706 



GLEANINGS IN BEB CULTURE 



Nov. 15 



in this country. He was born March 14, 1836, 

 and is now, in his 74th year, one of the grand 

 old men of the bee-keeping fraternity. In 

 his early life, while he was a teacher, he was 

 initiated into the mysteries of bee-keeping 

 by his brother Nelson. He assisted his 

 brothers in getting out their "Hints to Bee- 

 keepers," and also "The Bee-keeper's Text- 

 book." The former had a sale of 35,000 

 copies, while the latter ran up to over 55,000, 

 and had the largest sale of any bee-book up 

 to the advent of "The A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture." The last edition of the book was 

 revised and brought out by the subject of 

 this sketch in 1878, at which time he was 

 editing The Bee-keeper's Magazine in New 

 York. 



While in New York, Mr. King demonstrat- 

 ed that it was entirely practicable to keep 

 bees successfully in a big city right on the 

 top of tall buildings. He was not only able 

 to care for an increasing nnmber of colonies, 

 but he made them pay, for he produced 

 much honey of good quality, and reared 

 queens for his own use and for sale. He 

 had 40 colonies on the top of the American 

 Express Company's building, 35 on the Five 

 Points Mission building, and 100 colonies on 

 the roof of the building where his office was 

 located. 



Before going to New York, or about 1870, 

 he was engaged with his brothers in Ohio in 

 publishing The Bee- keeper's Journal and Ag- 

 ricultural Repository. If I remember correct- 

 ly, it was about this time that Mrs. Ellen S. 

 Tupper, who was probably the most gifted 

 and at times, perhaps, the most erratic 



Biediger's method of preparintj hive-bodies for the 



purpose of fumigating to kill wax-worms. See 



Bee-keeping in the Southwest, this issua. 



Hives covered with a large wet cloth for confining the 



fumes of carbon bisulphide to kill wax-moths. 



See Bee-keeping in the Southwest, this issue. 



woman to devote her talent to apiculture, 

 wrote for the bee-papers, and was a regular 

 contributor to the King publications. With 

 his brother Homer, Mr. King bought the 

 National Agriculturist, and changed the name 

 to the National Agriculturist and Bee Journal. 

 In the fall of 1872 the first number of The 

 Bee-keeper's Magazine appeared, and was 

 published monthly therearter for some fif- 

 teen years, I believe. It was a nicely gotten- 

 up magazine, was well edited, and had quite 

 an array of able contributors, some of whom 

 are still living. 



In the middle 80's Mr. King sold his inter- 

 est in the apiarian-supply business, also the 

 magazine and his several roof -apiaries. The 

 larger apiary was bought by the Casanova 

 Bros., who moved it to Cuba, where it was 

 increased to 800 colonies by the superintend- 

 ent, Mr. A. W. Osborn, a warm personal 

 friend of Mr. King. Receiving a flattering 

 offer from Glenn Bros., of Cuba, we next 

 find Mr. King superintending their apiaries 

 at Puerto Principe and vicinity. Previous 

 to this time he had been sending Italian 

 stock and supplies to Cuba. Returning to 

 the United States in 1890, he was for a time 

 located near Phoenix, Arizona, and in 1897 

 he moved to San Diego, where he now re- 

 sides. In all those years he has been, in 

 some manner or other, connected with bee- 

 keeping, having as many as 600 colonies to 

 look after some seasons. 



Oakland, Cal. 



