FEBRUARY 1, 1913 



101 



Our Homes 



A. I. BOOT 



Blessed »re they which do hunger and thirst after 

 righteousness, for they shall be filled. — Matt. 5:6. 



And in his law doth he meditate day and night. 

 — Psalm 1:2. 



Oh how I love thy law ! it is "my meditation all 

 the day. — Psalm 119:97. 



Dear friends, our Medina people have 

 asked me to dictate a Home paper concern- 

 ing the way in which Gleanings was start- 

 ed forty years ago, to go along with these 

 letters of those who have taken Gleanings 

 forty years or more, as given in this issue. 

 May God help me to deserve better the 

 many kind words that have come in these 

 letters from so many of the old veterans. 

 The names as I glance over them seem so 

 familiar it is hard for me to realize that 

 forty years have passed since I first became 

 acquainted with the writers. I should like 

 to send a kind message to each one person- 

 ally if the space permitted. 



I have before remarked, that all through 

 my life I have greatly enjoyed the work of 

 hunting up God's gifts; and I believe I 

 speak truly when I say that I enjoy even 

 more passing these gifts along to others. 

 Some of you may think strange to notice 

 the beautiful texts which I have chosen to 

 head this short autobiography. Now, while 

 I agree that the main purpose and meaning 

 of these texts applies to spiritual things, 

 yet I also feel that they may apply to our 

 daily life, and to the industry in which we 

 are engaged. If our industry and occupa- 

 tion are for the benefit of humanity, we are 

 indirectly seeking the kingdom of God and 

 his righteousness ; and we have a right to 

 appropriate these beautiful texts to the 

 lives we are living and to the calling we 

 are following. 



I have told you in the preface to the A 

 B C book liow it was that my attention was 

 first started toward bee culture. When my 

 father moved on to the old farm in Medina 

 County, when I was about twelve years old, 

 I was much interested in gardening, espe- 

 cially in studying the catalogs and testing 

 the new fruits, seeds, etc. Finally I sub- 

 scribed for and read with great attention a 

 little periodical called the Northern Farmer. 

 It was edited by T. B. Miner. One of the 

 writers in this issue refers to Miner and 

 his book on bees. I think I got the book 

 and was planning to get some bees ; but for 

 different reasons it was put of¥ until some 

 yeai-s after my marriage and I had a home 

 of my own. The ABC book tells you 

 briefly what happened at that time. After 

 the truant swarm of bees was captured, and 

 I had begun to make them my study, in my 

 ignorance in regard to their management 



they soon swarmed out; but my enthusiasm 

 was so much aroused it was not to be stop- 

 ped by this occurrence. I found a neighbor 

 about half a mile away who consented to 

 sell me an old box hive. With some ropes 

 it was hung on a pole one night after dark, 

 and a kind friend assisted me in carrying 

 it about half a mile to my own home, where 

 it was placed in the loft of the woodhouse. 

 To make sure, I was up before daylight 

 and watching to see the first bee make his 

 appearance and start off. I rather think 

 it took some calling to get me to come to 

 breakfast, because I was anxious to see the 

 first bee return with a load of pollen or 

 honey. From that time forward bees were 

 a craze with me. I was at the time a 

 watchmaker and jeweler; but every old 

 farmer who came into my place who knew 

 any thing of bees or had ever kept bees was 

 13umped until he was, I fear, sometimes glad 

 to get away. I borrowed (and later sub- 

 scribed for) about all the farm papers pub- 

 lished at the time, in order to find out all I 

 could about bees and bee culture. The 

 American Agriculturist, by the Orange Judd 

 Company, was then my particular refer- 

 ence. I made an early trip to the city of 

 Cleveland, and carefully looked over all the 

 books and every thing else they had in re- 

 gard to bees. I think that it was exceed- 

 ingly providential that I got hold of and 

 chose " Langstroth on the Honeybee." I 

 soon found that Langstroth was still alive, 

 and through him got in touch with Samuel 

 Wagner. I learned that the American Bee 

 Journal that had been published for two 

 years was stopped on account of the war. 

 After some correspondence with friend 

 Wagner I got him to recommence the pub- 

 lication, promising to write for it regularly. 

 Several of the friends in the above letters 

 allude to these letters written under the 

 nom de 'plume " Novice." 



In my search for knowledge in regard to 

 bee culture I soon ran against certain pat- 

 ent-liive men. I visited A. J. King at his 

 factory in Nevada, Ohio, and bought an 

 individual right and took the agency for 

 the American hive. When I afterward sug- 

 gested to the American Bee Journal that 

 King's American hive was an improvement 

 on the Langstroth hive, my good friend 

 Wagner took me to task, explaining why 

 movable frames were better than frames 

 at fixed distances. 



Later on, under the signature of " Nov- 

 ice," I attacked various patent hives, show- 

 ed up their defects, and why they were 



