notable visiting place. The then county 

 chairman, Mr. Walter Brodie, used to 

 bring along every noted visitor to the 

 Thames — at that time a flourishing dis- 

 trict. The late Sir George Grey visited 

 the apiary more than once, and was 

 greatly interested in the new method of 

 beekeeping. He promised me a number 

 of exotic plants, great nectar yielders, 

 he had introduced, and were growing 

 on his island of Kawau. 



The late Mr. C. T. Wren, nurseryman, 

 of Eemuera, Auckland, had sent to A. 

 I. Root for bee goods towards the latter 

 part of 1879, not at the time being 

 aware of what I had already done. 

 When a friend informed him he paid 

 me a special visit, and while congratu- 

 lating me on being first in the field, 

 expressed his disappointment at not be- 

 ing first himself, as he fully expected to 

 be. Mr. Wren was afterwards my Auck- 

 land agent. 



THE FIRST HONEY RAISED UNDER 



THE NEW SYSTEM. 



Unfortunately for my prospects of 

 raising much extracted honey, my 

 apiary was too near the bush which 

 covered the hills adjacent, and from 

 which the bulk of my honey was 

 gathered. Nearly all honey from mixed 

 bush is too dense to extract from the 

 combs in the ordinary way; it was so 

 in my case, and I could only secure a 

 comparatively small quantity with the 

 extractor. I therefore turned my at- 

 tention to the raising of comb-honey 

 in one-pound section boxes, which sold 

 well at 10/ per dozen wholesale; in 

 fact, the demand exceeded the supply 

 for a long time. Speaking of section 

 boxes reminds me that at the time 

 mentioned they were in four pieces, 

 vpihich had to be nailed together, a 

 most difficult job, and when many 

 thousands were on order, made up, 

 some idea of our difficulties of pioneer- 

 ing will be realised. 



THE (FIRST CONTRIBUTIONS ON 

 MODERN BEE CULTURE TO THE 

 PRESS. 

 In 1879 I was in possession of all the 

 most notable bee books of the time, in- 

 cluding Root's "A.B.C. of Bee Culture," 

 in parts, as it had then been published 

 in "Gleanings in Bee Culture," "Langs- 



troth on the Honey Bee," "The Times' 

 Bee Master," "Bevan on the Honey 

 Bee," the Rev. J. G. Wood's little work, 

 and one or two others; but only "Langs- 

 troth" and the "A.B.C." were of any 

 service as regards the new methods of 

 bee management. These, together with 

 copies of "Gleanings," the "American 

 Bee Journal," and "British Bee Jour- 

 nal," which were reaching me regularly, 

 I studied very closely, so that by the 

 close of 1879 I was well versed in every- 

 thing that had been done in advanced 

 bee culture. 



Early in 1880 the then editors of the 

 "Thames Advertiser" and "Auckland 

 Weekly News" asked me to write a 

 series of articles on the new system of 

 bee culture for their papers, which I 

 did weekly for six months, explaining 

 the complete system. Evidently the 

 papers had a large circle of readers, or 

 the articles were copied into other 

 papers, as in a very short time letters 

 began to pour in from all quarters of 

 New Zealand and Australia asking if 

 I could supply the. hives and appliances 

 mentioned, or tell the writers where 

 they could be obtained. This suggested 

 to me the idea of running a supply 

 business with my apiary in the mean- 

 time until the opportunity came to 

 go into bee-farming on a large scale. 



A SUPPLY BUSINESS. 



Having arranged with Bagnall B^ros. for 

 a large supply of hives and frames, ais 

 well as section box«s, I so'on bad a big 

 ta'ade, with ihalf a dozen men at work. 

 W'e sent hives and all 'Other appliances to 

 Australia and all parts of New Zealand. 

 I was then running an apiary averaging 

 60 oolonieis — the ni'Aximura often reac'liing 

 80 — whidli necessitated me wiorking from 

 4 a.m. till 10 p.m., and 'often all night. 

 My working capital, owing to a previous 

 'heavy l'0?=i, was veiry email, hence my 

 having to woTk long hours to recover 

 myself. 



My supply businees brougiht me into 

 intimate lelatioiis with siome very fine 

 gentlemen residing in all j>arts 'of Aus- 

 tralasia, who were more 'ot less inter- 

 tfsted in beekeeping. The friendly a^ela- 

 tionsihip of several who have not since 

 passed over to the igireat majority, oon- 

 tinues to this day. Quite recently Mr. 

 Glials. FuHwood, ioa-merly of Brisbane, 



