Published by the A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio. 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calvert, Business Manager. 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. Root, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as second-class matter. 



VOL. XLI. 



DECEMBER 1, 1913 



NO. 23 



Editorial 



Reports of extremely warm weather are 

 coming in from all parts of the country. 

 The danger Avill be that stores wiU be Used 

 up rapidly in brood-rearing. Beekeepers 

 will do well to see that their colonies do not 

 starve before spring. 



On page 20 of the advertising section of 

 this issue ^yill be found a letter from N. E. 

 France that will explain itself. He has 

 distributed something over 35,000 books on 

 " Honey as a Food," and now has exhausted 

 the supply as well as his funds. 



E. R. Root expects to make a demonstra- 

 tion in the use of modern extracting ma- 

 cliinei-y, including a power extractor, honey- 

 IJump, .steam knife, and a capping-melter, 

 at Des Moines, Iowa, on the afternoon of 

 Dec. 11. This means, of course, that he will 

 be present at the Des Moines convention 

 Dec. 10, 11, and 12. For full program see 

 Convention Notices on page 20 of our ad- 

 vertising section. 



DONAHEY, THE CARTOONIST, A BEEKEEPER. 



The clever cartoonist of the Cleveland 

 Plain Dealer, Mi-. J. H. Donahey, has been 

 a beekeeper on a small scale for several 

 years. This year he enlarged his apiary 

 somewhat and his interest has increased in 

 proportion. Quite frequently his cartoons 

 show the beekeeper or the bees, and of late 

 he has begun to write an occasional article 

 (signed " Uncle Biff ") on the care of bees, 

 or on some topic doseh^ related. 



Mr. Donahey is a cartoonist whose work 

 attracts the widest attention, and he has 

 already made his reputation along that line. 

 Who knows but that some day he may also 

 make a reputation for himself as a profes- 

 sional beekeeper? He has a good start. 



OUR FRONT COVER PICTURE. 



The front cover of this issue shows the 

 apiary of Mr. Earl M. Nichols, of Lyons- 

 ville, Mass. This apiary has the honor of 

 holding the first Langstroth hive that was 

 ever made. Earl M. Nichols himself is sit- 

 ting in the very spot, as nearly as it can be 



located, where Mr. Langstroth put his fli-st 

 movable-frame hive. In this connection 

 (see p. 853) the reader will be interested in 

 some history concerning W. W. Cary and 

 father Langstroth; and perhaps he may 

 derive soi-Je pleasure in looking at the old 

 original building where the first Langstroth 

 hive was made. 



HOXEY DAY IN INDIANA ; A SCHEME TO BOOST 

 THE SALE OF HONEY. 



In our last issue, under the head of Con- 

 vention Notices, in the advertising section, 

 page 18, we inserted an announcement to 

 the effect that Indiana was to observe " hon- 

 ey day" Dec. 15. ]VIr. G. W. Williams. 

 Redkey, Ind., Secretary of the Indiana State 

 Beekeepers' Association, seems to be the 

 man who is pushing this general scheme. 

 He is prepared to furnish write-ups for the 

 local pjipei-s, and, in addition, large display 

 cards 7 x 11, to put up in groceries, calling 

 attention to honey day, and asking every- 

 body to eat a little honey. He has also sent 

 circular- lettei-s to the secretaries of the 

 various State beekeepers' associations of the 

 country, urging upon them the introduction 

 of a plan similar to this in their own States. 

 The idea is, of course, to induce a larger 

 consumption of honey, not only in Indiana, 

 but throughout the country. A little effort 

 on the part of beekeepers will do much 

 toward calling attention to the value of 

 honey as a food ; and once consumers get a 

 little of the honey habit they will keep it up. 



A NEW MOVING-PICTURE FILM ON BEES. 



Some time last summer the Bureau of 

 Entomology sent Dr. E. F. Phillips and a 

 moving-picture photographer to Medina to 

 catch some scenes of bees in action. A 

 number of pictures had been taken at the 

 government apiary, but Dr. Phillips desired 

 some additional scenes which he could get 

 at a large apiary. The two men spent a 

 couple of days at Medina, during which 

 time they secured some very fine pictures of 

 our men and bees in action. There is a fine 

 picture of a swarm clustering on a tree, and 

 the means taken for hiving the same ; a view 



