956 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



al kinds, blossoms just when the maples do, and 

 bees caught on the willows showed their sacs well 

 filled with honey in nearly every instance. These 

 honey-laden bees were found going into the hive 

 with those having pollen from the maple; and as 

 the maples were roaring with bees all of the time, 

 while scarce a hum was heard in the willows, it 

 would be very easy to suppose that the honey came 

 from the maples, had I not tested the matter so 

 thoroughly. It is well known by all close observ- 

 ers, that, when there is much noise made near and 

 about any plant or tree, by the bees, they are not 

 getting much honey; for when there is a profuse 

 honey-yield the bees are not on the wing much, 

 but, on the contrary, are standing still on the flow- 

 ers, sucking up the honey. Pass under a tree 

 where the bees are getting pollen, and you will 

 hear a continuous roar, for the reason that the bee 

 is on the wing much of the time while packing the 

 pollen on its legs. I have only to pass under a tree 

 on which the bees are at work, to tell whether that 

 tree is yielding much honey or not. 



HONEY IN THE BROOD-NEST, INSTEAD OF IN 



SECTIONS. 



By turning to page 585 of the same number of 

 Gleanings, and reading the first paragraph under 

 " Our Own Apiary," the reader will notice what 

 condition the bees were in at the " Home of the 

 Honey-Bees," at the time of year when I always 

 endeavor to have every available cell in my hives 

 filled with brood. No hive ought to be in the con- 

 dition there described during the fore part of the 

 honey-harvest; and if it is allowable to get so, it 

 will give the same results nearly every time that the 

 bees will not go into the sections, the same as we 

 are told that they did not. Even if the season is 

 poor, the first honey should go into the sections, 

 if the bees do not store more than three or four 

 pounds during the season. The brood-chamber to 

 no hive should be larger at that time of the year 

 than is actually required to hold the brood; for all 

 bees, especially the Italians, are prone to store hon- 

 ey in the brood-chamber in preference to the sec- 

 tions, if the queen does not have it occupied with 

 brood when the honey season commences; and if 

 they have room to store thirty or forty pounds in 

 the brood-chamber they will very likely not go into 

 the boxes at all. I have often noticed, that, if the 

 bees start to storing in the brood-chamber to any 

 great extent before entering the sections, such 

 colonies will be unprofitable as far as section hon- 

 ey is concerned. For this reason I take away all 

 combs, not occupied with brood, from the colony I 

 am to put sections upon. Dummies or division- 

 bjards are used to take the place of the broodless 

 combs taken away; and thus when the bees get to 

 storing surplus honey it must go into the sections, 

 as they have nowhere else to put it. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N Y., Dec. 1, 1888. 



Your explanation as to how a young 

 queen may find her old home, under circum- 

 stances related by 8. C. Perry, seems very 

 reasonable : and in the absence of a better 

 one, we are ready to accept it. In y(nir 

 reference to the statement in Our Own 

 Apiary, you seem to forget the difference in 

 locality. You say, " No hive ought to be in 

 the condition there described, during the 

 fore part of the honey harvest." The italics 

 are ours. Our main honey-How, beginning 

 about -June 15, tapers off about the 15th of 



July. Your honey-flow commences, if we 

 are correct, later, but just how much later 

 we do not remember. When we said, on 

 page 585, that " the brood-nests of our colo- 

 nies were about two-thii'ds full," we meant 

 honey, not brood. Perhaps we did not make 

 this clear ; but if you will follow the con- 

 text a little further we think you will see 

 that this was our meaning. At the begin- 

 ning of our harvest, or, rather, just before, 

 every colony had almost every frame filled 

 with brood (see page 407). With the L. 

 frame we rarely have every available cell fill- 

 ed. Two-thirds of the space is occupied 

 with brood ; and the rest, a border next to 

 the top, is filled with honey, if there is any. 

 But in the case in point, only two-thirds of 

 this border space was filled with honey, not 

 brood. 



A. I. ROOT. 



HIS BOYHOOD, AND SOME OF HIS EARLY HOBBIES. 



Xp few days ago we received a letter 

 ^ijl, from Chas. Dadant, saying that he 



jpr had sent an electrotype of a portrait 

 ■^^ engraving of A. I. Root, from his new 

 book now about completed. He also 

 suggested the propriety of inserting the 

 same in the next issue of Gleaning;?, by 

 way of a pleasant surprise to the personage 

 represented, on his return from his West- 

 ern tour. 



A few years ago, when the revision of 

 Langstroth's book was in progress, at the 

 request of the revisers a photo was sent ; 

 this was then placed in the hands of a 

 German, one of the finest wood-engravers 

 in the world. Although I do not consider 

 the reproduction as natural as an Ives 

 would have been, yet for a wood-cut the 

 likeness is quite faithful to the photograph, 

 which was taken some six or seven years ago. 

 Since this time some of the marks of ad- 

 vancing years have begun to manifest them- 

 selves upon his face and hair. 



A. I. Root was born in a log house about 

 two miles north of his present business 

 plant. He was a very frail child, and his 

 father had little hopes of raising him, al- 

 though the neighbors assured him that his 

 wile would not let him die. As he grew 

 older his taste for mechanics and gardening 

 became apparent. Among his early hob- 

 bies were poultry, windmills, clocks, elec- 

 tricity, chemistry, etc. He did not take 

 kindly to feeding pigs, or, for that matter, 

 general farmwork, although he took par- 

 ticular delight in gardening. One of the 

 jobs which he disliked was churning. Ac- 

 cordingly, to appease liis mechanical turn 

 of mind, and at the same time relieve him- 

 self if an irksome task, he constructed a 

 windmill. This was attached to the churn, 

 and the latter, in obedience to the wind, 

 soon converted the cream into butter. At 

 the early age of 18 he became so enthusias- 

 tic on the subject of chemistry and electrici- 

 ty that he started out on a lecturing-tour 

 with a fully equipped apparatus of his own 

 construction. Such an undertaking on the 

 part of a mere boy was rather unusual, but 

 he was not one of the kind wlio followed in 



