GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



greatly inferior to the Langstroth hive; 

 and, among other things, I advised against 

 the use of the American hive in place of 

 Langstroth's. Mr. King at this time in his 

 journal, The Beekeepers' Magazine, ac- 

 cused* me of " shooting poisoned arrows in 

 the dark" because I didn't sign my full 

 name, A. I. Root, to my communications. 

 I soon got track of Italian bees, and 

 found the only queen that was to be purchas- 

 ed so late in the season (for it was then 

 along in the fall) Avas one in the possession 

 of L. L, Langstroth, for which he wanted 

 $20.00. I told you in my A B C book how 

 I sent off my $20.00 and watched anxiously 

 for the bee. Of course I became the laugh- 

 ing-stock of friends and neighbors for pay- 

 ing $20.00 for a single bug; but later on, 

 when I secui-ed a barrel of honey from one 

 single colony of Italian bees in one sum- 

 mer, people who criticised concluded there 

 must be method in my madness after all. 



Of course, my success was written up in 

 the American Bee Journal as well as in our 

 Medina paper. Interest in bee culture start- 

 ed up there and then. 



Let us take up my fii'st text right here. 

 While it can not be said that I was literally 

 hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 

 I was in reality hungering and thirsting to 

 know more about bee culture. It was my 

 study and my theme day and night. Not 

 only were books and papers read, but an 

 observatory hive was placed in the window 

 where I slept, and I spent a great part of 

 every night in watching them by lamplight. 

 I saw the queen-cells built, saw the queen 

 emerge from her cell, saw her take her 

 wedding-flight, witnessed her return, with 

 the evidence of impregnation, and none but 

 those who have passed through a similar 

 exjierience can realize with what joyous 

 enthusiasm I verified the statements in the 

 books. I began to get a library of all the 

 books published that I could get hold of — 

 not only standard works but those put out 

 by patent-hive venders. I soon commenced 

 the task of sifting the wheat from the chaff. 

 I can not recollect now that I had any par- 

 ticular desire to benefit humanity, though 

 I improved bee culture. This is true, how- 

 ever: I have all my life, I believe, been 

 against any sort of work or system to de- 

 fraud humanity, especially the honest till- 



* In later years this same Mr. King, overlooking 

 or forgetting the past, possibly seeing that A. I. 

 Root's judgment concerning the relative merits of 

 the two kinds of hives was correct, wrote my father 

 a very kind and appreciative letter. The verdict of 

 later j'ears was and has been, unquestionably, in 

 favor of the Langstroth frame and hive, while the 

 King hive and frame have been all but forgotten. 

 The King frame was almost immovable after it was 

 well glued up with propolis. — E. R. R. 



ere of the soil. When I saw what was being 

 done in the way of patent hives, I proceed- 

 ed to investigate and protect the honest 

 people who had no money to spare where 

 there was no need of sparing it. At the 

 time the war broke out, I was manufactur- 

 ing silver jeweh'y, and had quite a number 

 of hands in my employ. I collected my 

 agi'icultural books and papers and set a 

 clerk to work to hunting up the addresses 

 of as many people as she could find that 

 were interested in bee culture. After having 

 read of the German honey-extractor, and 

 seeing a rude cut of one, I set about making 

 one, and the bari'el of honey that I secured 

 from a single hive in a single season was 

 by the use of this old metal honey-extractor. 

 When I saw what the Italian bees might 

 do I said, " Friends, the time is coming 

 when honey will be on sale (like butter and 

 eggs), not only at every corner gxocery, but 

 every day in the year." I have lived to see 

 this almost verified; and with our new par- 

 cel post it may be more than verified. 



It soon became necessary for me to have 

 a printed list of the things in regard to bee 

 culture that I had for sale, and new editions 

 of this price list were needed so frequently 

 that I finally decided, in order to save an 

 endless correspondence, I would have to 

 get out a quarterly bee journal. The first 

 number was accordingly sent out to as 

 many addresses as I could collect in the 

 way which I have indicated. I believe it 

 was also advertised in the American Bee 

 Journal, the journal I had been writing for, 

 for a year or more i:)ast. The price of the 

 quarterly was to be 25 ets. per year; but 

 it was almost immediatelj' received with 

 such enthusiasm that I changed it to a 

 nijonthly at 75 cts. per year, almost before 

 the second number. Since then the gTowth 

 has been steadily upward. It is still grow- 

 ing now in its 41st year. I believe there 

 has never been a time or a year in which 

 the subscription for any one jeav was less 

 than it had been for the year before. I 

 visited Mr. Lang-stroth in those early days, 

 and he paid frequent visits to our place in 

 Medina; and many were the long talks and 

 pleasant hours that we spent together. 



Let me digress a little right here. My old 

 mother used to make visits frequently at 

 our home and look over my bee-books and 

 the bees, and listen to very talks on bee cul- 

 ture. While she was not particularly inter- 

 ested in bee culture, she was always from 

 first to last deeply interested and full of 

 enthusiasm in seeking the kingdom of God 

 and his righteousness. 



Let me go back still further in my story. 

 When I was two or three years old, and 



I 



