124 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



(ff* 



must I have the perversion go forth that I 

 state that the wings are " lungs, and nose, 

 and ears ? " If I have ideas of the respira- 

 tions of insects, differing from those stereo- 

 typed in the bee books, vv^hich I think lead 

 to injurious methods of ventilation, is it 

 fair to have every one vpho wishes to cast a 

 slur, to be repeating that " Adair says bees 

 live without air ? " 



I don't wish to be understood as enter- 

 taining any ill will towards Mr. Root. I 

 like him. His spicy flippancy is refresh- 

 ing, and he makes a lively little paper well 

 calculated to tickle the fancies of the peo- 

 ple, and is doing a good work. His month- 

 ly dish of gossip, seasoned as it is, with in- 

 terjections, ejaculations, and occasionally 

 with about as much poison as turns pickles 

 green when made in a brass kettle, but don't 

 kill anybody, ought to be read by every- 

 body, for he will stick in, at intervals, 

 something of value ; but we think it should 

 not be made a " legal tender " among bee- 

 keepers, for so fallible an adviser won't do 

 for an oracle. Has he ever settled down 

 on anything? Take his writings for the 

 last seven years, and see how often he has 

 changed his notions about almost every- 

 thing connected with bee-keeping. He first 

 got up an Extractor, which he thought was 

 perfection, and that he would not exchange 

 for any other, particularly if it was " pat- 

 ented," but we do find him a season or two 

 later (1871), throwing it aside and using the 

 Peabody, which is patented. He accepted 

 an agency, and let no occasion slip to putf 

 it, and induced many a bee-keeper to buy 

 it. After using it a year or two, he turns 

 around and condemns it, and gets up an- 

 other. 



He first started out with the tall frame, 

 in the American hive. Suddenly he vibra- 

 ted to the opposite extreme, and tells us no 

 frame will answer unless it be the Shallow 

 Langstroth. If it is any deeper, it is too 

 tall, if any narrower, it won't do. In 1872, 

 (American Bee Journal of April) we find 

 him a little unsettled on the subject, for he 

 says, "Our greatest objection to the Gallup 

 frame, is the labor of handling so many. 

 Quinby uses the largest frame we know of, 

 and we really like the idea." In the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for July, he gets down a 

 little, and says : 



"The best colony in our apiary, we be- 

 lieve, is in a two-story hive, frame one foot 

 square, and they are really pretty to handle ; 

 just the thing for ladies to handle, but for 

 some other reasons we prefer the Sliallow 

 frames." 



Since tlien lie has had no settled notions 

 about it, until lately (that is since the " New 

 Idea " has struck in on him.) He now 

 adopts the Adair size that is 10x13 inside 

 measurement, and can give as good reasons 

 for its being the best size, as he ever gave 



for any other, and it is hard to tell what his 

 notions will be a year hence. 



As to hives, — a year ago he was particu- 

 larly horrified that any one would use any 

 other than a two-story Simplicity Lang- 

 stroth, but to-day his wind mill buzz-saw 

 with all hands, P. G. blue eyes, "and such 

 neighbors as call in, are putting in extra 

 time on the " New Idea," that he has so 

 heartily condemned. In fact, he has aban- 

 doned every principle of his former hives, 

 even to turning the frames across the en- 

 trance, instead of following Langstroth and 

 all the hive men that he has at times pat- 

 ronized. 



I am not finding fault with these last 

 changes, but am surprised that after the 

 war he has waged on everythhig I have 

 written, that he should in the end adopt 

 every principle that my ridiculous theories 

 have established, for it was out of the 

 " theorizing " that he found so much fault 

 with, that the new hive grew. If he will 

 disprove the theory advanced in Progressive 

 Bee Culture, the hive he is now recom- 

 mending as a " Standard," is worthless as 

 all hives are that are not adapted to the in- 

 stincts of the bee. He will find, however, 

 that he will have to abandon his $1 .00 notions 

 before he can work the hive perfectly. A 

 hive 30 inches long, is too small. The 

 smallest I have, are 36 inches long, 

 and cannot nearly accommodate the bees, 

 even in a poor season. If he will give 

 more room, and disturb the brood nest as 

 little as possible, except to give plenty of 

 room to a vigorous queen, with all her 

 members and organs perfect, including her 

 wings, he will soon have an opportunity to 

 verify all of the theories that he has consid- 

 ered so absurd. He cannot do it in a 30- 

 incli hive, for such a queen will fill it all 

 with brood from end to end. 



Do you remember how many feeders he 

 has adopted as the best, and then aban- 

 doned for something else, from his triangu- 

 lar glass feeder, all the way up to the 

 "Tea Kettle" that Mr. Quinby says he 

 plagiarized, or something of that sort, — and 

 how many vagaries he has indulged in, and 

 recommended, such as sending bee eggs by 

 mail, hatching them by artificial heat, and 

 his many crude notions about wintering, 

 ending in covering his hives with horse 

 manure, and the loss of the most of them, 

 which he informs us in May Gleanings, 

 will prevent him from supplying those 

 $1.00 queens that he has talked so much 

 about '? If you will look way down in one 

 corner of page 55, of Gleauings-in-Bee-Cul- 

 ture, or How - to - realize-the-most-money- 

 with-the-smallest-expenditure-of -capital- and 

 -labor - in - the-care-of- bees-rationally-consid- 

 ered, for May, under the head of " De- 

 pository of blasted hopes, or letters from 

 those who have made bee-culture a fail- 



