278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



at St. JoliDsville. The name of that town 

 still has a charm for me, different from any 

 other on the face of the whole earth. 



Leaving the train at the station I soon 

 found the uniDretentious home of Moses 

 Quinby, and introduced myself to him as 

 well as m}' embarrassment would permit. I 

 found him, with the assistance of L. C. 

 Root, engaged in the somewhat prosaic 

 work of feeding bees. His method of feed- 

 ing was cjuite different from any thing I 

 had ever heard of, and I will give it. 



One or more combs were laid down flat 

 in a tank, and sugar syrup or honey poured 

 upon them from above in such a way as to 

 fill the cells. Then the combs were turned 

 over and the other side filled. After the 

 surface honey had drained off they were 

 given to the bees in exchange for empty 

 ones, and the job completed at once. I have 

 used this method several times in early 

 spring when I had no combs of honey to 

 give to colonies short of stores. This season 

 had been a very poor one in that part of 

 New York. Mr. L. C. Root told me at that 

 time that not a single wild colony would 

 survive the following winter, and, as . a 

 consequence, there would be no difficulty in 

 rearing purely mated Italian queens. 



I was invited to take dinner with his 

 family, and was duly introduced to Mrs. 

 Quinby and a daughter. There was one 

 thing that puzzled me; and that was to 

 determine the relationship of L. C. Root to 

 the family. Was he just a helper, or was he 

 a son-in-law to Mr. Quinby? I had never 

 heard of him before. I thought it would 

 not be quite the thing to inquire, and so 

 the puzzle remained ; but of one thing I 

 felt sure — that if he was not a son-in-law 

 he was likely to become one at an early 

 date. 



To the east of the Quinby home the 

 ground rose quite steep from the Mohawk 

 Valley, and the ground had been terraced 

 and set to grapes, which were then ripen- 

 ing.* After dinner Mr. Quinby went out 

 with a large basket on his arm to gather 

 grapes for an hour or two. This gave me 

 an opportunity to visit with him without 

 interruption, and I appreciated it most 

 fully. I told him of the extractor I had 

 made, and with which T had secured 240 



lbs. of honey during the preceding summer 

 from one colony. He told me of making 

 one himself, using the gearing of an old 

 fanning-mill for his extractor, and showed 

 me a i^art of it ; but the season had been 

 so poor he had not used- it. 



He told me of a young friend of his who, 

 he thought, had met with unusual success, 

 and urged me to visit him, I thought I 

 could not at that time, but did later, and 

 found him to be none other than Capt. J. E. 

 Hetherington. He told me also of his 

 brother, D. W. Quinby, of New York, who 

 was a commission merchant, and to whom 

 it was safe to consign honey for sale, and 

 to whom later I shipped many tons of 

 lionej^ 



The latter part of the afternoon, he with 

 Mr. L. C. Root went over a lot of small 

 nucleus hives, looking for young laying- 

 queens. I noticed that he used no smoke, 

 'and seemed to get along very well — rather 

 better than Mr. Root did. 



The impression INfr. Quinby left on my 

 mind was that of a kindly, elderly man, not 

 as talkative as some beekeepers I have 

 known, but all he said was to the point, and 

 had w^eight. He seemed glad to help a 

 beginner in beekeeping — glad to let his 

 light shine rather than to cover up what he 

 had learned lest others should profit by it, 

 although he made no display of his superior 

 knowledge and experience. 



That Mr. Quinby laid the foundations 

 broad and deep for practical beekeeping on 

 an extensive scale there can be no doubt. 

 He cleared away the fogs and mists of igno- 

 rance that hung over the mysteries of the 

 hive, by his own investigations and expe- 

 rience. 



The younger generation of beekeepers 

 have no conception of the ignorance of the 

 average beekeeper sixty years ago. Ful- 

 ton's Clermont, that steamed proudly up 

 the Hudson over a hundred years ago, at 

 the rate of five miles an hour, would not, 

 doubtless, serve as a perfect model for a 

 modern liner; but the success of this ex- 

 periment laid the foundation of navigation 

 by steam. The progi'ess of beekeeping has 

 gone forAvard from similar liumble begin- 

 nings. 



Middlebui-v, Vt. 



LANGSTROTH AND QUINBY COLABORERS IN PIONEER BEEKEEPING 



BY W. P. ROOT 



T trust I shall not be making the personal beekeepers, have more keenly enjoyed for 



equation too prominent when I say that thirty years an opportunity to witness the 



very few persons, even among practical development of on idea or system whicli 



* See Fig. 2, page 268. oucc engrossed the attention of the man 



