THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



the whole interior of the hive, to be 

 put under the complete control of 

 the owner. Bars and slats of vari- 

 ous kinds had been used to some ex- 

 tent, but still although a great 

 improvement, they were not just 

 what was desired. The march of 

 improvement in this direction was 

 slow ; still some progress was made, 

 but not until the Rev. L. L. Langs- 

 troth devised the sectional movable 

 frame and introduced it to public 

 notice, was success made positive 

 and certain, and with its introduc- 

 tion the doom of the old box hive 

 was sealed, and brimstone relega- 

 ted to its natural home. 



Who is the Rev. L. L. Langs- 

 troth? is a question that is often 

 asked by beekeepersof this genera- 

 tion, and perhaps it may be of some 

 interest to know something of his 

 history. 



Lorenzo Lorain Langstroth was 

 born in Philadelphia, Dec. 25, 1810. 

 As a boy he took great interest in 

 natural histor}^, and the happiest 

 days of his youth were those spent 

 in watching the habits of the va- 

 rious insects found in and near 

 the city of his birth. His parents 

 were of the old school, and deem- 

 ing such studies the height of 

 youthful folly, gave him no en- 

 couragement therein, and it was 

 not until the year 1838, that he be- 

 gan to learn something of the 

 honey bee. At that time he pro- 

 cured a colony or two of bees, and 

 began studying them under great 

 disadvantages, he at that time 

 never having seen or heard of a 

 work on bee-culture ; and for the 

 first year of his pursuit in this di- 



rection, the only published work 

 of the kind that came to his notice 

 was written by a man who doubted 

 the existence of a queen bee. Af- 

 ter graduating at Yale College, he 

 pursued the study of theolog}-, and 

 was settled over his first church at 

 Andover, Mass. His health be- 

 came in a short time so much im- 

 paired, that he was obliged to give 

 up his pastoral charge, and in 

 1839, he removed to Greenfield, 

 Mass., where for a few^'ears he 

 was engaged in teaching. Finding 

 that out-door labor and exercise of 

 some kind was absolutely neces- 

 sary, he devoted such time as he 

 could sp£\re from his duties as a 

 teacher to his apiary, and carefully 

 verified all the experiments of 

 Avhich he had read, and entered 

 into many of his own, for the pur- 

 pose of gaining such knowledge 

 by actual observation, as might be 

 useful to him or to beekeepers in 

 general. The methods of manage- 

 ment then in use were not at all 

 satisfactory to him, and he was 

 constantly endeavoring to devise 

 some way or means, whereby com- 

 plete control of the whole interior 

 of the hive might be given him. 

 He thoroughly tested bars and 

 slats, and even endeavored to make 

 a practical use of the leaf hive of 

 Huber. This leaf hive, however, 

 was too clumsy (as any one may 

 learn by attempting to use one) 

 and he became almost discouraged 

 at the poor success he met with. 

 At last the idea came to him, that 

 if bees will build comb on bars set 

 on top of the hive, why will \\\Qy 

 not build it in a frame hung in the 



