THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



In my own market, I can sell the hon- 

 ey in drone combs as well as worker 

 combs. When giving full sheet, either 

 will do. In using starters, I decidedly 

 prefer drone comb. If worker comb 

 foundation is used in a small starter, the 

 bees will almost invariably turn it into 

 drone comb before half of the section is 

 bnilt and a section thus built does not 

 look well at all. 



Knoxvii,LK, Tenn. Feb. 25, 1898. 



THE CRITIC CKISICISEF). 



Dr. Miller thinks that our new Critic is not 

 Exactly Fair. 



UK. C. C. MII.r.ER. 



r !«r 0, 



^ 



![li NOVICE in a 

 -^ ten-pin alley 

 was making wild 

 work throwing the 

 l)alls, and the boy 

 who was setting up 

 the pins was hav- 

 ing a lively time 

 jumping first one 

 side then the other, 

 when the novice 

 called out to him, 

 "Stand in among the pins, boy, j^ou'll 

 be safe there." Somewhat in the same 

 way, I think I'll be safe from the shafts 

 of the man in the Department of Criti- 

 cism if I get into the columns of the Re- 

 view, for I note that he finds fault only 

 with what appears in other bee-journals. 

 It is somewhat unfortunate that the 

 readers of the Review ma}' not have be- 

 fore them the items and articles in other 

 journals to which "Sir. Taylor refers, and 

 it will be somewhat strange if the critic is 

 always able to give an entirely impartial 

 view of the case without taking up too 

 much room. For example, taking me to 

 task on the wintering question, he says, 

 "The one thing he [Miller] is bold 



enough to say is th^t if bees have a good 

 flight Nov. 15 they can stand the con- 

 finement from that time." The reference 

 is to page 149 of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal. I can find nothing of the kind on 

 that page; and after looking through the 

 numbers of that journal from the begin- 

 ning of the year I cannot find to what he 

 refers. Of course some mistake has been 

 made as to the page, and I am left in the 

 position of one who has the Review and 

 not the American Bee Journal. Taking 

 the sentence quoted and having no chance 

 to know what else may have been con- 

 nected with it, the plain teaching would 

 seem to be, "If your bees have a good 

 flight Nov. 15 they will winter perfectly, 

 no matter what the character of their 

 food, no matter how long the confine- 

 ment, no matter about anything else." 

 Now without being able to see the page 

 no which the critic refers, I hardly dare 

 say there's anything incorrect in his 

 statement, but I'm sure I must have made 

 very bad use of the English language to 

 allow such teaching to be inferred. But 

 if I may be allowed to have a guess in the 

 case, I'll guess that Bro. Taylor has en- 

 tirely misrepresented me; not from an\ 

 wish to misrepresent — for although at 

 times given to scold, down at the bottom 

 he has a good heart and means to be en- 

 tirely fair — but because he has not taken 

 the time fully to understand what I said, 

 or else fulh- to notice how he was repre- 

 senting me. 



If I knew nothing about Mr. Taylor's 

 belief than just what appears on page 

 153, it seems to me I would be pretty well 

 justified in saj-ing, "Mr. Taylor teaches 

 that if bees have the right kind of stores 

 it makes no difference how long they are 

 confined nor how cold they are. " I don't 

 believe he thinks so; and I have very lit- 

 tle doubt that we are very little apart in 

 our views. He says I rest the entire so- 

 lution of the problem apparently upon 

 "cold" and length of confinement. With 

 equal justification I might say that he 

 rests the entire solution of the problem 

 apparently upon the character of the food. 



