622 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I 



WANT to tell 

 you a story, 



friends, that I 

 have told you be- 

 fore — at least T 

 have partially 

 told it before. 

 There is a par- 

 ticular r e a s on 

 now why I wish 

 to tell it again. 

 Something- over 

 45 years ago, 

 when this jour- 

 nal was fi r s t 

 started, and the 

 news had got 

 abroad that I se- 

 cured a barrel of 

 honey fi'om one 



colony of bees in one season,* I had a good 

 many visitors; and, as I was a very busy 

 man, it was sometimes a little hard for me 

 to give each newcomer the time and atten- 

 tion I should have been glad to give. Well, 

 one morning when I was especially busy, 

 and I think the bees were busy also, a well- 

 dressed nice-looking young man called and 

 was very anxious to see my bees and ask 

 me questions. He informed me at the out- 

 set til at he was a runner for a music-pub- 

 lishing liouse in Cincinnati. He had got- 

 ten hold of a copy of our little journal 

 and was full of enthusiasm regarding bee 

 culture. He said something like this: 



"Mr. Root, T have a very good salary, 

 and I suppose I ought to be contented to 

 keep on with my present occupation; but 

 it keeps me away from home. If I could 

 be with my wife and child and just 

 make a living keeping bees I would be 

 satisfied. Do you think it possible for one 

 to do so provided he would be satisfied with 

 a vei-y small income? Of course I would 

 pi'ogress as I learned by experience; but I 

 should not be worried if I did not, at the 

 start, even make a living." 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



Come je after me, and I will make \ou to lie 

 tome fishers of men. — Mark 1:17. 



He which converteth the sinner from the error 

 of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall 

 hide a multitude of sins. — James 5:20. 



Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 

 waters, and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, 

 and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk without 

 money and without inice.— -Isa. 5.5:1. 



*In my review of volumes 1 and 2 I discovered 

 that, even at that early date, I was not the only 

 man who had secured "a barrel of honey," from 

 one colony of bees in one season. Here is what 

 I found on page 5 of Gleanings for January 1873: 



Henry Hart of Palmer, Mich., writes: 

 ■ "That swarm that had given us 400 pounds 

 wheji T wrote you has since given us 100 pounds 

 of fall honey, making a good 500 in all. Our 

 surplus will not come much, if any, short of 3000 

 pounds from 11 swarms — no increase of swarms." 



I afterward visited Mr. Hart and didn't we two 

 have a big time in talking over and comparing our 

 e.xperiences ? As I had been writing for several 

 years for the American Bee Journal, Mr. Hart may 

 have be'Cn a pupil of mine. I can not remember 

 now, it was so long ago. I wonder if he is still 

 alive; and if not, are any of his children still 

 keeping lees'; 



OCTOHKR 19'JO 



1 do nut know- 

 just what an- 

 swer I made. 

 iVfter g i \- i n g 

 h i m what in- 

 f o r m a t i on I 

 could, a man 

 drove up with 

 a horse and bug- 

 gy to take me 

 out on a t I- i p 

 h Li n ting wild 

 bees. The A B 

 C book had been 

 started, and I 

 had got where I 

 wanted to write 

 up bee-hunting. 

 W h e n I began 

 that book I de- 

 cided to put nothing in it from hearsay. 

 Every topic was to be treated from per- 

 sonal experience if it were a possible 

 thing. There was a veteran woodman 

 living near us who, I was told, was quite 

 expert in hunting bee-trees and taking out 

 the honey. I had agreed with him to go 

 out on a trip that very morning, and he 

 was on hand with his tools and appliances. 

 By the way, when I was introduced to the 

 stranger I supjiose he gave me his name ; 

 but I was so busy I did not take jjains to 

 remember his name nor usually those of a 

 gi-eat part of my visitors. As I was pre- 

 paring to step into the buggy, putting out 

 my hand to the stranger, I told him of the 

 proposed ti-ip and asked him to excuse me 

 under the circumstances. I was a little 

 surprised to hear him say : 



"Wliy, Mr. Root, can't I go along too? 

 As there seemed to be no particular ob- 

 jection, and my bee-hunting friend said 

 he guessed three could ride all right, we 

 started off. This bright Avell-dressed 

 stranger was rather short and pretty well 

 up in avoirdupois, and so I suggested that 

 he might get rather tired climbing over 

 logs, getting thru brush, etc., but he said 

 he guessed he could stand it. Let me di- 

 gress a little right here. 



My life has been pretty well given to 

 hobbies, as you may know, and sometimes 

 I have more than one hobby at a time. 1 

 do not know just how it came about; but 

 at that particular time I was taking music 

 lessons, and a bright young lady was my 

 teacher. I had progressed far enough to 

 be taking little exercises on a sort of melo- 

 deon. Well, while we were out in the 

 woods climbing over the logs I absent- 

 mindedly l)egan whistling a little melody 

 t liad been ])i-acticing on th.-it inoruing. 



