THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



399 



ExperiBnce, Enkpfise, Capital, 

 Reliabililf, and fairoess, 



Home of A. I. Root. 



apiary. The possession of this apiary plays 

 No new style of hiye, frame, 



While on my way home from the Philadelphia 

 convention, I stopped at Medina, Ohio, and vis- 

 ited the establishment of the A. I. Root Co.; and 

 here are some comments \ipon what I saw ; — 



First, there is the apiary, with its vine-covered 

 house-apiary, evergreen ht-ilge, and hives shaded 

 by grapevines. I took a view of it with my cam- 

 era, from the roof of the factory, and show the 

 picture upon the opposite page. In the back- 

 ground can be seen the home of A. I. Root and 

 of his son-in-law, Mr. Hovden. This apiary was 

 started at the same time that the manufacture of 

 l>ee-keeping supplies was beg^un, and both have 

 grown hand in hand. One man, Mr. Wardell. 

 is now kept constantly busy in caring for the 



no small part in the success of the A. I. Root Co. No new style of hiye, frame, super, section, or 

 foundation is adopted blindly, but is first put into actual practice in the apiary. Even foul brood 

 was given a trial, and finally eliminated. Of course it was not introduced intentionally, but the pub- 

 lished experience with it in this apiary has been of great value to the bee-keeping fraternity. 



A visit to the press-room, the wax-room, the section-department, etc., impressed me with the en- 

 terprising spirit that seems to per\'ade the whole establishment. In a store-room I was shown the 

 dies and other remains of the Weed-experimenting with full-depth cells. While this experiment 

 was a failure, some others of Mr. Weed's were not. For instance, in the wa.x-room a cake of wax 

 can be placed upon one end of a machine, and great rolls of sheet d wax taken from the other end. 

 One of these rolls of sheeted wax, rolled up like a roll of ribbon such as we find in a store, can be 

 placed in the end of another machine, and finished foundation, all trimmed, papered, and piled up 

 tnie and square, ready for boxing, can be taken from the other end. These machines are almost hu- 

 man in their capabilities. Before the wax is used 

 it is thoroughly purified. All this insures great 

 uniformity in the output of foundation. In tlie 

 saw-room I saw the workmen cutting out all 

 knots .so that the hives would be all of clear 

 lumber. .\11 this waste goes through a machine 

 called a "hog" that grinds it up so fine that the 

 "blower" carries it to the furnace. The new 

 water tube boiler requires .so little fuel, that there 

 is more than enough waste to keep up the neces- 

 sarv steam. Not only is there enterpri.se in the 

 adoption of improved machinery and methods, 

 but in the examination and adoption of new 

 implements. This is even carried to the extent 

 of visiting apiaries in different parts of the coiui- 

 try to discover new things. 



There was al.so plenty of evidence that this 

 firm is posse.ssed of sufficient capital to carry out 

 I his enterprising spirit; and this capital came 

 from a business buill iii> by dealing fairly with 

 customers, by giving them the worth of their 

 money, and treating them in such a manner that 

 they ret\irned year after year. 



One very pi a.sant feature about this firm is 



that it is composed of a father, .son, and two 



sons-in-law, all living near together, and pulling 



together, in perfect harmony, like a well-trained 



Home of E. R. Root. four-horse team.— Editor Review. 



