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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



long summer days out in his apiary working, and he kept 

 it up until late at night. He spent whole days studying 

 and investigating the habits of bees, and probably added 

 more to the knowledge of bee-keeping, and to making it 

 profitable, than any other man of his time. He had no 

 fear of bees at all, and claimed he had been inoculated 

 with bee-poison until he was immune. His talent and 

 valuable work were appreciated by the leading bee-keep- 

 ers of the United States, and Iiis presence at their con- 

 ventions was always welcome, and they voted him some 

 substantial rewards for his investigations. His book. 

 "Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," was, at the time of its 

 publication, far in advance of anything that had ever been 

 published on the subject of bee-keeping. 



Mr. Langstroth lived to a good old age, dying Sun- 

 day, Oct. 6, 1895. He was still active in mind and body, 

 and was conducting a communion service in a church in 

 Dayton. He began the service, and suddenly stopped and 

 said, "I beg pardon. I shall have to sit down." He sat 

 down in his chair, and died immediately. 



I look back over my acquaintance and intimacy with 

 Mr. Langstroth as something to be grateful for, and feel 

 that 1, although not a bee-keeper, owe him a personal debt 

 of gratitude for the inspiration I received and for what I 

 learned from him. V\aluo F. Urown. 



[To the foregoing Mr. A. I. Root adds this para- 

 graph. — Editor.] : 



The above brings back so vividly my recollections of 

 father Langstroth that it almost seems as if I could see 

 and hear him talk, while reading it over. I can heartily 

 indorse every point in the description made by friend 



Brown. 1 have told you, in the introduction to the ABC 

 book, with what joy and enthusiasm I read the pages of 

 Langstroth on the Honey-Bee, in 1865. 1 very soon 

 pushed inquiries that resulted in finding Mr. L. still liv- 

 ing; and then commenced a pleasant correspondence that 

 was kept up more or less until his death. There was 

 something in his makeup that constantly reminded one 

 of some of the great benefactors of our age — Benjamin 

 Franklin, for instance. His life was so unselfish that he 

 might have lacked the necessaries of life were it not for 

 the many able and willing friends that he was constantly 

 making right and left. May the Lord be praised for those 

 like father Langstroth, who not only make this world a 

 better one while they live, but the memory of whose 

 works will help to make the world better after they are 

 dead and gone. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the finest bee-keeper's song — words by Hon- 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a " hummer. " We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



Progress and Possibilities of Bee- Keeping in 

 Great Britain and Ireland. 



BY* WM. DE CODRCY. 



WHEN carried out under intelligent management per- 

 haps none of the minor rural industries, such as bee- 

 keeping, poultry-rearing, market gardening and 

 fruit-growing — which are becoming every day more appre- 

 ciated as worthy of attention — can be made a source of 

 greater profit to the farmer, the artisan, or the laborer than 

 bee-keeping. With respect to this particular pursuit, all 

 classes stand on equal terms, as those having but very 

 small holdings or gardens can keep bees as well as if they 

 were possessed of thousands of acres. Bees are no respect- 

 ers of rights of properties, they are "monarchs of all they 

 survey", their " happy hunting ground " comprising the 

 area within a radius of from three to five miles from their 

 hives, and over this they forage, weather permitting, iak- 

 ing the nectar and pollen from the blossoms that yield any, 

 but repaying them manifold by fertilizing their seeds or 

 fruit. 



Bee-keeping has engaged the attention of intelligent 

 persons in all ages. We have writings on the habits and 

 management of bees by Aristotle, Virgil, and Pliny, which 

 contain a good deal on the subject that is true and useful, 

 though modern bee-keepers will not agree with all that any 

 of them say. It is, however, only with comparatively re- 

 cent years that the success of this ancient and interesting 

 pursuit has been rendered certain, and that the large ele- 

 ment of chance it had included heretofore has been greatly 

 reduced, for, providing the weather is not altogether ad- 

 verse to the bees and the secretion of the nectar in the 

 flowers, the results of a season are now calculable. Apart, 

 too, from gathering and storing honey, the hive, or domes- 

 tic bees (Apis mellifera), plays an important part in the 

 economy of the farm or the garden. by ferti izing the vari- 

 ous flora, when they convey the pollen which adheres to the 

 hairs on their bodies from one flower to another, or in some 

 cases from one part of a flower to another part thereof. 

 Without this process many seeds could not be produced, and 

 botanists tell us that the blossom of the apple requires no 

 less then five distinct fertilizations in order to produce a 



perfectly formed fruit, the failure of one or more of which 

 causes the apple to be formed with one or more sides only 

 partly developed. 



Since the establishment of the British Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, in 1874, bee-keeping has made rapid progress, 

 both through the invention of modern appliances and 

 through adopting new methods, and has spread so 

 rapidly in this country that the idea should occur to those 

 who give these matters a thought, that further develop- 

 ments to bring about great results require only a little fos- 

 tering care from those who are concerned in the industrial 

 welfare of the people. Help from the powers that be, which 

 I mean to refer to further on, at present appears in the 

 horizon in Ireland. 



Although many of the mysteries surrounding the hive 

 and its occupants in the past have been unravelled by bee- 

 masters, and new and more favorable methods of treating 

 those most interesting little insects have been discovered 

 and put into practice, leading apiarists have still no doubt 

 of further great developments, till the " little busy bee " 

 will be so submissive to its owner that he can set it to do 

 almost everything but talk to him. 



After innumerable centuries of the old, plodding meth- 

 ods of the sulphur-pit — by which the bee-keeper suffocated a 

 colony of his bees worth half a sovereign ($2 SO), with the 

 doubtful prospect of getting honey to the value of that 

 amount — a great step in the right direction was taken half 

 a century ago, when the bar-frame hive with its movable 

 combs was substituted for the old time-honored straw-skep. 

 Though reference to bee-keeping and descriptions of the 

 habits and instincts of the honey-bee are to be found in the 

 works of many of the most ancient writers, is it not strange 

 that it was only in 1857 that comb foundation — which is the 

 root of the great success in modern bee-keeping — was in- 

 vented ? The apiarists of the world are indebted to a Ger- 

 man for this valuable invention, which, however, was im- 

 proved and perfected in America — notably by Mr. A. I. 

 Root, of Ohio. 



In 1881, the Irish Bee-Keepers' Association was founded 

 by a few of the leading bee-keepers in Ireland, meeting in 

 Dublin, " with " — to quote a short paragraph from its an- 

 nual report—" the twofold object of advocating the more 

 humane and intelligent treatment of the honey-bee, and 

 bettering the condition of the cottagers of Ireland by the 



