1888 



GLEANINGS IN 13EE CULTURE. 



485 



friend Anna, and may the thonght of yonr 

 cheerfulness amid trials we know little of 

 make iis brave and strong. 1 assure you 

 that more than one reader of Gleanings 

 will mentally thank you foi- your hopeful 

 words, and, I trust, breathe a prayer that 

 God may give you grace and strength to 

 bear your lot in life. 



LYMAN C. ROOT. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY P. H. ELWOOD. 



fHE subject oi' this sketch needs no introduc- 

 tion to the readers of Gleanings. For 

 more than a score of years he has been a 

 prominent bee-keeper before the country, 

 and his wide personal acquaintance, his ex- 

 tensive correspondence, and his numerous publish- 

 ed writings have brought him to the knowledge of 

 every wide-awake bee-keeper who reads the English 

 language. To be thus widely known and recognized 

 as the worthy successor of the late Moses Quinby 

 ought to be a source of gratification to Mr. Root, 

 and, in a measure, should repay him for the sacrifice 

 he has made in carrying on the unfinished work of 

 that pioneer bee-keeper. 



LYMAN C. ROOT. 



Lyman C. Root was born in St. Lawrence Co., 

 N. Y., Dec. 19, 1840. The better part of his educa- 

 tion was ol)tained in " brush college;" but before 

 entering this he had two terms in the academj', two 

 in St. Lawrence University, and a course in Bast- 

 man's Business College, where he graduated in 18tJ5. 

 The eight years following he was with Mr. Quinby, 

 for the last five years his partner. It was his 

 privilege to have been associated with him dur- 

 ing what may be called the transition period of 

 modern bee-keeping; during the time of the most 



rapid changes from box to frame hives; the time 

 of the dissemination of the Italian bee, the intro- 

 duction of the honey-extractor, the invention of 

 the (Quinby bee-smoker, the adoption of the one- 

 comb section, and the perfecting of the now Quin- 

 by frame and hive. The various experiments that 

 ended in the adoption of comb foundation were 

 then in progress, and Mr. Quinby could have had 

 no young man with him more enthusiastic and 

 more helpful than the energetic L. C Hoot, who re- 

 leased him from business cares, and gu\e him the 

 needed leisui-e for study and invention. These were 

 golden days for Mr. Quinby, well improved; and 

 for Mr. Root nothing less, as he recalls the impor- 

 tant results obtained. Their supply-business rapid- 

 ly grew to large proportions, and it was common 

 for them to buy from three to five hundred colonies 

 in box hives in the spring, ti-ansfer them to the 

 new hive, and sell them to their customers in the 

 different States. This necessitated a large amount 

 of exhausting work; but at this time Mr. Root 

 knew nothing of sparing himself, and often did in 

 one day what the average man would have taken 

 two days for accomplishing. 



In 1873 it was discovered that a rest was needed, 

 and in the fall of that year he retired from the part- 

 nership and removed to Mohawk. But it seems im- 

 possible for a man of his temperament to rest, and 

 we shortly find him extending his bee-business, go- 

 ing out in the early morning with his assistants to a 

 bee-yard half a dozen miles away, and returning 

 late at night with from two to three or more thou- 

 sand pounds of extracted honey— the same process 

 to be repeated the next day. 



After the death of Mr. Quinby, Mr. Root took his 

 supply-business. To all of this must be added his 

 literary work as regular contributor to the .4.rncri- 

 can AQriculturiU and the Countj'v Gentleman, with 

 frequent articles to all of the bee-journals of the 

 country; his presidency of the North American 

 BceSociety, and of the Northeastern Association, 

 with his long and laborious exertions in establish- 

 ing the latter, and finally his re-writing Mr. Quin- 

 by's book— a task on which he expended a greater 

 amount of careful conscientious work, and which 

 caused him greater anxiety, than though it had 

 been entirely his own. For this last work Mr. Root 

 was peculiarly fitted by his long residence with Mr. 

 Quinby, and knowledge of his methods; and he has 

 performed his task so well that there is to-day no 

 better manual of practical beekeeping in the Eng- 

 lish language. 



In keeping bees Mr. Root has preferred to raise 

 extracted honey, and to keep about forty colonics 

 in a yard. His crop was usually as much per yard 

 as his neighbors' who kept twice the number in a 

 place. The most of this excess was due to skillful 

 manipulations, improved honey - gatherers, and 

 wise selection of locations; but after subtracting 

 all these there probably remains something to be 

 credited to moderate-sized yards. One fall he put 

 into the cellar at the Hildreth yard forty stocks, 

 took the same out in the spring without the loss 

 of a single colony, and produced from them 9737 lbs. 

 of extracted honey, 4103 lbs. of which was gathered 

 in just seven days. Is better evidence needed that 

 I the author of the "New Bee-Keeping " is a practi- 

 cal bee-keeper? 



Mr. Root takes an active part in every good work 

 in the community in which he lives, and he is ready 

 to make any possible sacrifice in working to elevate 



