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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 9, 



G'eor£»-c W^ 'Y<irU, - - Editor, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 50 Fifth Ai^enue. - CHICAGO, ILT.. 



?1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Post-Offlce at ChlcaKo as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



Vol. XnV. CHICA&O, ILL., MAY. 9, 1895. No, 19. 



"T'T T ▼ ▼ ▼ y^r ▼ ▼ T ▼ y ■< 



Editorial Budget* 



Mrs. Ctaas. Dadant, I regret to learu, died Friday 

 morning, May 3, aged 78 years. She was married in IS-iT' 

 and came to this country in 1863. She had three children. 

 I know Bro. Dadant and family have the tender sympathy of 

 all bee-keepers in their sorrow, and particularly that of the 

 Bee Journal readers to whom the Dadants are so well known. 



An International Congress of Bee-Keepers is 

 mentioned by Dr. Brown in his department this week. It has 

 been suggested as a feature of the Cotton States and Indus- 

 trial Exposition at Atlanta, Ga., some time between next Sept. 

 18 and Dec. 31. Now the great South will have another op- 

 portunity, as it did at the New Orleans Exposition in Febru- 

 ary, 1 885, to have a grand convocation of bee-keepers from 

 all over the world. At the New Orleans bee-congress 2-i 

 States and Canada were represented. Dr. Brown was the 

 permanent President, and Thos. G. Newman the Secretary. 



Let all who are in favor of holding another International 

 Bee-Keepers' Congress the latter part of this year, in Atlanta, 

 Ga., communicate such desire at once to Dr. J. P. H. Brown, 

 Augusta, Ga. The Bee Journal will co-operate in every way 

 possible to make it a success, if it is decided to hold it. 

 *-.-* 



Father Langfstrotli and his work for bee-keepers 

 is appreciated everywhere. Gleanings reports the receipt of 

 $10 from an admirer of Father L., who keeps bees in Costa 

 Rica, one of the republics in Central America. The amount 

 has been forwarded to Father Langstroth, and gratefully ac- 

 knowledged by his dutiful daughter. 



Editor Root has this to say further about the above gift 

 and its recipient : 



I am sure our American bee-keepers appreciate this, not 

 because of the largeness of the gift, but because of the spirit 

 which prompted it. I can only regret that many of our 

 American bee-keepers, using the Langstroth system, have 

 forgotten to send in their annuity fund even when they agreed 

 voluntarily to send it each year as long as Mr. Langstroth 

 lived. 1 am informed that our venerable and much-respected 

 friend is in very feeble health, and he does not seem to im- 

 prove with the charming spring weather. 



If any who read this feel that they can spare something 

 to help Mr. Langstroth in his declining days, please send it to 

 this office or to The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio, and it will 

 be promptly and properly forwarded. Should you prefer to 

 send your gift direct, address thus : Rev. L. L. Langstroth, 

 120 Ford St., Dayton, Ohio. 



Langfstrotti and the Movahle Frame.— Mr. 



W. L. Rickey, of Pioneer, Ohio, sends a clipping taken from a 

 monthly paper called Comfort, and printed in Maine. The 

 item reads as follows : 



The popular notion that Langstroth was the inventor of 

 movable frames for' bee-hives is an error. Such frames were 

 known in Germany 30 years before 1852, the date of Lang- 

 stroth's first patent. In 1843 Baron vonBerlepsch made use 

 of movable frames, and he refers the idea to a man named 

 Propokovitsch, who employed it in 1841. Evidence to prove 

 this statement is obtainable at the Patent Office in Washing- 

 ton. Furthermore, in a book published in London in 1841, 

 entitled the " Natural History of the Honey-Bee," on page 

 300, may be found a description of comb-frames hinged like the 

 leaves of a book. 



By the way, the notion held by bee-farmers, that the dove- 

 tailed method of constructing hives has been patented, and 

 must not be imitated, is a mistake. It has never been pat- 

 ented, and is a common right. Anybody may manufacture 

 such hives. 



Oh, no ; Langstroth never Invented the Langstroth hive. 

 Shakespeare never wrote Shakespeare, and there never was 

 such a person as Napoleon Bonaparte ! It does seem strange 

 that any respectable paper would print such stuff. If you 

 care to know particulars, you will find the ground all gone 

 over in the first volume of the American Bee Journal, 1861. 

 The leaf-hive mentioned was the Huber hive of a hundred 

 years ago. Langstroth gave a description of it in his book, 

 and acknowledged his obligation to Huber, but it was valuable 

 only as a hive for making observations, and no practical bee- 

 keeper would think of using it ; and if you will look on page 

 13 of the American Bee Journal you will see a picture of the 

 Propokovitsch hive, and you can see whether you would like 

 to use it. Father Langstroth was robbed of much wealth 

 that should have come to him through this hive, and now that 

 the patent has expired, the man who would rob him of a par- 

 ticle of the honor to which he is richly entitled, must be very 

 low down in the scale. 



Mr. H. D. Cutting:, of Tecumseh, Mich., in a letter 

 received April 29, says he has had about three weeks of la 

 grippe, but was getting better, and hoped soon to be all right 

 again. Bro. Cutting was a constant attendant in the honey 

 department of the World's Fair for several months, having in 

 charge the fine exhibit made by the State of Michigan. I had 

 many a pleasant chat with Bro. C. that memorable summer, 

 as well as with the other State superintendents of apiariatt 

 exhibits. 



Mr. Edmund 'Whittlesey. 



On March 28, Edmund Whittlesey, of Pecatonica, 111., 

 bee-keeper, farmer, and useful citizen, passed to the great 

 beyond, another victim of that insidious malady, la grippe. 



Mr. Whittlesey was born in Stockbridge, Mass., June 17, 

 1814. His boyhood and youth were passed in Lorain county, 

 Ohio. In 1885 he came to Winnebago county, Illinois, and 

 soon after took up the tract of government land on which he 

 resided for more than 50 years. In 1839 he was married to- 

 Susan Vance, whose death occurred 10 years ago. One- 

 daughter and two sons survive. 



Mr. Whittlesey was a man whose strict integrity and 

 kindly nature won him the esteem and confidence of his fellow 

 men, and many were the positions of honor and trust which 

 he was called upon to fill during the past half century. He 

 was the oldest justice of the peace in continuous service in 

 Illinois, having held that oflSce since 1849. He was also- 

 school treasurer of his township for over 40 years. 



Mr. Whittlesey had been a bee-keeper ever since he es- 

 tablished a home of his own. Bee-hunting was always one of 

 his favorite pastimes, and the foundation of his apiary was a 

 section of a bee-tree which he discovered, sawed out and 



