iRICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNEK, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VII. 



IM^^Y, IST^S 



No. 11. 



[For Wagner's Americau Bee Journal.] 



Letters of F. Huber. 



We have the pleasure of presenting to our readers 

 the tirst of tlie promised unedited letters of the world 

 renowned Huber. Tliey were first given to tlie world 

 in Z' Apiculteru-, the French Bee Journal so ably 

 edited by M. H. Hainet. 



These letters will have special interest for those 

 who know how largely bee-culture is indebted to the 

 genius, energy, and wonderful enthusiasm of the 

 blind apiarian of Geneva, .'^omc portions of them 

 give charming glimpses of his inner life. Francois 

 Huber, as we read them, becomes a name more loved 

 and honored than ever. His cheerful heartiness in 

 promoting the welfare of others ; his generous appre- 

 ciation of merit wherever found ; his wise discrimi- 

 nation (so seldom at fault) between facts observed and 

 mere theories or conjectures ; his readiness to admit 

 his own mistakes and deficiencies ; his geuuiue mod- 

 esty and almost child-like simplicity, should be studied 

 carefully by all who aspire to benefit tlieir fellow men 

 by describing the works of the Great Creator. 



Keading these letters for the first time, when con- 

 fined to our bed by a railroad accident, we sometimes 

 I'elt almost as though Huber was standing liefore us, 

 and we were about to take him by the hand, and ex- 

 press our affection for the man to whom, in common 

 with the whole apiarian world, we owe so much. 



Knowing how difficult it is in our moments of enthu- 

 siasm not to overestimate our discoveries and inven- 

 tions, how often have we wished that we could ques- 

 tion the first inventor of a movable frame, to learn 

 from him the practical results which he secured by it 

 in his own apiary ; how he obviated what seemed to 

 be its inherent ditilculties, and what, if any improve- 

 ments he made upon it. We expected, of course, no 

 answer to such vain longings, vfhen lo ! we have as 

 it werQ Huber redivivus, telling us with his own lips 

 the reasons Avhich prevented him Irom carrying his 

 speculations into practice — criticizing this and tliat 

 defect of his hive ; suggesting alterations and im- 

 provements, which go far to convince us tliat had he 

 been able to use his own eyes, he would have excelled 

 as much iu practical as he did in scientific apiculture. 

 % Imagine Huber in his apiary, with eyes, ministeiiug 

 fully to his wonderfully inquisitive and penetrating 

 intellect, and how many mistakes, compelled by his 

 reliance upon others, might have been avoided ? 

 Might he not have given a consistency and practical 

 efficiency to his discoveries and inventions, which 

 we now see ought necessarily to have flowed from 

 them, and yet which were not reached until more 

 than half a century after his first letters were pub- 

 lished to the world ? 



L. L. Langstuoth. 



[From L' Apiculteur.] 



Unpublished Letters of F. Huber. 



Under the title of Apicultural Documents, we 

 publish the correspondence of Huber with a dis- 

 tinguished practical beekeeper of Switzerland, 

 C. t^. Petitpierre Dubied — who was for a short 

 time, in some measure, a co-worker with the 

 distinguished observer of Geneva. The apiary 

 of Dubied was at Couvet, and was one of the 

 largest in the Canton. Some of Huber' s letters 

 were written by himself — others were written by 

 his wife or daughter at his dictation. 



OucHY, October 13, 1800. 



Sir : — I have just received your letter of Sep- 

 tember ir)tli. It has been nearly a mouth in 

 reaching me, as you see — having been directed 

 to Pregny, whicli phice I left nearly eight years 

 ago. I am flattered, sir, with the confidence 

 you so freely place in me. My observations in 

 Natural History liave disclosed to me a method 

 which may be of advantage to beekeepers. I 

 promised myself to be the first to test it ; but 

 the circumstances in which I, as well as so many 

 others have been i)laced,*have not pei"mitted me 

 to give any consistency to ray speculations. 



Some persons have given my leaf hive a trial, 

 and because they did not take all the neces- 

 sary precautions, or Avere not seconded by the 

 skill of their assistants, it has not proved in 

 their hands as great a success as Burnens found 

 it, and as I was too ready to believe all others 

 would. This method tlien has certainly the dis- 

 advantage of requiring both bkill and courage f 

 in those who ]jractice it or to whom it is en- 

 trusted. But when these qualities are united I 

 venture to assert that it promises more advan- 

 tages than any others that have been proposed. 

 I advise those persons then, who have done me 



*C)wing to the French Revolution of 1789. Ed. 



f Huber's original letters suggest very obviously, 

 what this and other remarks to follow, put beyond 

 question, viz. : that he did not know how easily bees 

 could be pacified by a little smoke or sweetened wa- 

 ter. With this knowledge, the Huber hive, with its 

 close fitting sections, can be used by any one of ordi- 

 nary skill and courage, who is willing to devote the 

 extra time required for all manipulations. 



L. L. L. 



