1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



2o 



ers, including the subscriber. I often think of the 

 pleasant time I spent at your place a few years ago. 

 Hendersonville, N. C, Dec. 21. J. L,. Hubbard. 



In last Gleanings you invite the oldest subscribers 

 to stand up and be counted. Well. I have had a copy 

 of every page of Gleanings that was ever issued; and, 

 if memory serves me well, 1 was a deeply interested 

 reader of "Novice" in good old Uncle Samuel Wag- 

 ner's American Bee Journal for some time before 

 Gleanings was born. I have followed you with the 

 deepest interest through all your bee career, and, in a 

 small way, have been a patron and conespondent. 

 Prosperity always excepted, very many of my e xperi- 

 ences have been notably like your own, even to my 

 •' Giantess," the largest and most beau iful queen I 

 ever saw. Do you remember yours? I have also been 

 for forty years a Congregatinnalist, and many years 

 deacon and Sunday-school superintendent, and have 

 always read Our Homes with much interest. 



Excelsior, Minn., Dec. 23. J. W. Murray. 



I have the fir t year's vol- me now as you sent it, 

 bound with metal clasps. I have piles of the back 

 volumes and some "Juvenile" Gleanings. I have 

 many things about mv premises that remind me of 

 Medina and the Root family — among them a large ex- 

 tractor, the insides and gearing from you; also a saw- 

 table and appurtenances, and many other minor con- 

 veniences. Bee-keeping has always been a subordi- 

 nate branch of my industries, but Gleanings has al- 

 ways had its interest and charm for me, and none of 

 its departments have been skipped. I have that 

 friendly feeling and love for the whole Root family 

 that any one who has read Gleanings so long must 

 have. The Home Papers and the gardening notes 

 have all reached me. 1 heartily congratulate you on 

 the full grown, healihy, and clean Gleanings whi h 

 is now before me, and I trust it raav continue to come 

 as regularly into my home in the future as in the past. 



Burlington, Vt., Dec. 22. A. A. L,ewis. 



My time dates even back of 25 years to the little leaf- 

 let printed quarterly by the windmill — yes, and back 

 into the old American Bee Journal, 18615 to '73, have I 

 read with so much pleasure and interest from the pt n 

 of our old and worthy friend Novice. Now that you 

 ask for responses from your earliest and continued 

 subscribers, it gives me great pleasure to be enrolled 

 as one of them. Well co I remember the changes in 

 appliances and improvements wrought out in those 

 25 years. I wi h also to mention my appreciation of 

 the Home Papers, tending to elevate and bring us to a 

 higher plain; High - pressure Gardening, Notes of 

 Travel, the Rambler, and poor oil Father Merry- 

 banks, all of which must be appreciated by your 

 many subscribers. 



What a reunion these 25 year subscribers would 

 make ! and what a bee convention ! How I should 

 like to attend, and hear the very friendly and inter- 

 esting discussion of changes during the past quarter 

 century ! And now, friend Root, may you be spared 

 for many more years: and may Gleanings continue 

 to be our half-monthly visitor in the future as in the 

 pa^t. F. H. Cyrenius. 



Oswego, N. Y., Dec. 20. 



In 1871 or '2 I had a very severe attack of bee fever, 

 and gathered and read and studied all in the line of 

 apiculture that 1 could get, and spent many sleepless 

 "though pleasant" hours after I retired at night, 

 thinking and studying of the bee and its nature. 

 Through the kindness of some one the fir.^t issue of 

 Gleanings was placed in my hands. I was so pleased 

 with it that I became a subscriber, and have been a 

 constant reader of its pages ever since, and have the 

 entire volume of Gleanings on file except a few 

 numbers and one volume that I loaned to some of my 

 friends that were interested in bee culture, and did 

 not return it. Gleanings has been a pleasant and in- 

 structive visitor all the^e years at our home. "Our 

 Homes" has caused many bright and happy hours 

 during these years, and I trust it may cause many 

 more in the eternal home beyond. 



High pressure Gardening and Notes of Travel have 

 als-> been a source of great pleasure. 



I wish Gleanings continued success, and expect to 

 have it visit my home many years yet, and can join 

 heartily in your wish that we cou'd get together and 

 tell stories about old times; but though we may not 

 meet here I trust and pray that we may meet beyond 

 the river of time, where we have the promise, if we 

 are faithful, that we may enjoy far greater blessings 

 with Him who has gone before to prepare a home for 

 those who will be his followers. 



Arendtsville, Pa., Dec. 21. Aaron I. Weidner. 



We notice your call for the names of those who 

 have taken Gleanings for 25 years or more. We 

 claim a front seat in the list. We" have taken Glean- 

 ings since its first number, though we have had to pay 

 for but a few subscriptions, owing to our becoming 

 advertisers before the end of the second year, and 

 therefore had the paper kindly sent to us free ever 

 since. We have been contributors to and advertisers 

 in Gleanings ever since 1871, our first advertisement 

 appearing in the .September number, and our senior's 

 fi.st contribution some time during the previous 

 spring. We have sold to you and bought from you 

 thousands of dollars' worth of bee goods, and have 

 looked in vain for another film which has been as 

 closely connected with yours in a friendly or in a bus- 

 iness way as we have been. We have preserved every 

 number of Gleanings, and also have a full file of the 

 American Bee Jouinai since its fiist number in 18K3. 

 We have also almost all the copies of Moon's Bee 

 World. The National Bee Journal. The Illustrated Bee 

 Journal, The Bee-keepers' Guide, The Bee-keepers' Mag- 

 azine, The American Apiculturist, and also of all the 

 bee journals that are still published in America. In 

 addi'.inn we have preserved sample copies of many 

 ephemeral sheets, the perusal of which ought to dis- 

 courage any beginner from attempting additional 

 publications in a field that is so well covered. I will 

 name a few: The Indiana Bee-keeper. 'The Bee-keepers' 1 

 Exchange, The Kansas Bee-keeper, The Bee-keepei s' In- 

 structor, The New England Apiarian, The National 

 Bee Gazette The Texas Bee Journal, Our Apiary, The 

 Bee-keepers' Advance, The Western Money Bee, The 

 White Mountain Apiarist, The Practical Bee-keeper, The 

 Bee-keepers' Enterprise. Success in Bee Culture, The Cal- 

 ifornia Bee-keeper. 



Among the foreign bee journals we have full files of 

 the Revue Internationale, of Switzerland, L' Apicoltore, 

 of Milan, and L'Apiculteui , of Paris, and two dozen 

 other periodicals of less value. For some reason we 

 have somewhat neglected our English friend*, and 

 have only a few years of the British Bee Journal, with 

 stray copies of several other publications; and we still 

 neglect to mention all the Canadian bee-publications, 

 and the Spanish and Chilian " Apicultores." 



Yours in the hope of being with you as a firm, if not 

 in person, in another 25 vears. 



Hamilton, 111., Dec. 21." Chas. Dadant & Son. 



In one sense of the word I have not been a subscrib- 

 er for 25 years or more. In the winter of 1880 or '81 I 

 was working for a bee-keeper. There is where I first 

 saw Gleanings. Now, how could I have been a sub- 

 scriber for 25 years or more, when I never saw it till it 

 was seven or eight years old? At that time I knew 

 nothing of bees, nor did I expect to ever work with 

 them, yet I loved to read Our Homes, and about Mer- 

 rybanks and his Neighbor, etc. In 1882 I sent my 

 name to Medina, and it is there yet (and I expect it to 

 stay as long as I and the Home Papers last). Don't 

 throw this away yet, brother, but read on and hear of 

 my claim as a member of that roll. Not being satis- 

 fied with what I had of Gleanings after reading 

 it for a year or two I commenced hunting for back 

 mini tier's, and with the help of Glean ngs I got them 

 all, commencing with a book of eight pages, or 100 

 pages the first vear, 1873, and closing this year with 

 950, giving me 20 volumes of nearly 20,000 pages of 

 reading-matter. Now, what I want to know is, after 

 reading them all, paying for them all, must I stand 

 back, or am I a member of that Roll of Honor ? 



Orion, Wis., Dec. 22. F. I,. Snyder. 



To be sure, you are a member of the Roll 

 of Honor, friend Snyder. It makes very little 

 difference whether you subscribed in the out- 

 set or thought enough of our journal to send 

 for the back numbers. In fact, it shows more 

 regard for a journal to go away back and hunt 

 up every number that was ever printed, as you 

 did, than to take it right along from the begin- 

 ning. And there is one thing, friend S., that 

 you did not mention in the above. Through 

 these same Home Papers you were led to 

 Christ Jesus, and have probably, since that 

 time, carried the gospel of glad tidings to 

 many another hungry soul. Well do I re- 

 member that pleasant visit at your home on 

 the banks of the beautiful Wisconsin River. 



Continued in our next. 



