The American Apicultiirist. 



% lountal ticbot^b to Sncutrfic anb practical gcrlucprnc[. 



ENTEEED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEM, AS SECOXD-CLASS MATTER.* 



Puljlished Monthly. S. M. LoCKE, Publisher & Trop'r. 



VOL. III. 



SALEM, MASS., JANUARY, 1885. 



No. I. 



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ME. QUINBY, AND HIS 

 LIFE- WORK. 



By P. H. Elwood. 



A SCORE of 3^eavs ought to elapse 

 between a man's death and any at- 

 tempt at his biography or estimate 

 of his life-worlc. After the lapse 

 of half that time it is plainly too 

 early to write of Mr. Quinby, for 

 his most intimate friends are just 

 beginning to appreciate his merits 

 as a beekeeper, his rank as an in- 

 ventor, and his worth as a man ; 

 while his detractors and usurpers 

 are just beginning to learn that "it 

 is hard to kick against the pricks" 

 of public opinion and have just be- 

 gun to sink into a well-earned ob- 

 scurity'. Moses Quinby was born 

 in North Castle, Westchester Co., 

 N. Y., April 15, 1810. At the 

 age of fifteen he removed to Greene 

 Co., and three years after bought 

 1 



his first swarm of bees with money 

 earned by working in a saw-mill. 

 Here with nothing to aid him but 

 a common school education, his 

 wondrous love of nature and his 

 remarkable observational powers, 

 he commenced the study of the 

 honey bee. For the first few years 

 he had no bee books to aid him or to 

 lead him astray in his investiga- 

 tions, and later nothing but seven- 

 ty-eight pages by John M. Weeks 

 and Bevan's work. He married 

 in 1832 at which time himself and 

 wife, for not complying with the 

 requirements of their church in 

 marrying, were "disowned" b}^ 

 the Hicksite society of Friends of 

 which they were both birthright 

 members. In 1853 he came to 

 Montgomery Co., where he resided, 

 until his death in May, 1875. He 

 commenced writing his "Mysteries 

 of Beekeeping" in 1851 and pub- 

 lished it in 1853. 



Taking into consideration his 

 surroundings with so few helps at 

 his command, this must be consid- 

 ered one of the most remarkable 

 books ever published in this coun- 

 try. On comparing it witli the 

 edition of 1865 it is surprising to 

 find how little had to be rejected. 

 To show how far he was in advance 

 of his contemporaries, I may be 

 permitted to refer to this work 

 (1) 



