80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



doubt, seeing that the structure of the sting 

 makes it quite unsuitable for such a purpose." 

 Ero. Clarke better instruct those British editors. 



Some think that an occasional fire in the cel- 

 lar is as good as or better than one kept contin- 

 ually burning. While I doubt that (providing 

 the fire is needed at all), it is possible that the 

 continuous fire is not worth enough more to 

 pay for the extra trouble. If an occasional fire 

 is used, I believe I would as soon have it in the 

 milder spells, rather than the severer spells of 

 weather. 



What is honey? I'd like an answer to that, 

 which would do to go into a dictionary. I find : 

 A sweet juice collected by bees from the flowers 

 of plants, and deposited in cells of the comb in 

 hives.— Webster. The nectar of flowers when 

 collected by bees and deposited in honey-combs 

 in the hive. — Secor. The saccharine exudation 

 of flowers, gathered and stored by the bees.— 

 Wiley. Digested nectar.— Coofe. Is either of 

 these right, or what is right? 



LANGSTROTH'S REMINISCENCES. 



HOW HE BECAME INTERESTED IN BEES. 



The end of my Andover ministry was just 

 what might have been expected. My health 

 broke down entirely, and, after the exhausting 

 demands made by a revival of religion, I lost 

 my voice for a time, and came near losing my 

 life. It now became evident that I must resign 

 my pastorate. After this step I accepted an in- 

 vitation to become principal of the Abbott Fe- 

 male Academy, in Andover. At the request of 

 my people the connection between us was not 

 formally dissolved until nearly a year after my 

 resignation. I supplied the pulpit by exchang- 

 ing with the neighboring pastors, and by giving 

 place occasionally to candidates whom the peo- 

 ple wished to hear. Little pastoral work was 

 done by me, and yet my salary was paid in full 

 unto the day I moved away. I shall never 

 cease to remember with gratitude the Andover 

 people for their considerate and loving treat- 

 ment of their young minister. 



At the time of my marriage, my mother and 

 one sister became entirely dependent on me, and 

 made their home with us as hoarders in the fam- 

 ily of one of our deacons. WhcMi T began house- 

 keeping, in the spring of 1S37, the inflation of 

 prices in the time of President VanBuren had 

 culminated. I paid *1.").00 for my first barrel of 

 flour; and although my salary was considered a 

 good one, and was paid promptly every quarter, 

 it soon became quite apparent that my expenses 

 would exceed my income. My dear wife, in- 

 stead of even intimating that it was hard for us 

 to begin the world with ex])enses much greater 

 than would suffice for a considerable family, al- 

 ways encouraged me in doing my duty for the 

 relief of the dear ones whom God had made de- 

 pendent on us, saying that we might thus safe- 

 ly trust events to our heavenly Father. 



There came, one day, a gentleman from Bos- 

 ton, with a letter from my old friend Prof. 01m- 

 stead. of Yale College. This man's son had 

 fallen behind his classes, and needed private in- 

 struction, and his father wished to place him 

 under my care. He seemed unwilling to take 

 any denial, and oftered me for my services a 

 very liberal sum. saying that he would pay 

 more if that was not enough. This providence 

 of (iod supplied our wants. 



Having accepted an invitation to become the 

 principal of the Greenfield, Mass., High School 

 for Young Ladies, I left Andover in the spring 

 of 1840. While acting as principal of that school 

 I supplied for nearly two years the pulpit of the 



Second Congregational Church, and then be- 

 came its pastor. With an increasing family I 

 again began to find my income too small, when 

 a gentleman visited me, bringing a letter from 

 his sister, who was well acquainted with my 

 wife. Having a daughter quite hard of hear- 

 ing, he wished to have her educatidn completed 

 in our family; and for a considerable time we 

 received from this source such ample remunera- 

 tion as our necessities required. 



My first child, a son, was born July 13th, 1837. 

 My second, a daughter, was born July Kith, 1840. 

 When about a year and a half old she became 

 afflicted with a spinal complaint, and we feared 

 that she would grow up a deformed cripple. 

 For many months she lay in her little crib, on 

 my side of the bed. that I might lift her and 

 change her position, as she would pitifully 

 moan out during the night, '" It hurtsi oh it 

 hurts! ■' My wife says I often fell asleep while 

 trying to amuse her with childish stories. As 

 is frequently the case in spinal complaint, her 

 mind developed abnormally fast; and in look- 

 ing over remarks which she made, and which 

 my wife set down at the time, it hardly seems 

 possible that such things could have been said 

 by a child of her years. One day she asked her 

 mother whether God would let her hem his 

 pocket handkerchiefs when she got to heaven; 

 and when told that God did not need any pock- 

 et handkerchiefs she replied, " Oh! yes, mother, 

 he does ; for I heard you read the other day 

 from the Bible that he would wipe away all 

 tears from their eyes." It was many years be- 

 fore she recovered so as to lay aside the appli- 

 ances which she was obliged to wear by night 

 as well as by day. 



The apostle says, '" We have not a high- priest 

 that can not be touched with the feeling of our 

 infirmities." Jesus was human as well as di- 

 vine; and we feel sui'e that, under all circum- 

 stances, he is able to sympathize with our suf- 

 fering humanity. 



More than fifty years have passed away since 

 we grieved over our suffering child, and yet I 

 can never see a mother with a child afflicted 

 with spinal disease but that my heart goes out 

 to her in deep sympathy, and I want to know 

 all about her troubles, even if I can suggest no- 

 thing that will help her. When, later in life, I 

 was confined to a bed of suffering by a railroad 

 accident, the words, " He was wounded for our 

 transgressions, he was bruised for our iniqui- 

 ties," seemed to touch my heart more than they 

 had ever done before; and my sympathy for the 

 poor wounded soldiers was greatly increased. 



I have already said, that, notwithstanding 

 my early passion for studying insect-life, I can 

 not remember, with a single trifling exception, 

 that I took any special interest in such matters 

 during my college life. In the summer of 1838 

 the sight of a large glass globe, on th<^ parlor- 

 table of a friend, filled with beautiful honey in 

 the comb, led me to visit his bees, kept in an at- 

 tic chamber; and in a moment the enthusiasm 

 of my boyish days seemed, like a pent-up fire, 

 to burst out into full flame. Before I went 

 home I bought two stocks of bees in common 

 box hives, and thus my apiarian career began. 

 With th(^ exception of a small book, thn author 

 of which seemed to doubt the existence of such 

 a thing as a queen-bee, and my schoolboy's 

 Virgil Delphini, I knew absolutely nothing of 

 the vast literature of bee-keeping, and of course 

 my progress was very slow. In the end I was 

 undoubtedly a great gainer by this ignorance of 

 books, as what came under my own observation 

 was so carefully studied as to become much 

 more my own. Almost the very first thing that 

 I bought, when I removed from Andover to 

 Greenfield, was a stock of bees in a hollow log. 

 Increasing gradually the number of my colo- 



