FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 21 



other ,\olume of any bee-journal published, and to this day I 

 probably refer to it oftener than to any other volume that is as 

 much as two or three years old. 



Among the most frequent contributors to The American 

 Bee Journal when I subscribed for it were H. Alley, D. H. 

 Coggshall, C. Dadant, E. Gallup, A. Grimm, J. L. Hubbard, 

 J. M. Marvin, M. Quinby, A. I. Root, J. H. Thomas, and J. F. 

 Tillinghast, most of which are well known names a third of a 

 century later. G. M. Doolittle did not appear on the scene till 

 late in 1870. 



A. I. Root, under the room de plume of Novice, was then 

 just as full of schemes as he has been since, and was trying a 

 hot-bed arrangement for bees, and in my first communication 

 to The American Bee Journal, in 1870, I wrote, " I am waiting 

 patiently for Novice to invent a machine for making straight 

 worker-comb; for as yet I have found no way of securing all 

 worker-comb, except to have it built by a weak colony." At 

 that time he probably little thought that he would come so near 

 fulfilling my expectations, sending out tons upon tons of foun- 

 dation. 



ATTEMPT AT COMB FOUNDATION. 



I made some attempts myself in that line, simply with 

 plain sheets of wax. I poured a little melted wax into a pail 

 of hot water, and when it cooled I took the sheet of wax and 

 gave it to the bees. It was not an immense success. I dipped 

 a piece of writing paper into melted wax, and gave to the bees 

 in an upper corner of a frame where no brood was reared, and 

 for years you could hold that frame up to the light and looking 

 through the comb see the writing that was on the paper. Then 

 when foundation came upon the market, what a boon it was! 



VISITS A. I. ROOT. 



In 1870 I made my first visit to Medina, then several miles 

 from a railroad station. Mr. Root was then a jeweler ; his shop 

 had been burned up, and his house (not a large one at that 

 time) was doing duty as both shop and dwelling. Just then he 

 was full of the idea of having maple sap run directly from lie 



