1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



75 



they are safer and Quinby says they 

 will do as well, and 'tis cheaper, and we 

 don't remember of any now but Gallup and 

 Hosmer that hang back, and they say 'tis " old 



b " there we promised not to say a word 



till Gallup got through, and if we have wrong- 

 ed him in any way we beg his pardon. If he 

 and Mr. H. do winter their bees on syrup, they 

 will probably do it because 'tis cheaper, for at 

 the present price of sugar and honey about 4c 

 Der lb. can be saved over all expense by using 

 the latter. 



Yes, we are afraid of theories and we are 

 afraid of Scientists (not " Scientific " for we 

 know he is "true blue," and we have been sev- 

 eral times tempted to think that Adair and a 

 few others knew as little from actual experience 

 of the contents of a bee hive as did our vener- 

 able friend Agassis, who laid it down so plain 

 and loftily to us common folks; for he cer- 

 tainly never saw inside a hive himself, nor 

 could he have had a relative or acquaint nee 

 that had, for they would have told him quickly 

 what a a he was making of himself be- 

 fore a people who held daily and intelligent 

 converse with the whole interior of bee-hives. 



Adair sometime ago gave us a long paper 

 intended to demonstrate that bees could live 

 without fresh air, whereas he and his opponents 

 could have saved time by putting some bees in 

 a self sealing fruit jar, and screwing them up 

 tight ; then he gave us the Mellipult and show- 

 ed by scientific drawings that it must be super- 

 ior to all others. We have wondered if he did 

 not forget to try it entirely, or was it the first 

 trial that set him so against extractors. Again 

 he gave us an elaborate paper with figures 

 equal to Hazens, showing the advantage of his 

 discoveries on artificial comb made on wire 

 cloth, with sugaF and wax; and we hereby 

 thank you Mr. Editor for your friendly check 

 on our enthusiasm when we introduced the pa- 

 per to the Cleveland convention. Well our bees 

 will build just as much comb when fed on the 

 same sugar without the wax, and our careful 

 experiments with it resulted just about as they 

 did with artificial Fertilization. The theory in 

 Progressive Bee Culture, we at first sight were 

 much taken up with but careful observation 

 and experiment showed it (as it seemed to us, 

 such a mass of folly and humbug that when it 

 cropped out in recommending a patent for a 

 bee-hive we were utterly disgusted. The fact 

 that some periodicals of the "Agassis type " 

 laud Adair's papers as being " true science," 

 only augment the feeling we sometimes have 

 that the whole "Popular Science" world is a 

 humbug, and we have before us now a letter 

 from Prof. E. L. Youmans, admitting that an 

 article in the ''Popular Science Monthly'''' of 

 which he is the Editor, was a wretched piece of 

 ignorance and quackery ;" yet in the half dozen 

 numbers that have been issued since that one, 



not a word has been said to caution the public, 

 and enable them to sift truth from error, as 

 the article was inserted carelessly. 



All we ask is that Agassis honestly ac- 

 knowledge his error and that the Science Monthly 

 notifies its readers (whether it pays or not 'tis 

 our due,) that Electricity and Life was the false 

 teaching of a skillfull quack to sell his hum- 

 bugery. 



We were inclined to class Gallup among the 

 theorists, and to instance his, "Natural Queens, 

 versus forced or artificial ones," as one evidence 

 thereof, yet a careful perusal of the back num- 

 bers of this and the other Journals (they were 

 of some value when he wrote for them) would 

 make us hesitate somewhat, for he has given us 

 so much of value, and from his own practical 

 experience, that we really owe him a vote 

 of thanks; he has most truly been the 

 friend of the beginner and the novice too. 



If he did at times makes positive assertions 

 that things were different in his bee hives from 

 what we found them in ours, we should bear in 

 nuud that others have erred in the same way. 



In regard to the New Idea theory claimed by 

 himself and Adair, we at the time decided that 

 it was their intention to baffle novices with a 

 heap of unintelligible rigmarole and then to 

 persuade us that it contained " great truths." 



If we are alone obtuse we beg their pardon, 

 but should very much like to hear from some 

 who see the new idea clearly, and can convey 

 it as clearly to others. 



Magna est Veritas, et prevalabit. 



Novice. 



P. S. Will Cyula Linswik please excuse the 

 liberty we take in thanking her for her very 

 vivid and lifelike narration of her experience 

 and permit us to suggest that the proper use of 

 the extractor would have obviated all her 

 troubles. Thanks to Greenhorn also, we fear 

 we don't deserve his able defense. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eemedy for Bee-Stings. 



Editor of Journal. — Noticing your ac- 

 count of a "bee-sting" having such a bad 

 effect upon you, I herewith send you my 

 remedy, which I have used for years, and which 

 you can publish for the benefit of the " bee 

 community " if, upon trial, you find it of any 

 value : Get a small, heavy glass phial, with a 

 ground glass stopper ; have it filled with " Tine, 

 of Iodine." To use : shake well, then remove 

 stopper, applying what adheres to it to the 

 wound, being careful not to drop any on 

 clothing, as it leaves a bad stain. Half-ounce 

 phial is large enough. J. E. Moore. 



Rochester, Pa., Sept. 12, 1873. 



