1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



335 



LANGSTBOTH, THE "HUBEB" OF 

 AMERICA. 



f^IIE following biographical sketch of 

 I'' our friend Lano^stroth , we copy by per- 

 l mission from the Amerkan Apk'ultKr- 

 ist for January. The editor has also 

 kindly loaned us the engraving of 

 friend L., which will doubtless prove inter- 

 esting to many of our readers. Tlie article 

 has an additional interest, coming from our 

 good friend J. E. Pond. 



The beginner in bee culture of the present day can 

 have no conception of the many difficulties that 

 were met with under the " old box-hive and brim- 

 stone " style of management, or the almost insur- 

 mountable obstacles that presented themselves to 

 the old-time amateur in an attempt to solve those 

 mysteries which now are made plain as an open 



self to g-arner in those facts which, when published 

 and given to the world, opened a new field for labor, 

 both intellectual and manual; and his work on bee 

 culture to-day, as revised by his son-in-law, Mr. L. 

 C. Hoot, stands out before the world as one of the 

 best treatises on the subject which has ever been 

 written. 



Prior to 1852, the ablest bee-keepers of both the old 

 and the new world were endeavoring to render the 

 management of their bees more simple and easy, 

 and many plans had been devised (pone of which 

 wei-e really practicable) to enable the whole interior 

 of the hive to be put under the complete control of 

 the owner. Bars and slats of various kinds had been 

 used to some extent; but still, although a great im- 

 provement, they were not just what was desired. 

 The march of improvement in this direction was 

 slow; still some progress was made; but not until 



REV. L,. L. LANGSTROXn. 



book. True it is, that in days long gone by some- 

 thing had been learned in regard to the habits of the 

 honej'-bee; the methods of management then in 

 vogue, rude though they were, still were productive 

 of some little gain. The late lamented Quinby, a 

 man of vigorous frame, possessed of rare intelli- 

 gence, and an acute, active, and far-reaching mind, 

 not only had shown that, even with the box-hive, 

 and such rough appliances as he necessarily used 

 thei-ewith, one could, by close attention to the busi- 

 ness, and by careful, intelligent management, bring 

 about results that were fairly remunerative, but was 

 one of the first to see and appreciate the value of the 

 movable frame of Mr. Langsiroth, and also to 

 adopt and use it; by which use he encouraged and 

 emboldened Mr. Langstroth to make his invention 

 public, and thus aided in making apiculturh what it 

 now is, one of the leading industries of the world. 

 Mr. Quinby also by close observation enabled him- 



the Rev. L. L. Langstroth devised the sectional 

 movable frame, and introduced it to i)ublic notice, 

 was success made positive and cei-tain; and with its 

 introduction the doom of the old box hive was seal- 

 ed, and brimstone relegated to its natui*al home. 



Who is the Rev. L. L. Langstroth? is a question 

 that is of tan asked by bee-keepers of this generation, 

 and perhai)s it may be of some interest to know 

 something of his history. 



Lorenzo Lorain Langstroth was born in Philadel- 

 phia, Dec. 25, 1810. As a boy he took great interest 

 in natural history, and the happiest days of his youth 

 were those spent in watching the habits of the vari- 

 ous insects found in and near the city of his birlh. 

 His pat-ents were of the old school, and, deeming 

 such studies the height of youthful folly, gave him 

 no encouragement therein; and it was not until the 

 year 1838, that he began to learn something of the 

 honey-bee. At that time he jn-ocured a colony or 



