JPablished "Weelcly, at 91,00 per annum. 



Sample Copy sent on AppUcatlon, 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 3, 1896. 



No. 36. 



mR. BARNETT TAVLOR. 



Little did we think, when preparing the biographical 

 sketch of the late lamented Allen Pringle, that so soon would 

 we be called upon to do the same for another prominent 

 worker in the ranks of bee-culture. 



Just previous to learning the sad news of his death, we 

 had heard that Mr. Taylor was convalescing ; that he soon 

 expected to be among his bees, and that shortly he would 

 have some interesting things to write about for the bee-papers, 

 as a result of this season's experiments which he had begun 

 to make before his last sickness. So our great surprise can 

 be imagined, when we received the brief letter from the son, 

 telling us that his beloved father had departed this life. 



We had the great pleasure of seeing Mr. Taylor at the 

 World's Fair convention, though we presume few who at- 

 tended that meeting were aware of his presence — he was so 

 modest and retiring, so unassuming. But all of our readers 

 knew full well his great ability as a practical bee-keeper, 

 from his many helpful articles contributed to the leading bee- 

 papers of America. 



We believe among his claimed inventions were, a divisible 

 brood-chamber hive; wire-end frames ; slotted separators; a 

 swarm catcher ; and last, but far from least, his section comb- 

 leveJer, which was recently illustrated and mentioned with 

 unstinted praise in these columns. 



The whole of modern beedom will greatly miss the wise 

 counsels and instruction that both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Pringle 

 were ever ready and so able to impart. But their works will 

 follow them, and as the years roll on, their names will shine 

 out with no lustreless radiancy in the constellation of apicul- 

 tural leaders and teachers of the nineteenth century. 



In a biographical sketch of Mr. Taylor, published in the 

 American Bee Journal for Jan. 5, 1893, we find that he was 

 born in Green county, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1830. His 

 father died when he was two years old, and he remained with 

 his mother until his 16th year, when they moved to Quincy, 

 111. There he lived nearly three years, one of which was 

 spent in the army raised by Gov. Tom Ford to disperse the 

 mob that killed Joe Smith in the spring of 1845, and drove 

 the Mormons from their homes at Nauvoo in the fall of that 

 year. Here it was he worked in a printing and book-binding 



office. Afterwards he moved to Green county, Wisconsin, in 

 the fall of 1848. At the age of 17 years he had mechanical 

 skill enough to do the inside finishing for a Methodist church, 

 which, when completed, gave entire satisfaction. 



In the spring of 1849 he secured his first swarm of bees, 

 which increased to many colonies in a few years. 



Mr. Taylor remained in Wisconsin until 1856, when he 

 moved to Forestville, Fillmore county, Minn. Immediately 

 he purchased a colony of bees, which he increased to si.x the 

 first season, and to 31 the second, and he sold .$175 worth of 

 surplus honey. His bee-keeping up to this time had been 

 with box-hives, in the old style. At this point he secured 

 " Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," and also obtained the agency 

 for Langstroth's movable-comb hive, and began bee-keeping 

 in a more scientific manner. 



He at once became dissatisfied with the guess-work of the 

 spacing frames, and being of an inventive turn of mind, 

 invented the wire-end frame as now used in his hive, which 





BarncU Taylor. 



he considered the most practical frame and hive in use since 

 1857. 



During all these years he gave bee-keeping his best 

 thoughts, and doing the (to him) delightful work with his own 

 hands. He increased his colonies until he produced 26,000 

 pounds of fine comb honey in one season, and his intense 

 interest in his apicultural work continued up to the time of 

 his recent illness. 



At the Taylor homestead there is to be found one of the 



