1886 



GLEA:^^LVG}S IN B££ CULtViit. 



251 



be obllg-ed to wait until another time. T hope others 

 will criticise the above. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogeraville, Genesee Co., Mich. 



A VISIT TO L. C. ROOT. 



SOMETHING ABOUT THE W.VY FRIEND ROOT WIN- 

 TERS HIS BEES. 



TN fiilflllmeut of a lony-cherished wish and pur- 

 ijp pose, I went east, after the recent Rochester 

 ^r bee-meeting', to Mohawli, and spent a couple 

 "*■ of days with L. C. Root, son-in-hiw of the late 

 Moses Quiiiby, and e.\ -president of the Nortli- 

 Araerican Bee-Keepers' Association. Mohawk is a 

 pretty little Ne\v-Enj>land-looking- village in the 

 valley of the Mohawk River, from which it takes 

 its name. It must be lovely in the summer-time, 

 embowered in trees, environed with hills, and with 

 the beautiful stream just named flowing- through 

 it. Mr. Root lives in a neat story-andhalf house on 

 the edgre both of the river and village. Needless to 

 say, 1 received a warm 1-irother bee-keeper's wel- 

 come. The familj' consists of Mrs. Root, two 

 daug-hters, yet in the bloom of girlhood, and the 

 widow Quinby, a bright, cheery, intelligent lady, 

 young-er looking- than I expected to find lier. 

 Though a veritable member of the family, always 

 with them at meal-times, the widow spends most 

 of her time in a spacious parlor bedroom upstairs, 

 the most conspicuous object in which is a large 

 picture of her late husband, having a most lifelike 

 look, and wearing the calm, placid cxpressioii so 

 characteristic of the orig-inal during life. I could 

 have imagined I had seen him but yesterday, 

 though it was in 1871 I last mtt him, at the Cleve- 

 land meeting- of the N. A. Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, when, though president, his native modesty 

 impelled him to vacate the chair, and insist on its 

 being filled by myself, as one of the vice presidents 

 —he felt so much more comfortable, he v>lciided, sit- 

 ting in a less conspicuous place. It w-as intended, 

 as a memento of the love and esteem cherislied for 

 his memory by those present at the Detroit Con- 

 vention, in December last, that the ))reseiit to his 

 widow, then and there got up, should take the form 

 of a portrait of Mr. Quinbi'; but when I saw the one 

 that had hung- so long on the wall of the piii-ior 

 bedroom I felt that it could not be superseded or 

 displaced by any substitute. So the committee that 

 had the matter in hand, being made aware of this, 

 concluded to present a book. The one chosen was 

 " Lord's Landmarks of History," a large-typed, beau- 

 tifully bound work, in five volumes, I think. Mrs. 

 Quinby prizes it much, si)ends considerable time in 

 studying- it, and is grateful for the tangible proof 

 of respectful remembrance, both of her precious 

 dead and of herself, to which it testifies. May she 

 pass a long, quiet evening of life in the bosom of 

 the family that loves her so well for her own sake, 

 and for the sake of the long-sinco departed one, 

 whose memory is still, and will continue to be, green 

 and fragrant, not only in the recollection of his im- 

 mediate descendants, but of all bee-keepers, wheth- 

 er they knew him personally, or only by his well- 

 earned fame as one of the pioneers and apostles of 

 modern apiculture 1 



Of course, mj' visit was chiefly for the purpose of 

 gleaning all I could from the field of thought and 

 experience in which Mr. Root has labored so con- 

 spicuously and honorably for many years. But 



bee-talks are almost unreportable, especially when 

 the convention consists of only two members. I 

 had the opportunity of inspecting Mr. Root's meth- 

 od of wintering, and the condition of his bees at 

 that time. The close-ended frames arc tied together 

 and set on a bottom-board, having a large circular 

 hole in the center. On top of the frames is a fac- 

 torj'-cotton cover. The compact sets of frames are 

 stacked one above another with considerable space 

 between tiers, admitting- of inspection from below; 

 and it was an interesting sight to see the clusters of 

 golden-banded insects hanging down, in some cases 

 even with the bottom-board, or even still lower down. 

 Then til rning aside the cloth cover, it was evident 

 that the frames were full up to the trim, indicating 

 strong stocks. With the thermometer at 40°, the 

 bees were very quiet— hibernating, I should say- 

 certainly in repose. These colonies, about 60 in 

 number, were in a portion of the cellar partitioned 

 off for their exclusive use, and right under the liv- 

 ing-room, where a base-burner coal- stove is going 

 day and night. Beside the stove is an auger-hole 

 through the floor, sulliciently large to admit the 

 passage of a small round thermometer, whose rec- 

 ords are daily noted and recorded. A number of 

 other colonies are housed in a repository not far 

 from the house. These we did not examine, for 

 they were rather uneasy, and Mr. Root feared the 

 temperature was a liltle too high, though not so 

 high as Mr. Barber tells us his bee-cellars often are. 

 Mr. Root has a couple of out-apiaries, as he consid- 

 ers his home field overstocked, there being over 1000 

 colonies within a three-mile radius. He finds the 

 care of these out-apiaries veiy laborious, and ques- 

 tions if it pays to keep j ards so far away from one's 

 residence. 



Mr. Root kindly drove me over to Frankfort, a 

 little village about five miles distant, where lives 

 an old friend of mine, Hon. Harris Lewis, who has 

 for many years paid an annual visit to Canadian 

 dairy conventions, at which his presence is grt^atly 

 prized. Taking- an interest in dairying as well as 

 bee-keeping, myself, I have usually assisted at 

 these meetings, and spent many pleasant hours 

 with Mr. Lewis, both in public and in private. Mr. 

 Lewis used to keep bees many jears ago; and as the 

 heathenish insects were then, as now, very apt to 

 swarm on Sundays, he was in the habit of staying 

 home from church to watch them. A Baptist min- 

 ister in the neighborhood had commenced bee- 

 keeping with a single hive; and since Mr. Lewis was 

 staying home from church anyway, asked leave to 

 bring his one hive, that they might be watched 

 along with the rest. Leave was gr|ven, and the 

 minister's hive stayed all summer, but did not 

 swarm. In the fall he asked Mr. Lewis how he 

 could get the bees out of the hive, so as to rifle it of 

 the honey. Mr. L. told him if he would lift it off 

 the bottom-board, and wheel it home on a wheel- 

 barrow without any bottom, he thought the bees 

 would all be out of it by the time he arrived. The 

 minister came with his bottomless barrow on which 

 the hive was quickly placed, he starting on his du- 

 bious journey, and Mr. Lewis to go indoors and 

 roll on the floor with laughter at the mischievous 

 joke he had played on the poor parson, who soon 

 returned in a sorry plight, for he had not been wise 

 enough to walk ahead of his vehicle. The conse- 

 quence may be better imagined than described. 

 Mr. Lewis helped him smother the bees lemalning- 

 in the hive, and make a new start with the hive 



