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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 29, 1903. 



There may be some in the room who remember the arti- 

 cles from " Novice " in regard to bee culture. I think a 

 good many of them were blunders, but gradually " Novice " 

 began to get ahead. After I had had my bees two or three 

 years, I decided to abandon them. I think my first failure 

 was in using an extractor a little too severely, and they had 

 little honey to winter on. 



I concluded I would try it once more. I just bent my 

 energies to getting them in good shape. I wintered every 

 one that season. That was a reward for pains and care. 

 Then I made quite a record. I do not remember how much 

 it was. 



About that time I heard that over in Germany they had 

 a honey-extractor. I made the remark that an extractor 

 should be made of metal instead of wood. The German 

 machine was a wooden affair. In a little while I had an 

 extractor constructed all of metal, and then put it on the 

 market. I think this was about war times. I got a ton or 

 more of honey, sent it to Cleveland, and obtained 25 cents a 

 pound. Not quite as much as our friend Harbison got for 

 his car-load of California honey. Of course, that made 

 quite a stir. 



Mr. Samuel Wagner sent me a piece of comb founda- 

 tion made of beeswax. That was the first intimation I had 

 of manufactured foundation. I said it should be made on 

 rollers so that we could make it a mile long, if necessary. 

 In due time Mr. Wagner made some rollers. 



My jewelry business was very good at that time, if I 

 attended to it, but I was off a good deal of the time experi- 

 menting with comb foundation, extractors, etc. I remem- 

 ber Mrs. Root said at one time she wished I would give up 

 the bees. She was very patient and very kind, hut we had 

 no place except around the cooking stove, and if I dropped 

 the wax, and happened to set ray big foot on it, I tracked it 

 on all of her nice carpets. I stewed and freited, and things 

 didn't work. Those who make it now perhaps wonder at 

 my failures, but laying the foundation is not altogether 

 play. 



One night I was so discouraged I was about to give it 

 up. My wife begged of me and said, "If you will give it 

 all up I will never say a word, and will never feel badly 

 about it." I did not know but that was the best advice to 

 take, but pretty soon I began to get ahead. 



About that time I got hold of Quinby's book, "Mys- 

 teries of Bee-Keeping Explained." The first edition was 

 written for the box-hive, and he presented his side of the 

 box-hive so well that I almost thought I would rather be a 

 box-hive bee- keeper. 



Mr. Ouinby described a tube with a plug at each end, 

 for a smoker. 



Then later our good friend Dr. Miller came on to visit 

 me. He was a runner for a music store, or something of 

 that kind. I tried to put him off, but you could not very 

 well hold him off. He suggested to me that possibly rotten 

 wood was a pretty good thing for smoker-fuel ; but after 

 I pretty nearly burned up a hive of bees, I did not know so 

 well about it. 



At the time of his visit I was interested in bee-hunting. 

 I had hired an old veteran in the business to go along with 

 me, and began excusing myself to the Doctor, and told him 

 I was going bee-hunting. He said he would like to go 

 along. I said, "You will get pretty tired." (He is short 

 you know, and his legs are short.) 



Out in the woods I was whistling something. I used to 

 take singing lessons, and I happened to whistle one of my 

 exercises. He said, "That is pretty, isn't it. I composed 

 that." I thought to myself, " What a liar you are. " The 

 Doctor did not say anything, but talked it over pleasantly, 

 because he was used to rough knocks. After we got home, 

 he wanted to know if he might look at my curriculum — my 

 music-book. He said, " You thought I was lying." I guess 

 I was honest enough to say I had. He said, "There is the 

 name— Dr. C. C. Miller. That's mj." We had a very pleas- 

 ant time. I have not time to tell you of all the good things 

 about Dr. Miller, but it has been one of the pleasures of my 

 life to count him as my friend. When we get tired talking 

 bees, he can sing. 



After that I paid him a visit, and what nice times we 

 had talking of bees and bee-culture. 



Before I get through I want to tell you a little story 

 about Langstroth. 



But about Samuel Wagner, the old originator of the 

 American Bee Journal : Other journals were started up 

 about this time. Phoenix-like. There was a clashing of 

 journals of the same name, and Mr. Wagner bought out the 

 others. Then H. A. King started the Bee-Keepers' Maga- 



zine. Then I invested with him in a patent hive. I sold a 

 few hives, and then went back to the Langstroth frame. 



Perhaps I would belter explain that I sent to Mr. Lang- 

 stroth for a frame that was exactly right. I think the 

 frame he sent me was not alike at both ends, or something 

 of that kind. 



About this time I began to tell the people that our 

 honey ought to be put up in one-pound packages, and that 

 the bees ought to put it up for us. They laughed at me, and 

 said I had better make the bees do it. I said I would. 



When I started out to make that one-pound section I was 

 going to make it 4'+ x4'4 xl "s. My first idea was to hang 

 them in a frame that could be hung in the hive — a Lang- 

 stroth frame, with a very little deviation, could hold four 

 sections one way. Since that time they have been made in 

 different dimensions. Some of the bee-keepers have plead 

 with me to try to have the manufacturers of beehives get 

 together, and if they could not do any more, make the 

 frames of one dimension. We are trying very hard to have 

 a system of guages, to guage the sizes of our frames and 

 hives, and everything else, so that no matter whether you 

 buy of The A. I. Root Co. or anybody else, every frame 

 will go just right into every hive. 



Well, after I burned up a bee-hive by using Dr. Miller's 

 plan (I don't know whether he has ever paid me for that or 

 not), Father Quinby came out with a bee-smoker with a 

 little pair of bellows. Pretty soon afterward our good 

 friend Bingham, of Michigan — quite an expert in bees, who 

 has hives of his own — came out with his smoker, and I had 

 gotten up a smoker about that time. Bingham got his 

 smoker patented. I think one of my eccentric ideas was, 

 about that time, that patents were a nusiance. Bingham 

 thought my smoker an infringement on his, and it seemed 

 a tangled-up matter to know whether he was the original 

 inventor. Finally, I said to him, Mr. Bingham, before 

 going into any suit at law (I never had time in my life for 

 lawsuits very much, and what experience I have had in 

 going to law makes me feel as though we ought to doalmost 

 anything else rather than quarrel in that kind of way) — I 

 told Mr. Bingham I would give up ; he might have the 

 smoker. He said, " What are you going to do 7" I said, 

 " We will buy smokers of you, or do anything else that is 

 right." 



Mrs. Root criticised me very severely just then. She 

 said, " You are selling smokers for SO cents. What are you 

 going to do?" I said, "The kind Father above will help 

 me out" I was trying to do what is right and fair. 



About that time John G. Corey invented a smoker on 

 the cold-blast principle, and he mailed it to me with a letter 

 something like this : 



" I have gotten up a smoker better than the old one by 

 far, but, after thinking it over, I have concluded I would 

 rather ^/?'^ it to the bee-keepers of the world than to fuss 

 and bother with anything of that kind, and I don't know 

 but what the best thing to do would be to send it to friend 

 A. I. Root." 



And so I feel grateful to my friend Corey ; as long as I 

 live I shall feel grateful to my friends for their assistance. 



Somehow or other I have been "dead set" against 

 tobacco. Not against men that use it, because some men 

 who use it are better men than I am. One day in the 

 apiary one of them lighted a cigar to blow smoke on the 

 bees. I said, " If you will throw that cigar away and prom- 

 ise not to use it any more, I will give you a bee-smoker." 

 Others said, "And will you give me one, too ?" and I said, 

 "Yes; but you must promise to pay me for the smoker if 

 you break yourpromise to quit smoking." I said, " You can 

 have as many smokers as you please, but it must go into 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, so that your wives and children 

 will know whether you are keeping your promise or not." 



Not long after that I had given away something like 

 1000 smokers. Ministers of the Gospel took the tobacco 

 pledge and took a smoker. My friends said to me, " Why, 

 you will get swamped I These things cost you so much, 

 and if you keep on giving them away you will get 

 swamped 1" I answered, " The good Father above will see 

 me out." Then the daily papers said something like this : 

 " There is a Ouaker chap down in Ohio who offers every 

 man, woman, and child a bee-smoker if they will give up 

 tobacco and take a tobacco pledge." That was quoted in a 

 great many papers, and advertised our smokers until we 

 sold 20,000 in one year at SO cents each— $10,000 ! Some 

 said I was long-headed enough to see I was going to make 

 a speculation out of it, but there was nothing of the sort. I 

 am not long-headed at all. 



Mr. Wagner died, and W. F. Claike took hold of the 

 American Bee Journal, and managed it quite ably for some 



