America's Master of Bee Culture, Naile
America's Master of Bee Culture
This fascinating book, first published in 1942 under the title The Life of Langstroth, is a graphic and gracefully written biography of the man who invented the modern beehive now used throughout the world. Telling the story of a great and noble life and presenting a clear picture of the history of beekeeping, it is here reissued with an informative new foreword by Roger A. Morse, Professor of Apiculture at Cornell University.
Rated among the five or six prime founders of modern theory and practice of bee culture, Langstroth was a clergyman who took up beekeeping as a hobby during a period of poor health. In 1851, in the course of his patient experiments with bees, he discovered a new fact about their behavior, and he used his knowledge to design a hive so perfectly adapted to the bee’s uses and to the keeper’s needs that it revolutionized beekeeping throughout the world. He then developed a skillful system of apiary management and described it in a sound, practical book that became a classic of bee literature. His name was known throughout the beekeeping fraternity.
Rated among the five or six prime founders of modern theory and practice of bee culture, Langstroth was a clergyman who took up beekeeping as a hobby during a period of poor health. In 1851, in the course of his patient experiments with bees, he discovered a new fact about their behavior, and he used his knowledge to design a hive so perfectly adapted to the bee’s uses and to the keeper’s needs that it revolutionized beekeeping throughout the world. He then developed a skillful system of apiary management and described it in a sound, practical book that became a classic of bee literature. His name was known throughout the beekeeping fraternity.
Generous, quotations from Langstroth’s Journal and other writings give a refreshing immediacy to Miss Naile’s narrative. Her book is a fitting tribute to the unusual man who took the mystery out of beekeeping.
VIEW Book Review
Reviewed by Ann Chilcott (Scottish Expert Beemaster) and author of THE BEELISTENER
The author of America’s Master of Bee Culture: The Life of L.L. Langstroth is Florence Naile who was secretary of the Ohio Beekeepers’ Association when she first came across Langstroth’s journal. She was so fascinated by its contents that she read it through in one day and shared some of her findings with us in this biography which includes excerpts from the journal.
This biography was first published in 1942 by Cornell University with a foreword and introduction by Dr. E. F. Phillips, Professor of Apiculture at Cornell University. It was reissued in 1976 with a new foreword by Dr. Roger Morse, Professor of Apiculture at Cornell University, and it is this edition that has been recently republished.
There are twelve chapters, an index, appendix, three illustrations, and a colourful photograph of Langstroth hives on the shiny front cover.
We learn about Lorenzo Langstroth’s Yorkshire family roots and early childhood in Philadelphia, USA, to where his grandfather emigrated in 1767. Born on Christmas day 1810, Langstroth was a curious child and fascinated by insects but was actively discouraged from studying them and was regarded as a peculiar child by his parents. On one occasion, he was punished for capturing flies in paper cages.
Langstroth chose an academic career and graduated with distinction from Yale University where he later lectured during his teaching career. He was loved and respected by his students for his kind and courteous manner, and the way in which he showed a personal interest in their development and progress. During this career he was preparing to join the church ministry.
We discover that this kind and gentle man is plagued by an illness that doctors are unable to diagnose and he suffers from bouts of what sound like depression. He is happily married and has joined the ministry but he finds it hard to focus on his work in the parish. He gives this up because of “head trouble” as he describes it. He is advised to spend as much time as possible out of doors which is good advice for his time. Langstroth meets honey bees close up for the first time in 1838 when he visits a friend who has a glass globe of honey comb on the parlour table, and his interest in insects is rekindled. In fact, he says, “The enthusiasm of my boyish days seemed, like a pent-up fire, to burst out into full flame.”
The globe of honey fascinates him. Back then, surplus honey was collected by placing a glass jar, or globe, upside down over the hole in the crown board above the honey super. It was a relatively tidy way to harvest honey without too much mess.
Langstroth visits the friend’s bees and returns home with two stocks of his own. He relies on his own observations to learn from the bees rather than from books or other beekeepers. He found too many unanswered questions in books.
We learn of Langstroth’s first challenge which was to make a cover board that didn’t get glued down with propolis. The story unfolds, and when he discovers bee space it really opens up new worlds of possibility, and the start of profitable commercial beekeeping. A new hive is invented, a textbook for beekeepers written, and Italian bees introduced to America by Langstroth.
Langstroth was one of the major contributors to modern beekeeping and this biography makes a fitting tribute to someone who made our beekeeping management what it is today. Although Langstroth had poor business acumen and made very little money from his inventions, his love of honey bees and beekeeping overrode this.
I enjoyed learning more about Langstroth but I found parts of the book difficult to read, and the footnotes on many pages, though informative, were distracting. This is more of an educational read than a relaxing story as there is so much information, and many connections to people and places to keep track of. However, this book will pique the interest of those researching the history of beekeeping for study purposes, journalism, or pleasure.
Langstroth’s journal and collection of beekeeping books may be viewed at the Cornell Library of Beekeeping NY. He will remain at the forefront of the world’s greatest beekeepers so I am hopeful that one day this biography will be revised and modernised.
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