22 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



GETS AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



In 1869, while away from home, I came across a 

 copy of the American Bee Journal. I subscribed for it, 

 and also obtained the first volume of the same journal. 

 That first volume, containing the series of articles by the 

 Baron of Berlepsch on the Dzierzon theory, has been of 

 more service to me than any other volume of any bee- 

 journal published, and to this day I probably refer to it 

 oftener than to any other volume that is as much as two 

 or three years old. 



Among the most frequent contributors to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal when I subscribed for it were H. Alley, 

 D. H. Coggshall, C. Dadant, E. Gallup, A. Grimm, J. L. 

 Hubbard, J. M. Marvin, M. Quinby, A. I. Root, J. H. 

 Thomas, and J. F. Tillinghast, most of which are well 

 known names a third of a century later. G. M. Doolittle 

 did not appear on the scene till late in 1870. 



A. I. Root, under the noni de plume of Novice, was 

 then just as full of schemes as he has been since, and 

 was trying a hot-bed arrangement for bees, and in my 

 first communication to the American Bee Journal, in 

 1870, I wrote, 'T am waiting patiently for Novice to in- 

 vent a machine for making straight worker-comb ; for as 

 yet I have found no way of securing all worker-comb, 

 except to have it built by a weak colony." At that time 

 he probably little thought that he would come so near 

 fulfilling my expectations, sending out tons upon tons of 

 foundation. 



ATTEMPT AT COMB FOUNDATION. 



I made some attempts myself in that line, simply 

 with plain sheets of wax. I poured a little melted wax 

 into a pail of hot water, and when it cooled I took the 

 sheet of wax and gave it to the bees. It was not an 

 immense success. I dipped a piece of writing paper into 

 melted wax, and gave to the bees in an upper corner of a 

 frame where no brood was reared, and for vears vou 



