THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



139 



I'm quite willing to endorse the way H. E. 



Hill, in the Atnerican Bee Keeper gets down 



to the correct first principles of things in 



general, as below. 



" If a man had lived from infancy in solitary 

 continemont. without {ir<>, having no knowledge 

 of the oatsido world or the tilings pertaining 

 thereto, liow could he know tliat Canada tliistles 

 were ditKcnlt to eradicate from the soil, or that 

 It wonld hurt to put his liand into the fire ? An 

 opinion of the relative merits of the varit>uB 

 races of bees is more than liahh^ to be erroneous 

 if based on coinmou sense [so calledj witliout 

 experience." 



Yes, and the teaching will apply mightily 



to many other things in bee-keeping, and to 



an immense number of things outside. 



Common sense is a grand guide when it has 



abundance of fact and experience to work 



with: but helpless when these are lacking. 



Much that claims to be common sense is 



only asinine conceit, wliich (in a scientific 



horn ) sagely and sweetly sees through the 



millstone before the hole has been pecked 



in it. 



The Review. 



I believe I have at divers and sundry times 

 spoken of the Review in decided terms of 

 praise. Permit me to point to these pre- 

 vious efifusions, nailed to the bed-post of the 

 past, and sleepily say, " Them's my senti- 

 ments." ■ I sleep, I dream. 



Behold the form of a vision rises before me. 

 It is big fat pocket book. They put a silver 

 dime into it ; and it drops out below an old 

 copper cent. Anon they put in a gold piece ; 

 and it drops out below a Imtton, with the 

 eye broken off. And the pocket book opens 

 an ugly sort of mouth, and says, " This is 



what I call proof-reading." . My, 



I can't sleep with such dreams as this ! But 

 them's my sentiments on the bed-post, gen- 

 tlemen. Guess we shall have to confess 

 that some of the proof-reading on the Re- 

 view is a trifle poor ; turns our attempted 

 dimes into pennies. For instance I tried to 

 poke at ".Take Smith" recently, and he 



turned out to be John Smith. And 



Gleanings was so mystified, and so respect- 

 ful withal, that it copied the paragraph with- 

 out correcting it. Shall have to be a little 

 severe. An editor, as a general thing, has 

 no proper sense of the atrocity of typograph- 

 ical errors, any more than a southern darky 

 has of stealing chickens, or a lawyer of tell- 

 ing fibs. Good night, gentlemen ! Them's 

 my sentiments on the bed-post. — — 



Another vision rises up. The form is like 

 a traveler with a vast box on his back. Box 



is marked. Place for People Who Have Los* 

 their First Love. The traveler is smoking 

 immense quantities of brimstone instead of 

 tobacco. Before him the flowers are covered 

 with bees ; behind him the ground is covered 

 with bees, dead and overcome with the 

 brimstone. Ah, as he passes by he lifts the 

 cover of the great box, and lets us see in. 

 Inside it are A. I. Root and his garden patch, 

 Mr. Harbison and his real estate office, 

 Frank Benton and his Washington appoint- 

 ment, and multitudes more, each with that 

 something which was better than bees. 

 Now he is talking with Mr. Hutchinson— 

 gives him a kodak : offers him another 

 bauble marked, ( )ur Special Correspondent. 

 Mercy ! What's the villain trying to do 

 now ? He has seized hold of W. Z., and is 

 struggling with all his might to chuck him 



into the box. . Well, it's one 



of the mercies that we can wake up when 

 the awful climax of nightmare is just about 

 to be consummated. But, while we are at it, 

 I have noticed (or feared that I noticed) that 

 the same process that we have regretfully 

 seen go to its completion in A. I. Root was 

 beginning in Mr. Hutchinson — just a little 

 air of forcing himself into bees, instead of 

 being in with whole heart, and writing with 

 a zest which it is impossible for the reader 

 not to feel. But them's my sentiments on 

 the bed-post, gentlemen. Must be morn- 

 iug, and time to be getting out of this. 



Friend Averill's article on paralysis last 

 month has several striking points, of which 

 the assertion that black bees are nearly ex- 

 empt is certainly one. If that was settled 

 and assured there would be market for black 

 queens, I reckon. The theory that it results 

 simply from too much in-breeding will hard- 

 ly run, I fear. Lack of vitality caused by ' 

 in -breeding and paralysis make a smashing 

 double team, very likely ; but they are not 

 one and the same " boss." Close breeding 

 will hardly create the bacillus of paralysis 

 any more than chilling will create the bacil- 

 lus of foul brood. Easy enough to see how 

 infection with Bacillus Gaytoni might never 

 be noticed in an energetic colony, while it 

 would destroy entirely a devitalized one : so 

 the practical danger of in-breeding, as a 

 factor in paralysis, is genuine enough. 



" I observe that it usually exists in regions 

 well defined and of similar characteristics con- 

 cerning climate, soil, and vegetation." 



This is singular : but not on that account 

 to be doubted. Quite likely it is correct. 



