1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



151 



from the bees for a nice farm of 70 acres, and a new 

 $1200 house and $700 barn, windmill, and waterworks. 

 I consider my success with bees due to Gleanings. 

 One year when I had 20 colonies I cleared $25.00 per 

 hive, or $500. I have kept bees since I was 17 years 

 old, and taken Gleanings since I was 19. 

 Calamus, Iowa, Jan. 21. D. Wagner. 



In looking over the time from 1873 to 1899, during 

 which Gleanings has been a monthly (and later a 

 semi-monthly) visitor, it brings back many happy and 

 pleasant recollections and thoughts that I have enjoy- 

 ed during all those years; and it also brings sad recol- 

 lections of many who were its correspondents years 

 ago, who have passed over to that great beyond; and 

 soon, too, we the remaining ones of the 1873 subscrib- 

 ers will also be numbered with those who have pre- 

 ceded us. H. H. Brown. 



L,ight Street, Pa., Jan. 25. 



Dear Mr. Root: — As }'OU make up a round-up of your 

 old friends, I wish to be counted among them. 



I do not agree with you on all subjects, but I do fol- 

 low some of your advice. You told us once that, in 

 case of disaster to the bees, we should retreat in good 

 order, like a general losing a battle, and be ready in 

 good order for the next season. But with me the last 

 ten years have been mostly on the retreating order, 

 and always retreating wears the best general out. I 

 wish also to thank you again for favors received by 

 me in our past dealings, as extending credit or doing 

 better than advertised. Aug. L,eyvraz. 



Francis, Fla., Jan. 26. 



Wife says I began in 1874 with my bees in the cham- 

 ber windows of my home in Toledo, Ohio. I had been 

 a reader of Gleanings previous to that time, and 

 possess almost all the back volumes up to the present. 

 My first foundation-mill was made under my super- 

 vision. Electrotyping both sides of a sheet of Root's 

 foundation, and sweating it on to a set of photogra- 

 pher's rolls, I used it for several years, and then pur- 

 chased one of your $100.00 12 -inch machines. My 

 first visit to Medina was for that purpose. I think it 

 was the same year you erected your new building. 

 Time has dealt kindly with me through life's path- 

 way; but during my earlier years of bee keeping it was 

 more or less rough and rugged. When we learn of 

 the extreme suffering experienced by the poor in the 

 North we wish all could enjoy the climate of Florida 

 as has been our privilege for the past 15 years. 



New Smyrna, Fla., Jan 13. John Y. Detwilek. 



lam one of the number that have taken Gleanings 

 since Vol. I No. 1, and have all the numbers now ex- 

 cept a few of Vol. III., and occasionally one I have 

 loaned to some one, that has not been returned. 

 When my father was about my age he had one of the 

 best taverns in Western New York, and kept several 

 wagons running, buying hay, corn, oats, etc., to feed 

 the immense droves of stock that, night after night, 

 put up with him. Just like cutting a thread, his whole 

 business was killed when the railroad was completed 

 from Buffalo to New York. Just now my business 

 (bee-keeping) is cut off just as completely by the tim- 

 ber men. My honey crop, that has been from 500 to 

 700 gallons per year, was 00 gallons in '98. and I am 

 not certain but I may have to feed the equivalent of 

 the most of that to bring them through the winter. 

 Poplar has been almost our only source, and it is being 

 cut out very rapidly, and there is nothing to take its 

 place. It looks as if one bee-keeper must quit the 

 ranks or move. G. W. Gates. 



Bartlett, Tenn., Jan. 2. 



Our minds do seem to run nearly in the same chan- 

 nel in many things; and our ages are so nearly alike I 

 thought I must write you. I do not know how long I 

 have taken Gleanings. The oldest full volume that 

 I find is 1876. I think I had parts of volumes before 

 that. Since '76 I have taken it all along, besides others. 

 I have a small load of bee literature. I have your 

 photo with Blue Eyes on your lap ; also house apiary 

 with, I suppose, Ernest and Maude on the stairs. I do 

 hope Maude may get well again. Please tell her so 

 for me. I have to wear a " harness " too. 



I am 60 years old. My father died when I was 2 I 4 

 years old, and left mother with three little boys. I 

 reside in the old home. It is back among the country 

 hills of the town of Union. I am the only one left of 

 our family. We have two children, both married. 

 Our boy lives with us. They have four, which makes 

 eight in our family. 



I keep bees and poultry. I have kept bees 30 years. 

 I began with one box hive. I work them barehanded. 

 Our location is poor. Were it not for buckwheat we 



could not keep bees here. My present stock of bees 

 consists of 110 hives, all kept at home. I winter in- 

 doors. If I were to start anew I might try chaff hives 

 and outdoor wintering. I have never met with any 

 serious losses in hees. You will probably smile when 

 you read this part. I have some of the American hives 

 gotten up by II. A. King, of Ohio. The bees in them 

 seem to be as hardy as Concord grapevines. 

 Hooper, N. Y., Dec. 31. D. F. L,ashier. 



I have been a subscriber from the first quarterly 

 you issued, and have kept them all. I have also taken 

 the American Bee Journal since 1867 regularly, and re- 

 ceived a few copies before the war, during which time 

 it was discontinued. Since my earliest recollection I 

 have liked bees. Then my folks kept them; and how 

 I was delighted when swarms came out ! I would get 

 in the midst of the swarm, and often bareheaded, in 

 spite of orders to keep back: and how good the honey 

 tasted in those days ! My father, in the summer of 

 1856, gave me a swarm, and I assure you it was prized 

 and looked after with interest We then lived in 

 York State. In the fall of 1857 we came west, and I 

 sold my two swarms and father sold all of his. In the 

 spring of 1860 I bought a swarm in a box hive in this 

 place, and have not been out of bees since. Since 1866 

 I have kept my bees in movable comb hives. Glean- 

 ings has at all times been a wt lcome visitor, and I 

 have much admired the energy of its founder, from 

 the windmill days up to the present time. His enthu- 

 siasm from the time he wrote in the A. B J. as Novice 

 has been pleasing to me. When the bee-fever struck 

 me I sought after and received all the books on bee 

 culture that I could hear of, printed in this country, 

 and also read all translated from foreign writers that 

 I learned of. I have taken nearly all the bee-journals 

 of this country till within a few years ago. I received 

 five different ones for several years; all but two aie 

 now of the past. I have dealt with the Medina firm 

 for many years, with satisfaction. 



I wish Gleanings its founder, and all members of 

 the firm, well. I feel quite well acquainted with the 

 Root family, although I have not met any of them 

 personally. I think much of all the departments in 

 Gleanings They are of much help to its readers. 



Our honey crop has been all the way from nothing 

 (one season) up to 13,000 lbs., an average of 153 lbs. 

 per colony, about two-fifths comb honey — the best 

 year we have had in all. F. A. Snell. 



Dundee, 111., Jan 1. 



I looked up a file of old bee journals that had not 

 been examined for 15 or 20 years. I found most of the 

 early numbers of Novice's Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture, the oldest bearing date Feb. 1, 1873. I must 

 have commenced taking it at the beginning, and I do 

 not think I have ever missed a number up to the pres- 

 ent time. 



But this was not my first acquaintance with A. I. 

 Root, or, more properly, with his writings. In 1867 I 

 commenced taking the American Bee Journal, pub- 

 lished in Washington, D. C, and edited by Samuel 

 Wagner. Mr. Root was then contributing a series of 

 articles to that journal, one or more appearing in 

 every number, at first over his own name, and after- 

 ward over the nom de plume of "Novice," which he 

 kept up for several years It was my interest in these 

 articles, and my liking for the manner and spirit of 

 the man, that induced me to lose no time in subscrib- 

 ing for his paper. 



It would indeed be pleasant to have a meeting of 

 some of these old subscribers to Gleanings and con- 

 tributors to our bee journals of some 25 years ago, say 

 at Medina, some time next summer. Many of them 

 have, no doubt, left this stage of action, and have gone 

 to join the great silent majority. But those who may 

 be left might get together then. 



While hunting up the first volume of Gleanings I 

 found a file of the American Bee Journal from 1867 to 

 1873, both inclusive, which brings up many reminis- 

 cences of the contributors and the subjects then dis- 

 cussed by them in it an<-l in Gleanings about the 

 same time. It does look, as you say, as if all the most 

 important things in relation to bees and bee-keeping 

 were pretty thoroughly gone over. There was a new 

 era in bee-keeping — the invention of the movable- 

 comb hive, the introduction of the Italian bee into 

 this country, the discovery of the centrifugal honey- 

 extractor, etc. Of course, these matters were largely 

 discussed. But the natural history of the bee from a 

 scientific standpoint, and the various subjects arising 

 therefrom, were thoroughly studied and c iscussed, 

 and some of them settled. 



The hive question, with new inventions and many 

 so-called improvements, was largely discussed; but it 



