1894. 



THE A VERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



39 



What is Truth. 



BY 0. .1. ROBINSON. 



This question is just as applicable 

 to bee culture as to mural or religious 

 speculations. In all the practical af- 

 fairs of life, there is but one way 

 to ascertain what is correct, and that 

 is by practical test. In what we may 

 still term the formative state of hee 

 culture, when new facts are being de- 

 veloped, new theories advanced, new 

 devices employed, error is unavoida- 

 bly mixed up with truth, and we 

 must employ the evidence of our own 

 senses in separating them. Conflict- 

 ing theories cannot both be true, but 

 both may be false. Men forget this 

 is their blind eagerness to be victors 

 in a controvery. It has been sug- 

 gested that a bee journal should pub- 

 lish nothing but what is known to be 

 correct. This assumes that we have 

 the absolute truth, and chokes off all 

 controvery at once. 



A better position is not to publish 

 anything that is false, or that con- 

 tradicts well established truth. It is 

 probable that there is truth in all 

 theories, though it may be so covered 

 up by error that it cannot be found. 

 No man wants to believe a lie, and 

 men do not usually advocate positions 

 they know to be false. 



Much of the bitter, vindictive 

 character of the controversies between 

 American bee-keepers could have 

 been avoided — I speak from long ex- 

 perience — and much more good have 

 been accomplished, had these facts 

 been kept in mind. There is too lit- 

 tie charity in all the relation of life. 

 We have no right to believe other 

 men dishonest, still less to call them 

 so, merely because they do not agree 

 with us, Happily, the violent stage of. 

 apicultural controversey seems to be 

 about passed, when mere personal 

 tirads of abuse of the paet give away 

 to honest investigation with the sole 

 purpose of discovering what is truth. 



Richfdrd, X. Y. 





s 



\yWin P vWf >^;>' 



Editor American Bee-Keeper— 

 Deai- Sir:— Mr Doolittle(in Feb. No.) 

 in answering 'enquirer' as to how he 

 shall know if his bees bee- are winter- 

 ing well or not leaves out the most 

 important factor of all : his nose. On 

 entering my bee cellar from another 

 lighted cellar with a furnace in it, 

 through one door, which can be made 

 as dark and is just as good as four. 

 My first test is by ray nose. If all 

 right there will lie a sweet agreeable 

 fragrance in the room. If there is 

 any dampness in any of the hives or 

 the least suspicion of dysentery, there 

 will be an offensive smell. Damp- 

 ness will breed dysentery as also old 

 soured honey and honey dew honey. 



There will not be much fear of 

 dampness in the hive if the range of 

 temperature is kept between 40° and 

 50°. Mr. D. says he is always troubled 

 with mice, if so he will always have 

 plenty of humming in his cellar, for 

 the bees dislike the smell of mice, and 

 will scent them from afar. 



From the reading of Mr. D's. article 

 1 conclude that the bottoms of his 

 hives are open in the cellar, if so he 

 loses many good bees, as well as the 

 old and dicing ones. I use a portico 

 hive — would have no other for vari- 

 ous reasons, put into the cellar with 

 bottoms tin, with fly space open across 

 the front; now if nothing prevents the 

 bees will haul all of the dead ones out 

 into the portico and dump them oil' 

 together with themselves onto the 



