JULY 15, 1912 



A COLONY THAT AVERAGED $10.00 WORTH 



OF HONEY A YEAR FOR TWENTY-TWO 



YEARS 



BY G. D. ALLENDER 



The illustration shows my ajiiary of 

 black bees, which for gentleness, hardiness, 

 and ability to gather honey, have never 

 been surpassed by any other varieties that 

 have been brought into this locality. For 

 instance, the colony in the hive marked X 

 at the extreme right by the fence has been 

 on the same brood-combs for 22 years. Dur- 

 ing this time it has been fed but once, and, 

 with the exception of two years, has made 

 from $4.50 to $28.00 of surplus honey each 

 year — an average of about $10.00 per year 

 for the whole time. Furthermore, there 

 has been about one swarm for eveiy two 

 years from this hive, on the average. 



Kerens, W. Va. 



L. C. ROOT AS HE IS TO-DAY 



BY DR. E. F. BIGELOW 



Under separate cover I am sending what 

 seems to me a remarkably good photograph 

 of our veteran beekeeper and missionary 

 in beekeeping interests, Mr. L. C. Root, of 

 Stamford, Ct. Please note how clearly the 

 photograph shows even the brood-cells. Mr. 

 Root has been doing good work in this vi- 

 cinity by interesting a large number of 

 people in beekeeping. He talks at various 

 bee-gatherings, and is very active in speak- 

 ing a good woi'd for the bee naturalists. I 

 count myself as primarily his pupil; and 

 through me quite a large number, as you 

 know, have become interested. 



The other photograph* shows Mr. Root 

 teaching a beginner. The man at his left 

 is a workman who, not over an hour before 

 Mr. Root's lesson, went running frantically 

 across the fields stating that no amount of 

 money would get him to go near those 

 things. But this workman was to assist in 

 taking care of the bees, and Mr. Root suc- 

 ceeded in showing him that bees are not 

 such dreadful things as he thought they 

 were. You will observe that he inspired 

 confidence, so that the man came up without 

 gloves or veil, and readily handled the 

 frames. I think this is a remarkable ex- 

 ample of taming a would-be beekeeper, 

 who, like the public in general, had held 

 frightful ideas regarding the terribleness 

 of bees. I 



I wish I could have obtained a "before 

 and after" photograph — that is, it would 

 be interesting to show your readers a pho- 



* Cover picture for this issue. — Ed. 



tograph of this man tearing across the 

 fields, and striking right and left, about aii 

 hour before Mr. Root took him in hand and 

 showed liim that his nervousness and not 

 the bees was his greatest enemy. I recently 

 had a similar exj^erience in teaching a gar- 

 dener who had never been near bees to go 

 up to the hive and take out the frames, 

 without gloves or veil. It is true my man, 

 unlike Mr. Root's, got stung once or twice, 

 but he had nerve enough to say, "And sure 

 you must expect all those things in a life- 

 time, and 1 guess they will feel better when 

 I get used to them." 



Sound Beach, Ct., June 7. 



MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH L. C. ROOT 

 BY A. I. ROOT. 



When Gleanings was started, forty 

 years ago, it was, I regret to say, quite the 

 fashion for bee journals to criticise each 

 other; and not only that, some prominent 

 writers seemed to think that it was right 

 and i^roper to fill the pages of our bee 

 journals, not only with unkind but unnec- 

 essary criticism; and I am sorry to have to 

 own up that your humble servant was giv- 

 en to that sort of thing ; and as an illustra- 

 tion I did one thing I shall always regret. 

 While I reverenced and respected both 

 Langstroth and Quinby (both then living), 

 I criticised father Quinby's hives that were 

 then used largely, and perhaps are still,, by 

 a large number of York State beekeepers. 

 They resented this, and took exceptions to 

 A. I. Root and his "new methods," etc. I 

 believe it was at a York State convention 

 a resolution was passed, to the effect that 

 A. I. Root, with his "dollar queens" and 

 "one-pound sections," was doing more harm 

 to beekeeping than he had ever done good. 

 I think it was about this time, or shortly 

 after, that, through the influence of the 

 Holy Spirit, I got a new glimpse of things, 

 and I started out on a new track. One of 

 my departures was to attend a down-east 

 beekeepers' convention. I can not remem- 

 ber now where it was, but I think L. C. 

 Root occupied the chair. During the fore- 

 noon I had taken part in some of the dis- 

 cussions, and, as a matter of course, show- 

 ed a friendly spirit as well as I knew how, 

 toward the good people who had said unkind 

 things about me (which I no doubt richly 

 deserved) only a short time before. At the 

 noon hour I shook hands and had a friend- 

 ly talk with many of the prominent men 

 present. As the session opened after din- 

 ner I had one of my "happy surprises." 

 Our good friend L. C. Root, so far as I can 

 recall, said something like this : 



"I am sure I voice the sentiment of at 

 least the greater part of our convention, if 



