1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



15 



Doctor Miller, as he welcomed the associate 

 editor on his visit to Marengo 



of his death, nearly 26 years. In ad- 

 dition to answering questions, he 

 wrote much of the editorial matter 

 and was designated as associate ed- 

 itor, a position which he continued 

 to occupy until after the Journal 

 passed under the present manage- 

 ment. 



Doctor Miller expressed himself as 

 enjoying his work, answering ques- 

 tions, best of all his literary endeav- 

 ors. In addition to his editorial work 

 for this publication, he also conducted 

 a department in Gleanings for many 

 years, as well as contributing fre- 

 quent articles to such magazines as 

 Youth's Companion and Country 

 Gentleman. 



Doctor Miller was the most con- 

 spicuous example of success with the 

 small hive. With the general adop- 

 tion of the 8-frame hive, hundreds of 

 men failed to make a success of honey 

 production, because their brood- 

 chamber was too small to enable the 

 bees to build up to proper strength 

 in time for the harvest. Dbctor Mil- 

 ler used two hive bodies for breeding 

 and later, when the honey-flow began, 

 confined the bees to one hive body, 

 thus forcing them at once into the 

 sections. He was remarkably suc- 

 cessful as a producer of fine comb 

 hone}', and' probably secured the larg- 

 est per colony average for an entire 

 apiary. 



When Dr. Miller explained the 

 shortest cut to successful treatment 

 of European foulbrood he rendered 

 an incalculable service. Up to that 

 time there was much uncertainty con- 

 cerning this disease and the general 

 methods of treatment made matters 

 worse. He met and conquered the 

 disease in a single season, with little 

 available information as to the proper 

 method of treatment. As a student 

 of bee behavior he had few equals. 



One thing that he preached con- 

 stantly was the importance of selec- 

 tion, and breeding only from the best 

 queens. We reproduce herewith a 

 brief exhortation on this point in his 

 own handwriting. 



The pictures accompanying this 

 story were taken by the writer at the 

 time of a visit to Marengo, some 

 months previous to his death. The 

 Doctor took special delight in a bed 

 of gladiolas. Always a lover of fruits, 

 flowers and out-door things in gen- 

 eral, he took to the breeding of 

 gladiolas in his old age. He had 

 some very fine ones and originated 

 some new varieties which might have 

 become commercially popular had he 

 lived to continue this work. In his 

 earlier life he had devoted much at- 

 tention to fruit growing. The lif! 

 farm, just outside Marengo, where he 

 spent most of his life, was at one time 

 largely planted to fruit trees and 

 vines. The approach to his house was 

 lined with a double row of basswood 

 trees, planted for the combined pur- 

 poses of supplying pasturage for the 

 bees and delighting the tree-loving 

 eyes of the proprietor. In the early 

 days of his beekeeping experience, he 

 was employed by a music company 

 and spent three years in the city of 

 Chicago. Those were years of long- 

 ing for the country and the bees on 

 the farm at Marengo. He has writ- 

 ten briefly of that period of his life 

 and mentioned a bunch of weeds that 

 grew in a vacant lot which were a 

 real pleasure to him. His special de- 

 light was a bunch of white clover that 

 grew on Clark street. All his later 

 years at Marengo were much brighter 

 for the three dismal years spent in 

 the heart of a great city. 



Doctor Miller spent a long and tise- 

 ful life of nearly ninety years, sixty 

 years of which he was a beekeeper. 

 He will long be remembered by those 

 who live by the labor of the busy bee. 

 We can add nothing .to his fame and 

 can but poorly express the measure 

 of appreciation of his labors which 

 beekeepers generally agree is his 

 due. 



Already a movement is on foot to 

 erect a permanent monument to his 

 memory. We hope that the sub- 

 scriptions will be liberal and that 



something worthy of his name may 

 be done. 



OUR SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



This is the sixtieth anniversary of 

 the founding of the American Bee 

 Journal, the oldest bee magazine in 

 the English language. The first num- 

 ber appeared in January, 1861 ; an in- 

 opportune time for launching a new 

 enterprise. It will be remembered 

 that the Civil War began in that year. 

 Although the Journal continued 

 throughout the year and completed 

 the volume, it was then suspended 

 until after the close of the conflict, 

 resuming publication in July, 1866. 



At the close of the first year the 

 following announcement was made : 



"With this number (which has been 

 somewhat d'elayed from unavoidable 

 causes), we conclude the first volume 

 of the American Bee Journal, and 

 now announce that the publication 

 will be suspended for a year, and 

 then resumed if the state of the coun- 

 try will admit, and those interested in 

 bee culture desire it." 



The first volume contains many ar- 

 ticles of permanent interest. Dzier- 

 zon's theory of parthenogenesis was 

 outlined at length and the value of 

 the Italian bee was brought promi- 

 nently to the attention of the bee- 

 keepers on this side of the Atlantic. 

 Samuel Wagner, the editor, had made 

 an unsuccessful efTort to import bees 

 from Italy in 18SS, and was probably 

 the first to bring them to the atten- 

 tion of American beekeepers. Mr. 

 Wagner, together with Rev. Lang- 

 stroth, imported some queens in 1859, 

 but the imported stock was lost dur- 

 ing the winter. Their first success- 

 ful attempt was in 1860, when Mr. 

 Wagner and Richard Colvin succeed- 

 ed in getting some queens from Italy. 

 In the meantime, however, S. B. Par- 

 sons had secured a shipment a month 

 earlier, so Mr, Wagner, the first ed- 

 itor and founder of this Journal, was 



Doctor Miller in his apiary toward the end of his active beekeeping career 



