10 FIFTY TEAES AMONG THE BEES 



well that in many ways we are indebted to him, but it will take 

 time for the proper weighing of his life in terms of helpful- 

 ness to fellow beekeepers. One can now do no more than to ex- 

 press feebly a sense of personal loss and to tell a few of the 

 more outstanding benefits from his work. One thing is clean 

 there has been no beekeeper of the past half century who was 

 his superior. 



Beginning in 1861 and until his death, Doctor Miller was 

 interested in bees, a record of prolonged activity in this voca- 

 tion rarely if ever equalled. Since 1878 it was his sole business. 

 Naturally his earliest beekeeping was unimportant, but in 1870 

 he made his first contribution to the beekeeping press and for 

 fifty years his writings have formed an important part of our 

 literature. Even the editors of the bee journals have not con- 

 tributed more to the current literature than did he, and prob- 

 ably he wrote he wrote more "copy" than did any other writer 

 of the time. His writings are distinguished by accurate diction, 

 clarity, humor, and sympathy. 



To discuss in detail the investigations that Doctor Miller 

 carried on in beekeeping would virtually be to write a history of 

 beekeeping of the past half century, for there have been no im- 

 portant discoveries or events of that period in which he did not 

 play some part. He began beekeeping before the days of the 

 comb-honey section and lived until the time when extracted 

 honey largely replaced comb honey. The period of comb-honey 

 production brought forth the keenest work in beekeeping prac- 

 tices of any period in beekeeping, for all the problems are 

 greatly intensified in comb-honey production. Naturally we do 

 not give to Doctor Miller credit for all the brilliant work of this 

 period, but all must admit that no man of the time made more 

 important contributions to comb-honey production than he did. 



In his first book, "A Year Among the Bees," he recognizes 

 the two great problems of that and of the preseht day as fol- 

 lows: "If I were to meet a man perfect in the entire science 

 and art of beekeeping, and were allowed from him an answer 

 to just one question, I would hesitate somewhat whether to ask 

 him about swarming or wintering. I think, however, I -would 

 finally ask for the best and easiest way to prevent swarming, 

 for one who is anxious to secure the largest crop of comb 



