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.
But Langstroth’s life had its darker side. Owing partly to the difficulty of protecting his patent rights, he received little financial reward for his ingenious invention, and throughout his life he was troubled by a mysterious nervous ailment that at times made him hate the sight of a bee.
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.