212 



T'H® mimmmivmm mmm jO'Iprksiu. 



REV. STEPHEN ROESE. 



On this page we reproduce an engraving 

 showing the features and appearance of Mr. 

 S. Roese, of Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, who 

 is one o£ the many successful beekeepers of 

 that progressive State. At our request Mr. 

 Roese has written out a short autobiography 

 for the American Bee Journal, and we 

 present it to our readers. He was left an 

 orphan when only 13 years old, but has 

 fought " the battle of life," and is now 60 

 years of age, having spent much of his life 

 in missionary work among his German 

 countrymen in England and America, en- 

 deavoring to do them good, and help them to 



REV. STEPHEN BOESE. 



a better life. But we will let him tell his 

 story in his own language. He says : 



I was born on July 3, 1829, in the town of 

 Wolira, Electoral Hesse-Cassel. My parents 

 were at one time well-to-do farmers ; my 

 father having served in the great war against 

 Napoleon Bonaparte, from 1806 to 1815, in 

 botn the decisive battles of Leibzig and 

 Waterloo. He was given to strong drink, 

 which brouaht the family to want and loss 

 of home. My good mother died when I was 

 10 years of age, aud my father was acciden- 

 tally killed (while intoxicated) by a wagon 

 being upset in a dug-out road, leaving me an 

 orphan at the age of 13. While standing at 

 my father's grave, and seeing my last 

 earthly hope lowered into its bosom, I gave 

 myself into the keeping of Him, who has 

 promised to be " a father to the fatherless," 

 and vowed sacredly to God, by His help, 

 that as whisky had killed my father, it 

 should never kill me. This promise laid the 

 foundation for my life of total abstinence. 



At the age of 20 I was drafted into the 

 military service, in 1849, at the time of the 

 general revolution in Europe, and my five 

 years of military service was a constant 

 equipment, and moving to and fro during 

 the Crimean war. On petition 1 was granted 

 a furlough to go on a visit to Holland. At 

 Rotterdam I took passage for London, Eng- 

 land, where 1 was in a strange land with a 

 strange language, making my home near 



White Chapel, London. I met with a Ger- 

 man missionary there, whom I assisted in 

 his ardent labors, and helped in the Sunday- 

 school. 



Alter three months in that noted city, I 

 longed to cross the Atlantic, the land of 

 the free, where my sister in Rockland 

 county, N. T., was waiting for me. On my 

 arrival at New York, Oct. 30, 18.55, by recom- 

 mendation of 'the German London Mis- 

 sionary Society, 1 was employed as colpor- 

 ter among the Germans by the American 

 Tract Society. During that four years, I 

 studied and fitted myself for a better work. 

 By experience and change of views, I be- 

 came connected with the Baptist Mission, 

 and entered the services of the American 

 Baptist Publishing Society as missionary 

 among the Germans in the Upper Mississip- 

 pi Valley, from which service I was com- 

 felled, by sickness, to retire two years ago. 

 am now doing Bible work for the same 

 Society, as my health and strength permits. 



For many years I had a longing desire to 

 study the nature of honey-bees, but I feared 

 their stings. At last I became owner of a 

 colony of bees, which I moved in mid-win- 

 ter, and I wonder now how they lived 

 through, for I nearly worried them to death, 

 earrymg them up and down stairs, until, in 

 the spring, hardly a handful of bees were 

 left. They swarmed, but the next winter 

 they all died. 



My desire to keep bees was so strong that 

 I bought another colony the next spring. 

 On taking them home, a distance of 13 

 miles, the roads being miry and bad, I ven- 

 tured to drive on the ice of Lake Pepin. 

 After getting on the ice (I did not know it 

 was springy near the shore), I soon found 

 myself with the horse, buggy and bees im- 

 mersed in water. By the help of some 

 skaters near by, I saved the horse, but my 

 bees could not endure so much water, and I 

 had to purchase another colony ; this, how- 

 ever, lived and did well until the following 

 winter, when they all perished. After that 

 1 obtained a colony of hybrids, and having 

 heard and read of the Langstroth movable- 

 frame hives, and many other improvements, 

 I was not slow to avail myself of these ad- 

 vantages, and I feel grateful for them, in 

 which all modern bee-keepers are partakers, 

 and which the venerable Father Langstroth 

 was instrumental in giving to the world. 



The instructive reading of bee-periodicals, 

 the exchange of thought and experience of 

 bee-keepers, queries and answers, etc., all 

 has a tendency to make bee-keeping one of 

 the most fascinating industries in the world. 

 Show me a successful bee-keeper, and I will 

 show you an intelligent person. 



Intelligence being the moving power in 

 this great onward work, they are a com- 

 bined brotherhood, ready to sacrifice and 

 stand by each other in time of need. Com- 

 paring the tenor of the bee-periodicals at 

 the present date with those of years gone 

 by, it can be truly said that knowledge is 

 increasing. 



Xriple I^ense JMasfnifiers have 

 been so often called for that we have con- 

 cluded to keep them in stock for our sub- 

 scribers to inspect bees, insects, etc. " Sis- 

 ter Gracious," in Vick's Magazine, speaks 

 thus concerning their use by boys and girls : 



They are invaluable in the conservatory, 

 or even with a few plants. For boys and 

 girls they make delightful studies, and 

 arouses in them an enthusiasm for investi- 

 gation. Our active, mischief-loving boy 

 was a whole hour studying a scale insect on 

 an ivy leaf. He said, " I thought they were 

 the homeliest and most stupid of bugs, but 

 with my glass I really see something to ad- 

 mire in them. They don't have legs, but 

 'they get there all the same,' for the 

 mouths all down each side of their bodies 

 suck the sap out of the leaves, and this 

 makes ugly brown spots." And the work 

 of going carefully over each leaf and spong- 

 ing off the insects was more cheerfully ac- 

 complished because he had been so inter- 



Catalogiies for 1889 are on our desk 

 from— 



Gaiani, Bonaghi & Co., Porta, St. Felice, 

 Bologna, Italy— 3 pages— Queen Bees. 



Reynolds Brothers, Williamsburg, Ind.— 

 4 pages— Hatcher for Fowls. 



Wakeman & Crocker, Lockport, N. Y.— 6 

 pages— Machines for Constructing Honey- 

 Boxes. 



W. T. Falconer Manufacturing Company, 

 Jamestown, N. Y.— 20 pages— Apiarian Sup- 

 plies. 



Empire Washer Company, Jamestown, N. 

 Y.— 16 pages— Washers, Wringers, Clothes 

 Racks, etc. 



S. L. Allen & Co., 127 Catharine St., Phil- 

 adelphia, Pa.— .33 pages— Tools tor Farm and 

 Garden. 



ested in studying the creatures' strange 

 ways. Take the magnifier into the garden 

 on a summer afternoon, and the children 

 will be more interested in the wonders it 

 reveals than in fairy stories or old legends. 



Price, by mail, 80 cts. ; or the Bee Jour- 

 nal one year, and the Magnifier, for S1.50. 



Subscribers who do not, receive this paper 

 promptly, will please notif.v us at once. 



The first bank in the United States 

 was the Bank of North America, char- 

 tered by congress at the instance of 

 Robert Morris in 1780, and by the state 

 of Pennsylvania in 1781, with a capital 

 of $400,000. It is still in existence in 

 Philadelphia. 



Convention I^otices. 



g^~ There win be a meetinK of the Susquehaana 

 County Bee-Keepers' Association atTarbeU House 

 In Montrose, Pa., on Saturday, May 4. I H8g, at lu a.m. 

 H. M. Seelkt, Sec. 



U^" The DesMoines County, Iowa, Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will liuld its annual convention In the 

 Court House at Burlington, on April i;:i, 1S89, at 10 

 a. m. All bee-keepers are invited. JOHN NAC, Sec. 



t3^ The 11th annual session of the Texas State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will be held in the apiary 

 of W. R. Graham, of Greenville. Hunt Co.. Tex., on 

 May 1 and 2, 1J<89. All bee-keepers are invited. The 

 last meetinK was held here last May, and was the 

 best ever held. So we look forward to a Kond time 

 next May. A cordial welcome and hospitality will 

 be tendered to all who come. G. A. Wilson, Sec. 



