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Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:09:49 -0500 |
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On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:06:58 -0500, David.Meldrum
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Not on line, but the definitive Langstroth biography is the book
>"America's Master of Bee Culture" by Florence Naile ISBN 0-8014-1053-3.
>It is hard to find, but if you search around on line used book stores
>you can often turn up a copy for sale.
>
I recently came across a copy of this book and have found it interesting
reading. Most refrences to Langstroth I have read say only that "As a
child he had shown a rather unusual interest in insects...". And I've
always wonder, "what does that mean, he liked to torture flies?" So I was
a bit surprised to read on
page 36 of Florence's book that "When he was six years old, so his mother
afterwards told him, his teachers reported that although he was doing well
in other respects she had to punish him for spending time in catching
flies and shutting them in paper cages."
But the book goes on to tell how, as a boy, Langstroth wore the knees out
of his pants studing ants and cicadas. According to this book Langstroth
first
noticed cicadas when he was seven. A brood of cicadas hatched in
Philadelphi in that year, 1817.
Langstroth writes about taking his daughter and some of her classmates
back to Philadelphia in his 40th year to observe another brood of cicadas
hatching. He says about that night, "...but from my boyish recollections I
could have described them almost as vividly and accurately as I could
after these last observations."
It seems that Langstroth never lost the wonder and fascination he had
for insects as a child. I guess that is what others were trying to say by
refering to his "unusual interest".
Maybe someone can now write a book about how many researchers and REAL
(tm) beekeepers out there secretly dream of being the next Lorenzo
Lorraine. This syndrom (LLL syndrom) has led to many inovations over the
years but has also resulted in a surplus of articles on hive ventilation
etc.
Will the next Lorenzo Lorraine please stand up? (Ok, you can sit down
again, at least you got some exercise).
L.L. Hancock
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