Kent Stienburg  wrote:

> He
> ...never have invisioned a medium like the web and Bee-L where people
> could share ideas from around the world about their hobby/living  
> instantly.
> What would this form have been like if we could transpose it to  
> 1851? ... I would not hesitate to bet the Mr. Langstroth would have
> been on Bee-L.

I've been looking at the recent ABJ articles put up (digitally) at the  
Mann library site ( http://bees.library.cornell.edu/ ) and  
interestingly beekeepers then as now harbor a myriad of opinions &  
various leaders in the beekeeping world had their moments of  
contention.   They hashed it out by snail mail & through the journal -- 
or at national meetings.  The WWW allows us to indulge daily rather  
than monthly!  I imagine that the debates would have been weighed down  
by the long time between point/counter points.

I would encourage all to take a look at the digital library on early  
American beekeeping.  I find that their observations are very astute &  
some details perhaps more precise that what we come up with--perhaps  
due to a slower life that allowed such a in depth dissertation on each  
point.

I would also thank Aaron for us lurkers who just don't usually find  
the time to join the conversations!   We all gain insite into our  
craft through this media.

Mike Griggs

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************