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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



alone in their belief) that when bees 

 lick up sugar syrup and put it into cells, 

 they so change it that it is honey just as 

 much as if in place of sugar syrup they 

 had had the nectar from white clover. 

 Believing that, was there anything 

 criminal in their saying it ? 



" But look at the results, actual and 

 possible," you say. Yes, I admit they 

 are bad, and they look worse to me now 

 than they did at first. But I insist that 

 the intent was good, no matter how mis- 

 taken. A townsman of mine gave to 

 one of his children, by mistake, mor- 

 phine instead of quinine, resulting in the 

 death of the child, but no one viewed 

 him with anything but pity, for there 

 was no evil intent. Let us not fail to 

 discriminate between errors of the head 

 and errors of the heart. 



Under the circumstances, it seems to 

 me that Messrs. Cook and Hutchinson 

 have done a manly thing in saying that 

 if the mass of bee-keepers so desire they 

 will say no more ; for I'm afraid some of 

 us would be so stubborn and mad that 

 we would go on in our own pig-headed 

 way, just so long as we could not see 

 that we were in the wrong. 



I think it is the wish of nearly all that 

 the whole unfortunate business may 

 sink into oblivion as rapidly as may be, 

 and this will not be helped by bitter 

 words. I don't know of anything better 

 to do now then to let everything pass in 

 silence, and all of us keep sweet. 



C. C. Miller. 



When we read the foregoing we 

 couldn't help saying, "Now that's just 

 like our good Dr. Miller. He's so kind- 

 hearted that he'd almost rather take a 

 thrashing himself than to see some one 

 else get it, whether the other fellow de- 

 served it or not." We may be unfortu- 

 nate, but we are " not built that way." 

 When we have committed a wrong we 

 expect to suffer for it, unless by showing 

 sincere repentance we may be forgiven. 



Now as to "Prof. Cook and Editor 

 Hutchinson " in this sugar-honey affair 

 — why, of course, we have always 

 counted them as " good, straight men." 

 We never had any reason to think them 

 otherwise, until they attempted to de- 

 fend sugar-honey production. When 

 they switched off on that side-track, 

 why they just " switched " while we kept 

 r'mht 011 the main line. We are not to 

 blame for their "switching." 



The Doctor intimates that it was an 

 error of the head and not of the heart. 

 He may be correct, but we certainly have 

 not as yet seen any such admission on 

 the part of either Prof. Cook or Mr. 

 Hutchinson. The only statements we 

 have seen are those they made in Olean- 

 i7igs for Jan. 15th, which are simply, in 

 the main, a reiteration of former asser- 

 tions that bees do make honey out of 

 sugar syrup. Of course, Mr. Hutchin- 

 son says he will publish nothing more 

 on the subject in the Review, and yet 

 tells of another Professor who has sent 

 him an article in which he sustains 

 what has been published on the sugar- 

 honey subject and says that bee-keepers 

 who oppose it are ignorant, etc. ! Mr. 

 Hutchinson sent exactly the same thing 

 to the Bee Journal, but, of course, if 

 he had taken a second thought, he would 

 have known that we could not consis- 

 tently publish it. 



We can assure Dr. Miller, and al 

 other kindly-disposed people, that just 

 as soon as either Prof. Cook or Mr. 

 Hutchinson are ready to do the manly 

 act of admitting their mistake, and show 

 a desire on their part to as far as possi- 

 ble right the wrong done (unconsciously 

 and unintentionally it may be) the pursuit 

 of bee-keeping — when they are prepared 

 to thus do the " manly thing," why, the 

 columns of the old American Bee Jour- 

 nal will simply fly open to receive 

 them, and to help them to regain the 

 honored positions they held a few 

 months ago in the hearts of thousands 

 upon thousands of bee-keepers all over 

 the world. We bear no malice toward 

 them, but feel that they have made a 

 mistake that they should hasten to 

 correct. 



Xlie Illinois Appropriation. 



— At the meeting with the State Horti- 

 cultural Society Committee, it was de- 

 cided that the bee-keepers go in with 

 the horticulturists and dairymen in ask- 

 ing for an appropriation from the Legis- 

 lature, for a World's Fair exhibit, and 

 a Bill is being prepared to go in that 

 way. So says Bro. Stone, the Secretary 

 of the Illinois State Bee-Association. 



