AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



233 



have wasted my breath or ink, and I 

 wish the thing had never come up ;" and 

 you and I can heartily second the wish, 

 but you'll not get any such expression 

 out of him by pounding him. I'm sure 

 you wouldn't out of me. " No, not upon 

 compulsion, not if regrets were as thick 

 as blackberries," to paraphrase the 

 words of Falstaflf. No, I'd see you — i 

 was going to say I'd see you hanged 

 first; but I don't know that I would, for 

 with all your "mulishness" I think lots 

 of you, and would do almost anything 

 to save your neck from the halter. 



Heigh-ho ! this is brevity with a ven- 

 geance, isn't it ? But really and truly I 

 did mean to be brief, and I've left un- 

 touched several spots where I thought I 

 could get in a good " lick " at you. But 

 I think I'll agree not to take up any 

 more space on the subject, and will 

 leave you the closing argument, unless 

 indeed I've been arguing on the wrong 

 charge. 



If regrets will do any good, I regret 

 with all my heart that the subject ever 

 came up at all, and although it might 

 not be best to say so publicly, I'll just 

 whisper in your private ear that I be- 

 lieve the quicker you and I "shut up " 

 the better. C. C. Miller. 



*A word in explanation of the sen- 

 tence — " It differs mainly in appearance 

 — the results are about the same." Dr. 

 Miller did not get our intended mean- 

 ing, which was this : We did not have 

 reference to the looks or "appearance " 

 of the "honey" and mixture, but had 

 in mind the two acts — one of transfer- 

 ring sugar into combs by bees, and the 

 other of mixing glucose with extracted 

 honey. Also, what we meant by saying 

 " the results are about the same," was 

 that customers would so consider it. 



As said in our introduction to the 

 above reply by Dr. Miller, we think this 

 matter has been ventilated quite enough 

 for the present. We have endeavored 

 to do and say in reference to it just what 

 we sincerely thought was our duty to 

 all concerned. We may have been 

 pretty severe in our condemnation, but 

 we felt the case demanded it, and we 

 think that the great majority of our 

 readers will approve our course. No 

 one could possibly regret more than our- 

 selves the seeming necessity for the use 



of strong language in treating the sub- 

 ject of sugar-honey production. What 

 we have " writ," we have "writ," how- 

 ever, and are now quite willing to leave 

 to the future the final decision upon the 

 question. 



We are also pleased to let Dr. Miller 

 have the " last word," rather than to 

 reply again as we should like to do, but 

 which would tend to continue the un- 

 profitable questioning and commenting. 

 No one can mistake the position of the 

 Ameeican Bee Jouknal upon this or 

 any other subject, and so long as we 

 may be permitted to control this publi- 

 cation we propose to stick to our clear- 

 cut motto — " Do right and fear no one " 

 — doing our duty and the right as God 

 may giv^ us to see that duty and that 

 right. 



Mr. John H. lUartin, Gleanings' 

 notorious "Rambler" — Secretary of the 

 California State Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, has sent us an interesting report of 

 the meeting of that association held in 

 Los Angeles on Feb. 7th and 8th. The 

 attendance was large, and they had "a 

 very profitable season." We will pub- 

 lish the report later. 



Bees ISot Xaxable in lo^wa. 



— Mr- O. L. Packard, of Sac City, Iowa, 

 wrote us as follows recently, desiring to 

 know whether or not bees are taxable in 

 the State of Iowa : 



I want to ask if bees are taxable 

 property in Iowa. The supervisors of 

 this county for the last three years have 

 them assessed at $2.00 (per colony) for 

 all over 6 colonies. Several of us have 

 refused to pay the tax, and the question 

 has been referred to the Attorney Gen- 

 eral by our County Auditor, and by the 

 member of the State Legislature from 

 this District, and to neither one has he 

 given an answer as yet. 



This year they have agreed to assess 

 them $1.00 per colony, and we don't 

 want to pay even that, as chickens, 

 turkeys, etc., are not assessed, and 

 there are thousands of dollars worth of 

 them shipped out of the county every 

 year, and I guess never a pound of 

 honey. Will you please refer this ques- 



