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XIIU IILmiOR OF A.mOICIC'A. 



But few of those who in the present day 

 are using the movable-frame liive and prac- 

 tieing the modern methods and management 

 of progressive bee-culture,realize how many 

 sore " trials and troubles " beset the " pio- 

 neers" in developing the pursuit. That 

 development was slow, and every " progres- 

 sive step" was beset with many difficulties. 

 The metliods and management of to-day an 

 an evolution, and to the Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth and his co-worker, the lamented 

 Moses Quinby, we owe an ovirwlielming 

 debt of gratitude for their patient and un- 



he took great interest in natural history.and 

 the happiest days ot his youth were those 

 spent in watching the habits of the various 

 insects found in ami near the city of his 

 birth. His parents were of the "old 

 school," and deeming such studies the height 

 of youthful folly, gave him no encouage- 

 ment therein, and it was not until the year 

 1838, that he began to learn something of the 

 honey-bee. At that time he procured a col- 

 ony or two ot 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 direction, the only published 

 work of that kind tliat came to his notice 

 was written by a man who doubted the ex- 

 istence of a queen-bee. 



After graduating at Yale College, he pur- 

 sued the study of theology, and was settled 

 over his first church at Andover, Mass. His 

 health became in a short time so much im- 

 paired, that he was obliged to give up his 

 pastoral charge, and in 18.39, he removed to 

 Greenfield, Mass., where for a few years he 

 was engaged in teacliing. 



Rev. L. L. Langstroth. 



tiring exertions in revealing to us the mys- 

 teries of the home of the honey-bee. 



Hundreds— aye, thousands — to-day are 

 using the improved methods, who know but 

 little, if anything of these notable men. 



We give herewith an illustration showing 

 the kind, and beueflcent face of Father 

 Langstroth, ( the latest article from -.vhose 

 pen may be found on page .5.5 of this paper), 

 and subjoin a brief biographical sketch 

 written by Mr. J. £. Pond, for the Armrlr 

 cam Apiculturlst about four years ago. 



It is with great pleasure that we have the 

 productions of his pen, consequent upon the 

 return ot his mental powers, by even a 

 brief respite from his painful and oftrre- 

 turning " head trouble." Mr. Pond's article 

 is as follows : 



Lorenzo Lorain Langstroth was born in 

 Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 35, 1810. As a boy 



Finding that out-door labor and exercise 

 of some kind was absolutely necessary, he 

 devoted such as he could spare from his 

 duties as a teacher to his apiary, and care- 

 fully verified all the experiments of whicli 

 he had read, and entered into many of his 

 own, for tlie purpose of gaining such 

 knowledge bj; actual observation, as might 

 be useful to him or to bee-keepers in general. 



The methods of management then in use 

 were not at all satisfactory to him, and he 

 was constantly endeavoring to devise some 

 way or means, whereby complete control of 

 the whole interior or 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 U> use one), and he be- 

 came almost discouraged at the poor success 

 he met with. 



At last the idea came to him, that if bees 

 will build comb on bars seton top of the 

 hive, why will they nut build it in a frame 

 hung in the hive ? He tried this plan with 



fear and trembling. Failure had been his 

 lot so many times, that he had hardly dared 

 to hope for success with this his new fancy. 

 As we all know, this experiment did suc- 

 ceed, and tlie result was that ni 1853, he in- 

 troduced the frame to the public, and so 

 well was his work matured, tliat the same 

 style of frame he then devised, is now used 

 more largely than any other, in the exact 

 form he first devised it, and by the ablest 

 apiarists in the country. 



It will be needless to enter into the many 

 discouragements and great opposition, with 

 which he met in his endeavor to bring his 

 frame into general use. It has been intro- 

 duced, and introduced fully and completely; 

 and such are its merits, that the Langstroth 

 frame is now used wherever bees are kept. 



By the term Langstroth frame, I do not 

 mean simply the original frame he devised, 

 and which he still advises ; but 1 do mean 

 that all sectional movable hanging frames, 

 by whatever name may be known, are 

 Langstroth frames. 



As an inventor, the name of L. L. Lang- 

 stroth will live as long as bees are kept, and 

 generations yet unborn will revere his mem- 

 ory. By means of his powers of invention, 

 and through his in.strimientality in putting 

 that invention before tlie public, the api- 

 arist of to-day, with a lew days' practice 

 only, is enabled to see and observe tor him- 

 self, all those mysteries of which Virgil has 

 so beautifully sung, and which the various 

 writers of the past were only enabled to 

 find out, as was Huber, by long years of 

 patient labor, such were the difficulties that 

 then surrounded them. 



With tlie intioduition of the frame a new 

 era began, and through its means bee-cul- 

 ture has been raised from a business of in- 

 significance, to one that is now barely sec- 

 ond to any other. 



Mr. Langstroth was not only successful 

 as an inventor, but also as an author. His 

 treatise on apiculture, "The Hive and the 

 Honey-Bee," stands at the head of all writ- 

 ten works on the subject, and has fairly 

 earned the high distinction given it, of "the 

 classic of apiculture." 



Mr. Langstroth is now an old and feeble 

 man. His health was impaired In early 

 youth by too close attention to his studies, 

 and now he is able to do but little for him- 

 self. 



Modest and unassuming in his manners, 

 and confiding as a child in the honesty ot 

 the world, he, to-day, instead of having 

 reaped a fortune as the result of his valua- 

 ble invention, is not worth a single dollar. 

 But for all this, he stands before the world 

 as one of Nature's noblemen, an honest 

 man. He has fairly and fully earned the 

 proud title that all bee-keepers, who know 

 him, admit belongs to him— the prince of 

 apiarists ; the Huber of America. 



At the apicultural meeting in Chicago, 

 in 1883, the Rev. L. L. Langstroth was pres- 

 ent, and gave an interesting epitome of the 

 rise and progress of American apiculture, 

 and said substantially as follows : 



In experimenting with bee-hives he as- 

 certained the exact distance that bees will 

 not join with propolis or build intervening 

 comb. When this fact was demonstrated, 

 all there was to do was to surround the 

 comb in tlie bar with wood, and leave this 

 distance between it and the hive, and it 

 would not be fastened with propolis, or 

 comb built in it. Thus the movable-frame 

 was born. 



While he was experimenting with it,afriend 

 came into his bee-yard, but he did not hear 

 him or see him until he said, "Friend 

 Lorenzo, thee has not made an invention, 

 but it is a revolution." Time has proved 

 this to be true. 



Mr. Langstroth said, that if the movable- 

 frame had not been born to him, it would 

 have been to some one else, as the time of 

 its advent had fully arrived. 



