FIFTEENTH ANXUAT. YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 501 



At length, Mr. L. L. Langstroth experimented upon this same subject 

 and in 1852 obtained a patent on the movable frame hive in use the world 

 over at the present day, a hive in which the frames hang upon rabbets 

 at the ends of the box, by two projecting shoulders, these frames sep- 

 arated from the walls, ceiling and bottom by a bee space. This invention 

 caused a revolution in bee culture. Mr. Langstroth himself was a very 

 careful observer and made many remarks which have been confirmed to 

 this day. He was the first man to dare assert that the bee moth never 

 destroyed a single colony of bees, that the colonies which had died sup- 

 posedly by the invasion of the moth worms were invariably queenless, 

 or contained a worthless queen, so that the colony was doomed. He boldly 

 stated that it was as senseless to imagine that the moths could destroy a 

 colony of bees in normal condition as to believe "that carrion birds or 

 worms, which are devouring a dead horse, were the primary cause of its 

 untimely end." 



Although the principle of the Langstroth hive has been criticized by 

 some students, who have called it "a rattle box" owing to the freedom of 

 hanging of its frames, this hive, in one shape or another, is at present 

 used all over the civilized world, in many places to the exclusion of any 

 other hive. 



After 1852, bee culture took long strides. In 1861, the American Bee 

 Journal was established by Samuel Wagner. It was the third bee journal 

 in point of age, the first being the Bienenzeitung, already mentioned by 

 me, the second L'Apiculteur of Paris. The old Bienenzeitung has been 

 discontinued, other German bee papers having taken its place. 



In 1865, Major Hruschko, of Dolo, Italy, invented the honey extractor, 

 by the use of which honey is removed from the combs without damaging 

 them, so that they may be returned to the hive to be filled again and again. 

 He hit upon this discovery by accident. Having given his little son a 

 piece of unsealed comb honey to carry on a dish, the boy tied this in his 

 handkerchief as in a sling and swung the dish around his head. The 

 honey was found to have emptied itself into the dish. That gave a clue 

 to the making of the instrument which consists of wire-cloth baskets re- 

 volving speedily within a metal receptacle. Little beginnings often make 

 great endings. 



They certainly had no idea of the great proportions which the use of 

 the honey extractor would take. Millions of pounds of honey are now 

 taken all over the world by this method, which produces a better and 

 cleaner article, while permitting the expensive comb to be returned to 

 the hive, to be filled again. It did away with the "strained honey" ob- 

 tained by crushing the combs and pressing the honey out. Perhaps this 

 assertion is a little too strong, for in many parts of Europe and in a few 

 districts in this country, there are still bee owners who are uninformed 

 and persist in breaking up the combs and straining the honey. In whole 

 districts, for instance in Southern France, visited by me last year, and 

 in Italy, England, etc., especially in the heather regions, establishments 

 are in existence which buy brimstoned colonies every fall and render up 

 the combs by the straining process. The honey thus produced is dark. 



