BIOGRAPHY OF L. L. LANGSTROTH. 
Lorenzo Lorrain Lanestrorta, the ‘father of American 
Apiculture,”’ was born in the city of Philadelphia, December 
25, 1810. He early showed unusual interest in insect life. 
His parents were intelligent and in comfortable circum- 
stances, but they were not pleased to see him ‘ waste so 
much time’’ in digging holes in the gravel walks, filling them 
with crumbs of bread and dead flies, to watch the curious 
habits of the ants. No books of any kind on natural history 
were put into his hands, but, on the contrary, much was said 
to discourage his ‘‘ strange notions.’’ Still he persisted in 
his observations, and gave to them much of the time that 
his playmates spent in sport. 
In 1827, he entered Yale College, graduating in 1831. 
His father’s means having failed, he supported himself by 
teaching, while pursuing his theological studies. After serv- 
ing as mathematical tutor in Yale College for nearly two 
years, he was ordained Pastor of a Congregational church 
in Andover, Massachusetts, in May, 1836, and was married 
in August of that yearto Miss A. M. Tucker of New Haven. 
Strange to say, notwithstanding his passion in early life 
for studying the habits of insects, he took no interest in 
such pursuits during his college life. In 1837, the sight of 
a glass vessel filled with beautiful comb honey, on the table 
of a friend, led him to visit the attic where the bees were 
kept. This revived all his enthusiasm, and before he went 
home he purchased two colonies of bees in old box hives. 
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