CORRESP ONDENCE. 



841 



I have no idea that Prof. Evans thought 

 that he was doing any industry an injury 

 when he wrote the article referred to; but 

 it does seem tha* it is high time that people 

 who write in the name of science about 

 bees should inform themselves as to the 

 facts, which may be obtained from any 

 practical and intelligent apiarist, one or 

 more of whom may be found iu almost every 

 community. 



Very truly, Emehson T. Abbott. 

 8t. Joseph, Mo., December 13, 1891. 



PROFESSOR EVANS'S REPLY. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir : In reply to Mr. Abbott's strictures I 

 may state in general that all accounts of the 

 habits of animals contained iu my paper, so 

 far as they are not the results of my own ob- 

 servations, are based upon the very best au- 

 thorities. In my rejoinder I shall leave my 

 critic in the undisturbed enjoyment of his 

 consciousness of superior knowledge, and 

 confine myself strictly to the points at issue. 

 I was perfectly well aware, before Mr. Ab- 

 bott informed me of the fact, that the old 

 queen goes off with the swarm before her 

 successor is permitted to come out of the 

 cell, and regret that in expressing myself 

 too concisely my words convey au impres- 

 sion which any one who has observed bees 

 or read Iluber knows to bs incorrect. For 

 the purpose I had in view and the point I 

 wished to illustrate it makes no difference 

 whether the old or young queen leaves the 

 hive; and, as I had this point wholly in 

 mind, I did not state the minor fact as ac- 

 curately as I ought to have done. In my 

 paper nothing is said of cordial relations be- 

 tween the two queens ; I fear Mr. Abbott is 

 indulging here in one of those " pleasant- 

 ries," which facetious gentlemen in that 

 part of the country seem to be addicted to, 

 when they write about such funny creatures 

 as bees. What I mentioned was the closer 

 and more cordial relations observed to exist 

 between bee communities which have a ge- 

 netic connection, or (as this phrase appears 

 to puzzb Mr. Abbott) we will say between 

 the mother-hive and its colonies. By whom 

 has this been observed ? Among others by 

 Lenz, " a practical apiarist," and, what is 

 more, a careful sciontiflc observer, who kept 

 bees, not merely to supply the market with 

 honey, but chiefly in order to study their 

 habits. The existence of such a relationship 

 is recognized and referred to as a fact by no 

 less an authority than Prof Wilholm Wundt, 

 who even suggests that the mother-hive and 

 its colonies may form a sort of federation. 

 It is somewhat arrogant, even in a practical 

 apiarist, to denounce any statement as " ut- 

 terly absurd," and to declare that it " has no 

 foundation in fact," simply bccau.se it has 

 not come under his own observation. I did 

 not assert that bees " take oatmeal in prefer- 

 ence to pollen," but that they " readily sub- 



stitute oatmeal for pollen ; " and, in remark- 

 ing that they are " glad " to bo relieved of 

 the extra labor imposed upon former gen- 

 erations of bees, I reasoned perhaps rather 

 recklessly from human analogy, and im- 

 agined them feeling as men would do under 

 the same circumstances. Mr. Abbott insists 

 upon it that they are sorry ; if so, I am sin- 

 cerely sorry for them, and would fain think 

 of them as glad ; but the practical apiarist 

 is inexorable, and I must console myself with 

 the reflection that we really know nothing of 

 the state of their minds. Mr. Abbott say3 

 it is rye-meal ; a German Biencnxcituny says 

 oatmeal {Hafenneld). So far as my argu- 

 ment is concerned, it may be rye or oats, or 

 " it may chance of wheat or of some other 

 grain." 



We now come to the most serious offence, 

 and indeed the only one that seems to have 

 constrained Mr Abbott to wield his pen in 

 defense of a maligned and maltreated indus- 

 try. I have asserted that " apiarists now 

 provide their hives with artificial comb." 

 Whether Prof. Wiley is the author of this 

 statement or not I do not know, but I read it 

 in an American scientific journal, with a full 

 description of the manner of using it, how 

 by revolving movement the honey is thrown 

 out of the comb, and that the bees adapt 

 themselves easily to the new arrangement. 

 The interesting information was quoted by 

 European journals of high standing ; al- 

 though one German paper suggested, rather 

 maliciously as I thought, that the Yankees 

 are a cunning folk, wonderfully productive 

 of strange inventions, including all sorts of 

 canards. Mr. Abbott now states that Prof. 

 Wiley has explained over his own signature 

 that his communication was only a " scien- 

 tific pleasantry," a euphemism for what per- 

 sons endowed with a finer moral sense call 

 by a shorter and harsher name. But how 

 are scientists in a foreign land three thou- 

 sand miles away to know that an American 

 professor has written, to a local paper per- 

 haps, confessing that he is a liar, and that 

 henceforth no one is to believe what he 

 says ? As for myself, I must acknowledge 

 that I never before heard the statement con- 

 tradicted, and I fully share Mr. Abbott's in- 

 dignation against Prof. Wiley for deliber- 

 ately fabricating and disseminating such a 

 falsehood. A man so jocularly disposed 

 and ethically slack-twisted should stop writ- 

 ing on scientific subjects and devote his tal- 

 ents as a professional "funny man" to the 

 comical column of a country newspaper. 



IIow artificial comb, if it could be fabri- 

 cated and the bees should store it, would do 

 injury to the bee-industry, I am at a loss to 

 understand. In Switzerland, where honey is 

 found on the breakfast-table in every inn, at 

 least three fourths of it is artificial honey; 

 and one proprietor of a large hotel recently 

 admitted that he did not have a jar of real 

 honey in the house. Real honey in an arti- 

 ficial comb is certainly preferable to manu- 



