her misfor- 

 tune. It was always told that he never 

 gave her an unkind word, and that it was 

 his custom to prepare and serve her break- 

 fast. Six years ago she had a shock of 

 paralysis. Since then he had cared for her 

 as a child. 



My first conversation with Mr. Doolittle 

 followed a funeral service at which I had 

 spoken on the subject of immortality. He 

 expressed his appreciation, and said: "Call 

 on me next summer, and I will demonstrate 

 its truth from the inside of a beehive. '* I 

 never went there for that purpose, but often 

 called, usually finding him in fit weather 

 with his bees. 



The main part of the farm on which he 

 was born had been sold. He retained 20 

 acres, most of which was covered with a 

 basswood grove, for a windbreak. There 

 he built his needed buildings, together with 

 a house for his mother and maiden sister. 

 Here he had his queen-breeding establish- 

 ment, consisting of about 60 colonies or 

 nuclei. Three miles distant was his out- 

 apiary used for the production of honey. I 

 often found him manipulating the queen- 

 rearing nuclei. He would get a veil for me, 

 and together we would visit. He could 

 demonstrate and explain the work as well as 

 do it and write about it. 



It was unpopular in Borodino to hitch 

 horses to posts on the street. So, on his 

 daily visits to the postofiiee, his horse was 

 driven into one of the sheds back of the 

 church and parsonage. Our mail went out 

 at noon, and I knew when to look for him — 

 from 11 to 11:30 a. m., in time to mail the 

 day's quota of queens. He claimed one- 

 fourth of the business of the local postof- 

 fice, while it was locally conceded to be one- 

 half. He often told me that he sold all he 

 could produce by advertising one-half the 

 year in Gleanings. 



I could say much, as my heart dictates, 

 about him as I knew him — cheerful, friend- 

 ly, capable, successful, public-spirited, spirit- 

 ual, good, true — one of God 's noblemen 

 whose presence was a constant proof of the 

 immortality of the soul. 



Akron, 6. E. E. Huntley. 



REMARKABLE WINTERING EXPERI- 

 ENCE 



Bees With Lots of Ventilation Wintered in a Wet, 

 - Frozen Cellar 



Dr. C. C. Miller's remarks on tempera- 

 ture in the cellar, page 667, November 

 Gleanings, makes me think that perhaps my 

 experience might help to decide which was 

 more important, fresh air or temperature. 

 Last year I sold the farm expecting to move 

 into the village. When I was ready to move 

 there was not a vacant house in the village, 

 so I rented a place a mile out. I moved my 

 bees into the cellar of that house on Nov. 

 15. Soon afterward the weather turned cold 

 and to my astonishment froze everything 

 freezable in the cellar. Apples and vegeta- 

 bles were frozen solid, and nothing entirely 



