356 



THE BEE KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



member most perfectly going out to the barn 

 the spring after I was twenty-one and seat- 

 ing myself in a swing with a determination 

 to "have it out." I sat there a long time. 

 Most thoroughly did I go over my past life. 

 I tried to decide which business would best 

 fit my characteristics. I finally arose with 

 the determination that I "would be a bee- 

 keeper, and give my experience to the 

 world." I presume this was a sort of com- 

 promise between bee-keep^'"' -nd author- 

 ship, although I c.'.J; not tr.'i '" -'■ - .'j tiio 

 time. Had J only known at the time iiow 

 literally and faithfully I should be able to 

 carry out my decision I should have been 

 much happier. ^ immediately began study- 

 ing bee-keeping as i had never done before. 

 Although it was four yca.c later before I 

 actually began the business I think I starLc>iI 

 in with as thorough a knowledge of my pro- 

 fession as is possessed by most physicians 

 of theirs when they first begin practicing. 



During the first year of bee-keeping I de 

 cided that I would make a specialty of queen 

 rearing. That fall the twins came. They 

 were very restless and wakeful nights, and 

 you may smile again if you like, but I took 

 a great deal of comfort the following winter 

 when rocking and singing a baby to sleep 

 by the fireside in the "' wee sma' hours " of 

 the night and thinking at the same time how 

 I was going to rear queens the following 

 summer. I studied out how I should make 

 a lamp nursery and arrange compartments 

 to prevent the young queens from killing 

 one another when they hatched, how I should 

 arrange my nuclei, how make the cages, yes, 

 even how I should word my advertisements. 

 The work proved fully as enjoyable as I had 

 anticipated. It was such a pleasure to see 

 the plump cells with their rough, corrugated 

 surfaces, to see the bright yellow (jueens 

 bite their way out to light and liberty, to 

 give them to the bees, and then a few days 

 later to find them plump and laying. Then 

 to make neat cages of the white basswood, 

 catch and cage the bees, pat the stamps of 

 different colors upon the cages of different 

 sizes, pack them into a basket and then take 

 a stroll of two miles to the post office going 

 through lanes and woods-roads, stopping on 

 the way home and filling the basket with 

 berries — all this made a happy existence. 



Then my brother came to work with me 

 and more bees were bought and the raising 

 of comb honey became the order of the day. 

 Queen rearing was not dropped, but a new 



enthusiasm, that of learning how to work to 

 the best advantage in securing tons of honey 

 in those beautiful white sections, had taken 

 possession of me. 



In those days my spare moments and the 

 leisure of winter days were employed in 

 writing bee-keeping articles for the bee 

 journals and for the agricultural papers. 

 This proved a pleasant and profitable change 

 from the more arduous labors of the sum- 

 mer. 



From such experiences as these sprang the 

 d-— \,ij iiG."3 ? iournal of my own. Then 

 camic the p'.oasuro oi ^-t'cipation and prep- 

 aration, lasting two or three years. Next 

 came the realization, and^ as I have before 

 stated, no part of my life has been more en- 

 joyable than that spent in publishing the 

 Revie-vVo There was one pleasure that I had 

 not couuic-J "L-^c: ?i?. ihat is the mechani- 

 cal part of making the Review, the studying 

 to make it neat typographically — how I have 

 enjoyed the putting together of types, bor- 

 ders, ornaments, and rules, the selection of 

 the paper and ink and the securing of en- 

 gravings, etc., etc. But, notwithstanding I 

 love the Review and most thoroughly enjoy 

 the making of it, I must admit that it is not 

 only a relief to sometimes turn my thoughts 

 into other channels, but I actually do better 

 work when my thoughts are again put into 

 their regular harness. 



Perhaps some of you may know that pho- 

 tography is my latest hobby. I am now 

 deriving as much pleasure from the perusal 

 of books and journals devoted to photog- 

 raphy as I did years ago in my first study 

 of apiculture. This branch of picture mak- 

 ing was taken up with no thought of its 

 proving profitable in a money point of view, 

 but is is turning out to be a very profitable 

 investment in a way that I did not expect. 

 For instance, I had often felt that I should 

 enjoy writing a series of articles on trapping 

 mink, muskrat, foxes and the like, showing 

 by illustrations exactly how the traps should 

 be made and set. Lack of skill in drawint: 

 had prevented me. As soon as 1 had learned 

 to use the camera I took a trap, an axe, the 

 camera and a lunch basket, and with one of 

 my daughters for company and to help carry 

 the things, went up the river two miles one 

 morning in August, and in the woods I set 

 some traps, deadfalls, and snares for par- 

 tridges, exactly as I did when a boy, and then 

 photographed them. 1 came home in the 

 afternoon awfully tired, but oh, how rested ! 



