T86 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



December 15, 



"Practical bee-keeping," says Langstroth, "was in a 

 very deprest condition, being almost entirely neglected by 

 those naost favorably situated for Its pursuit." 



At this period there appeared in America a man whose 

 genius for investigation was destined to establish the science 

 and to revolutionize the art of apiculture. It Is just 50 years 

 since the Rev. L. L. Langstroth was obliged to lay aside the 

 active work of the ministry on account of failing health, and 

 began to devote his time more fully to the study and practice 

 of apiarian pursuits. 



It is by such strange providences that the world's great 

 problems are sometimes workt out. Had Mr. Langstroth's 

 strength been sufficient for a vigorous prosecution of his 

 chosen work, the improvements which he inaugurated In bee- 

 keeping might have been left for some other American genius 

 to devise, or, what Is more likely, had been accredited to the 

 old world, where the germ-thought was already taking form, 

 unknown to the patient and gifted experimenter in this 

 country. 



I said but for Langstroth's failing health it might have 

 been reserved for some other genius to surprise the world with 

 the same improvement in methods; but genius is nothing but 

 hard work, patient plodding and constant endeavor to develop 

 the Ideal. What we call genius is the metal of the mind tried 

 in the furnace of application. Langstroth did not wake up 

 some fine morning when the birds were singing their sweetest 

 songs in the the orchard, and the bees were making music 

 among the linden blossoms, and proceed at once to elaborate 

 his new system of bee-keeping as tho it had come to him in a 

 dream. 



Morse did not flash upon the world in one brilliant moment 

 /lis great achievement of conveying thought by the electric 

 telegraph. It took years of study and barrels of midnight oil 

 to develop the Idea uppermost in his mind. Nevertheless the 

 name of Morse is immortal. We call him a genius. Thus did 

 Langstroth study, observe and experiment through years of 

 patient waiting until he gave the people access to the interior 

 economy of the hive, and to the industry an impetus never 

 before attained. He left a legacy to the American bee-keeper 

 that will never be exhausted. The dividends from the fund 

 of practical knowledge which he brought to light by his sys- 

 tem of management will continue to bless humanity beyond 

 the stretch of our imagination. The invention of the Lang- 

 stroth hive and the publication of his book on the Honey-Bee 

 aroused interest in a subject which had been a sealed volume 

 to the great masses of the people. It was a revelation of Na- 

 ture, interesting as fiction, charming as poetry. 



Nature-studies are always interesting. All we need to 

 make them so Is a teacher like Agasslz, or Huber, or Lang- 

 stroth, to lead us out Into the delightful fields of awakened 

 observation. 



The introduction of the Italian bee Into this country soon 

 after Langstroth's improvement in the hive gave a still greater 

 momentum to the desire for advancement In the study and 

 practice of this interesting and important adjunct of the farm. 

 Since then we have weighed In the balance of utility nearly 

 everything that gathers honey. The Syrian, the Cyprian, the 

 Carniolan, have each contributed its blood to the building of 

 a race adapted to the needs of this continent. That we shall 

 finally succeed In breeding a bee better adapted to this country 

 than anything yet Imported Is the confident hope and expecta- 

 tion of not a few persons who have given the subject consid- 

 eration. 



When the American Bee Journal was establisht, in 1861, 

 another step was taken toward the dissemination of apicultural 

 Information. It was the beginning of an efiort to jjopularize 

 the science and art of bee-culture. At this present writing 

 there are eight periodicals in the United States devoted almost 

 exclusively to bee-keeping, many of them edited with markt 

 ability and enthusiasm ; and hardly an agricultural journal Is 

 publisht that does not devote a portion of Its space to the sub- 

 ject. Books both scientific and practical have been multiplied 

 until apiculture need no longer be considered in the realm of 

 mystery or on the borders of the domaiu of luck. 



The extractor, the smoker, the section-box, the bee-escape, 

 the queen-excluder, foundation, queen-rearing — all are prod- 

 ucts of the past 50 years, and all the outgrowth of the mov- 

 able-frame, conceived and perfected by the Prince of Ameri- 

 can bee-keepers — the immortal Langstroth. 



According to the census of 1870, which was the first 

 statistics obtained by the government relating to the bee-In- 

 dustry that I regard as reliable, the apiarian products of the 

 United States were — pounds of honey, 14,702,815; pounds 

 of wax, 631,129. By the last National Census, 1890, the 

 figures given are 63,897,327 pounds of honey, and 1,166,- 

 588 pounds of wax ; showing an increast production in the 

 20 years, of nearly 350 percent of honey, and nearly 85 per- 



cent of wax. That the latter product did not keep pace with 

 the former is probably due to better methods, fewer colonies 

 brimstoned, and consequently a less quantity obtained from 

 the practice of melting combs and stralniug. 



The population of the United States Increast about 55 per- 

 cent during the two decades before mentioned. By the last 

 enumeration the total population was 52,622,250. It will 

 be seen from the figures given showing the production of 

 honey, that the best we have yet been able to do is a little 

 more than one pound per capita per annum. If we deduct 

 the quantity used In various manufactures and as medicine, 

 and also the large quantity used in some families every year, 

 it can readily be believed that one-half the people never taste 

 honey, notwithstanding the modern facilities for producing It. 

 In my own family, averaging about eight, we consume at least 

 400 pounds a year, or 50 pounds each. If that ratio were 

 maintained by all families we could dispose of 50 times the 

 quantity we now produce. Therefore, there is no immediate 

 danger of over-production If the proper distribution can be 

 accomplisht ; and with the facilities for distribution which we 

 now possess compared with those of 50 years ago it would 

 seem that there is yet avast field for our activities. 



But problems have been forced upon us which never rackt 

 the brains of the ancients. I have never read that In the 

 olden time bee-keepers were compelled to flee to the mountains 

 and forego civilized society in order to keep bees. 



I wonder if in Babylon they had a city ordinance prohib- 

 iting Assyrian bees from flying over the walls Into the cele- 

 brated hanging gardens ? It probably never occurred to Neb- 

 uchadnezzar that a royal decree would have prevented every 

 bee in the kingdom from sucking the flowers which he planted 

 for his imported wife. It was reserved for some 2x4 "city 

 fathers " of a 2x4 corporation to banish from the corporate 

 limits of their 2x4 town every Innocent bee that might be 

 found on a honeysuckle or In the act of appropriating a drop 

 of water from a reeking back alley ! 



Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar had some sort of heathenish 

 idea that insects were a part of the great plan of the Creator 

 to pollinate the blossoms and fructify the orchards and vine- 

 yards; but these modern smarties, who know about as much 

 of science as the average Philippine insurgent does of the 

 American Constitution, attempt to improve on God's plan of 

 doing things. The " man in the moon " ought to hold his nose 

 when he is compelled to look down on such decaying wisdom I 



If some of the so-called horticulturists, and some of the 

 small-calibre municipal authorities could have their way, and 

 drive the Industrious bee into retirement or bankruptcy, I 

 imagine I see an army of two-legged pollinators going around 

 the country with their camel's-hair brushes and a pot of yel- 

 low dust, endeavoring to restore the fertility to garden, farm 

 and orchard that existed before the fall — of human greatness. 



Another fact which we are obliged to face to-day, didn't 

 trouble our forefathers. That fact Is the adulteration of 

 extracted honey, and the misbranding of fradulent substitutes 

 which are as innocent of flowers and bee-mediation as a baby 

 is of the sins of its grandmother. 



Our grandfathers knew nothing of that beantlful-looking, 

 but unsatisfying, syrup, known as glucose. Their bees got 

 honey fiom the flowers, and man-made honey was as much an 

 undiscovered article as Chicago was an unknown city. Both 

 seem, now, to flourish together. Those Chicago " bees " beat 

 the world In turning out surplus! They work not only day 

 aud night, but just as well in winter as in summer. No win- 

 ter problem to solve — no dull season with those city " bees !" 

 Corn at 15 cents per bushel, and 15 pounds of " pure white 

 clover honey " from every bushel Is ahead of anything our 

 grandfathers knew even in those " good old times !" 



There is no use for us to say, among ourselves at least, 

 that extracted honey isn't adulterated or counterfeited. Any 

 bee-keeper with his eyes open and taste uncorrupted can easily 

 satisfy himself to the contrary. 



I have sometimes wondered if the invention of the ex- 

 tractor was a good thing. It cheapened the cost of produc- 

 tion, it increast the output, but It has brought honey Into dis- 

 repute. The opportunity was afforded dishonest people to put 

 up something resembling the genuine article that is sometimes 

 as far from being honest as the serpent that tempted Eve. 



But I suppose the extractor has come to stay, as surely as 

 some sins for which we are not personally responsible ; and 

 the only logical thing to do Is 'to put a stop to it if we can. 

 Unity, courage, discretion — these are the trinity that will 

 bring victory to the cause of purity in foods. 



There are also educational problems In our business yet 

 unsolved. Modern bee-keepers have not the advantage of 

 always being regarded as public benefactors (at least in 

 America where the spirit of independence Is abroad, and cus- 

 tom and precedent sit lightly on the public conscience). 



