300 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



THOSE BIOGRAPHIES. 



Well, before I close I wish to tell you how we like 

 your bee-keepers' biographies by Dr. Miller. It is 

 very interesting to read about all those whom we 

 have known so long by name. The portraits make 

 it doubly so. I was showing them to a friend the 

 other day, and when he came to the editor of 

 Gleanings he laughed aloud. On asking what was 

 the cause, he said, " What a dunce I am ! I see now 

 his name is Amos Ives Root. I always thought he 

 styled himself A. I. because he was a kind of 

 ' double first,' j ust as the best steamships are class- 

 ed 'A I ' at Lloyd's shipping agency," and so he 

 laughed again at his own folly, and said, " But he is 

 A. I., for all that." Amateur Expert. 



England, Feb. 35, 1889. 



Eriend E., your bear-story is a very good 

 one — very ingenious the story is, whether it 

 be true or only fiction. And so you have 

 telegraph-poles made of iron, do you? That 

 is something I never knew before. And so 

 some of the friends across the water 

 thought A. I. Root was vain enough of him- 

 self to call himself " A 1." Why, the very 

 thought of it gives me pain. I feel glad and 

 proud of being one of the people— one of the 

 great mass of humanity ; but I never wish 

 to be considered anywhere or by anybody 

 any thing more than the commonplace indi- 

 vidual which I am. If I thought it possible 

 that anybody else might think so, I don't 

 know but that I should write out my full 

 name every time— Amos Ives Root. Thanks 

 for your friend's concluding remark. 



A. E. MANUM. 



the man who owns TOO colonies in 8 apiaries, 

 and who in 1885 produced 33 tons of 



HONEY. 



TTp UGUSTIN E. MANUM, whose picture is here- 

 5ilb| with presented, was born in Waitsfleld, Ver- 

 ]$M mont, March 18, 1839, consequently he was 

 ^*- fifty years old March 18, 1889. When Mr. 

 Manum was nine years of age his father 

 died, leaving him only the inheritance of a sound 

 mind in a sound body. At an early age he appren- 

 ticed himself to a harness-maker, and afterward 

 continued in the business in the village of Bristol, 

 Vermont, where his home now is, until he abandon- 

 ed it for the bee-business. In 1859 he married Miss 

 Rosilla M. Pierce, the beloved wife and kind moth- 

 er whose death a short time since casts a shade of 

 sadness over the home. 



When the war broke out he enlisted in Co. G, 14th 

 Vermont regiment, as a nine-months' man. He 

 served at the battle of Gettysburg, where his com- 

 rades in line on either side were killed; his own 

 gun was shattered, and he was hit four times. 



In March, 1870, a friend desired to lend him 

 "Quinby's Mysteries of Bee-keeping." Reading 

 the book, his enthusiasm upon the subject was 

 kindled, and he immediately purchased four colo- 

 nies of bees and began the study of apiculture. 

 Having a natural aptitude for the business, and a 

 love for the bees, he was successful from the first. 

 His apiary so rapidly increased, that, at the end of 

 four years, when he had 165 colonies, he sold out his 

 harness-business and began the pursuit as a special- 

 ist. At this time he was using a 4-lb. honey-box. Soon 

 came a demand for a smaller package; and as sup- 



ply-dealers were scarce, he determined to manu- 

 facture them himself. In casting about him for 

 seasoned lumber of a proper thickness, he found, 

 to his great delight, a quantity of poplar plank. 

 The result was a lot of poplar sections, the first 

 ever made. Mr. A. I. Root was much pleased with 

 a sample sent him, and published a description of 

 them at the time in Gleanings. This notice 

 brought in inquiries and orders by the score, and 

 Manum the beekeeper became Manum the supply- 

 dealer. His first order for sections from out of the 

 State was from Mr. L. W. Baldwin, of Missouri, at 

 $11.00 per 1000. Soon the demand for these sections 

 became so great as to call for a more rapid method 

 of manufacture; and Mr. M., having purchased a 

 mill with abundant water-power, invented a ma- 

 chine working automatically, which sawed the sec- 

 tions accurately and so smoothly that many im- 



A. E. MANUM. 



agined them sandpapered. The supply-business 

 and the bee-business soou grew to such proportions 

 that it was impossible to personally manage both, 

 and the factory was, in 1884, sold to the present 

 proprietors, Messrs. Drake & Smith. Since this 

 time Mr. Manum has devoted all his energies to the 

 production of comb honey, increasing his plant un- 

 til his bees now number over 700 colonies in eight 

 apiaries. He always winters his bees out of doors, 

 packed in the "Bristol" chaff hive. For the eight 

 years previous to 1887, his average loss in winter- 

 ing for the entire time was only 3y 2 per cent. He 

 uses exclusively a frame about 11% x 10 inches, 

 outside measure, which he considers the best for 

 practical purposes in his apiaries. His hive, the 

 "Bristol," is almost entirely his own invention, be- 

 ing specially adapted to the perfect working of the 

 system upon which his bees are managed. In 1885 

 his production was 44,000 lbs. of comb honey, an 

 average of 93^4 lbs. per colony, all made in twelve 

 days from basswood. 



Because of the failure of the honey sources the 

 past season, about 14,000 lbs. of sugar syrup was 



