FIFTY YEAKS AMONG THE BEES 29 



other volume 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. Grrimm, 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 nom de plume of Novice, was then 

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

 hotbed 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 it to the 

 bees in an upper comer 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 pa- 

 per. 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 



