200 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



starteel the Amevimn Bee Journal ; but after 

 l)iiblishin,Q: a very pretty little sheet at the I 

 jiKHlest price of one dollar a year, he was j 

 coinpelled to give it up for lack of patronage. 

 Tlie age was not ripe for it. Tliere it stood I 

 for four or five years, until I waked up to j 

 the subject of bees and honey, as I have told j 

 you. ' I 



As soon as I learned that a bee-journal 

 had been once published. I did not rest until 

 I had all the back numbers. None but one 

 who has passed througli such an experience 

 can imagine with what keen enjoyment I de- 

 voured every page of those first twelve luim- 

 bers. AVhen I get down tlie old books and 

 look them over now, it thrills my heart anew 

 to remember those good old times that I had 

 with them that summer studying Lang- 

 stroth and these twelve munbers while I 

 worked with my bees, and verified, step by 

 step, every thing' laid down in the books. I 

 urged friend Wagner to recommence its 

 l)ublication. lie feared it woidd not pay, as 

 he had already sunk money in the enterprise. 

 I told him I would write for the journal, and | 

 help to make it pay. Of course, I knew 

 nothing of bees, comparatively ; but I pre- 

 sume it is only human nature to be all the 

 more ready to write for The journals. I do 

 not mean by this that it is wrong for these 

 young enthusiasts to feel like writing. I did 

 write, as some of you may remember, and 

 my awkwardness and my blunders not only 

 provoked smiles from some of the veterans. 

 but it stii'red them up to come to my rescue ; 

 and as fast as I got wrong they stra'ightened 

 meup. as ourveterans oughttodo. Of course, 

 I was soon in correspondence with Mr. Lang- 

 stroth; and althongli it was late in the fall, 

 I told him I wanted the best Italian queen 

 lie owned or could get for me. I was a little 

 astonished when 1 found the price was 

 S"20.(iO ; but I thought if queens were worth 

 $120.00 to anybody they certainly ought to be 

 worth that to me, for I was going to be a 

 6i(/ bee-man, and much depends on starting 

 right (you know). 



The queen came by express, and at the 

 same time somebody made me a present of 

 a dog. The express agent delivered both, 

 saving he didn't know whether the " ani- 

 mile " he led by the strap was the $20.00 

 queen, or whether it was in tlie box. The 

 neighbors laughed a good deal at my invest- 

 ment of S20.00 in one single " bug.'' I in- 

 troduced her to a colony I had been ex- 

 perimenting with through the fall ; and 

 when the yellow liees began hatching out, 

 wasn't I happy? llight here I want to em- 

 phasize the fact, that had it not been for 

 kind friends who had more mature sense 

 than I was possessed of in those days of my 

 early enthusiasm, I should have been ship- 

 wrecked in my bee-ventures over and over 

 again. 



Some time in early winter, a sound prac- 

 tical old farmer a f(!W miles out in the coun- 

 try came and imjuired about my Italian 

 bees. lie was a thorough and successful 

 bee-keeper, and had the Langstroth hives. 

 I with great pleasure showed him my choice 

 Italians, while I talked volubly about bees 

 and new races. 1 le admired the little yellow 

 chaps some, but dii not say a great deal. 



After I got through talking he very quietly 

 asked me if I supposed my queen would live 

 through the winter as I had got her fixed. 



" To be sure,"' said I, "why not?'' 



" 2tlr. Root," said he, " I believe you have 

 the first Italian queen ever brought into Me- 

 dina County ; and for the credit of the coun- 

 ty I am a' little anxious she should go 

 through the winter. But if you keep her in 

 tluit little handful of bees. I would not give 

 thai for her," snapping his fingers as he con- 

 cluded the sentence. 



He finally invited me to come over to his 

 house, and he said he would show me what 

 a colony of bees is like, that might be ex- 

 pected to winter over. To tell the truth, I 

 had never seen Q.full colony of bees, and did 

 iu)t know how many it took ; but by his ad- 

 vice my queen was introduced to a good 

 strong colony, and came through all right. 

 Some time toward spring I found a long yel- 

 low bee at the entrance of the hive, and", in 

 great trouble. I pushed her into a quill and 

 mailed it to friend Langstroth. telling him 

 my (lueen was dead. Can you imagine how 

 I rejoiced when he wrote back that the bee I 

 sent was no queen at all. but simply a woi-k- 

 er whose ln)dy was mucli distended and 

 elongated by dysentery? ]My bees wintered 

 pretty fairly', thanks to" the friend mentioned 

 above ; and by purchase I was enabled to 

 start out in the spring with perhaps half a 

 dozen colonies. I increased to about twen- 

 ty; got but very little honey, and lost three- 

 fourths or more of them during the coming 

 winter. Nevermind. I was learning valu- 

 able lessfuis. The next season I did better, 

 and went to work and made i)erhaps the 

 first all-metal honey-extr;>ctor. Some of the 

 readers of the old A. J). J. will remember 

 my ups and downs. At one time I was very 

 miich tempted to give the whole business up 

 in d isgust. I did for a while decide to do so. 

 Perhaps the laughs and sneers of some of 

 those Avho kept saying, " I told you so," was 

 the means of stirring me up to p"rove to them 

 that I was not so much of a crazy fool after 

 all. I went to work carefully and quietly, 

 with the eleven weak colonies remaining 

 after the disastrous winter, and built them 

 up to 48 good colonies in the fall, letting my 

 extractor stand idle for one season. "The 

 48 were all wintered, thanks to the lessons 

 of sad experience. From the 4S I obtained 

 0102 lbs. of honey, and sold the whole crop 

 at a pretty good price. After that I did not 

 have any more notions of giving up bee cul- 

 ture. 



The times were now ripe for a general ad- 

 vance in l)ee c\dlure all along the line. Mr. 

 Harbison was doing big things in California; 

 Doolitth' w;is making a start in York State; 

 fricndAMalion and our worthy president, Dr. 

 Brown, besides many others" I might men- 

 tion licre. were doing their part in the South. 

 Our stalwart frieud^Ir. JNIuth commenced to 

 buy honey, and i)ut it up in bottles in Cin- 

 ciiiiiati. and he stands to-day, jierhaps, the 

 largest dealer in liquid honey in the world. 

 Had it not been for Mr. Muth's industry and 

 energy in putting honey ni)on the market, 

 perhaiis many of us might be in the back- 

 ground instead of where we are now. D. A. 

 Jones had secured such a wonderful crop in 



