336 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



bread and butter side of bee-keeping. ' ' I 

 think this rule a good one, and the only 

 difficulty is in always deciding whether 

 the matter under discussion has a practi- 

 cal bearing or not. That which at first 

 appears simply a theory, with no practi- 

 cal application whatever, sometimes leads 

 to very important results. For instance, 

 this matter of why bees build drone comb 

 and of the ' ' organic conception of 

 the colony," of which Mr. Thompson 

 writes so racily in this issue, may be of 

 more importance than now appears. If 

 we could learn exactly why bees build 

 drone comb, we might possibly be able 

 to in some manner so change the condi- 

 tion as to prevent it, and thus bees could 

 be allowed to bviild their own combs in 

 the brood nest without the use of fouuda- 

 tion, which could often be done at a pro- 

 fit. Theorizing is all right, but let us \xy 

 and keep practical ends in view as nmch 

 as possible. 



mind a train of reasoning that vdll lead 

 him to a correct conclusion, to thus bring 

 out the best that is in him, is an accom- 

 plishment worthy of great effort. One 

 ■ can be positive and outspoken, and yet 

 courteous. 



POSITIVENESS — CRITICISM — COURTESY. 

 As I read some of the reflections cast 

 upon Mr. Taylor because of the positive- 

 ness of some of his assertions, there came 

 to my mind a little verse that I remember 

 to have read some time ago. I do not 

 remember where I saw it, nor who is its 

 author, but I will give it as nearly as I 

 can recall it. 



He who knows not, and knows not he knows 

 not, is a fool; shun him. 



He who knows not, and knows he knows not, 

 is ignorant; teach him. 



He who knows, and knows not he knows, is 

 asleep; wake him. 



He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise; 

 follow him. 



Men of the latter class are most earnest- 

 ly desired as correspondents for the Re- 

 view; those who "know and know they 

 know." At the same time it must not be 

 forgotten that there are different ways of 

 telling what one knows. Knowledge, of 

 the accuracy of which one is absolutely 

 positive, if imparted with an air of supe- 

 riority, often arouses resentment instead 

 of gratitude. To be able to point out the 

 ignorance or fallacious ideas, of a friend, 

 with such tact that he seems to have dis- 

 covered them himself, to start in his 



DO FENCE-SEPARATORS AFFORD BETTER 

 VENTILATION ? 



Mr. O. O. Poppleton of Florida sends 

 in what he calls "One wee, small criti- 

 cism of Critic." It reads as follows: 



On page 313, Critic, in criticising the 

 idea that fence separators give better 

 ventilation than do other kinds of sep- 

 arators, asks: ' 'How can it give better ven- 

 tilation ? Would an empty wicker chair 

 standing in a room give better ventilation 

 to the room ?" Now I have had but little 

 experience in producing comb honey, but 

 all the separators I have ever seen could 

 much more truthfully be compared to the 

 partitions in a house instead of to any 

 small piece of furniture therein; and it 

 it does make very nmch difference in the 

 ventilation of a room whether the parti- 

 tions surrounding it are made of open 

 wicker work or of some tight, close mate- 

 rial. 



I must admit that the illustration of 

 Mr. Taylor does not appear to be a very 

 good one, while that of Mr. Poppleton 

 seems a fair one. Mr. Root, of Gleanings, 

 uses a similar illustration when cotnbat- 

 ting the views of Mr. Taj-lor. Mr. Root 

 also uses another illustration, that of the 

 open manner in which lumber is piled in 

 dry-kilns, that the hot air may circulate 

 more readily. All this sounds reasonable, 

 but I fear it does not go far enough. Wt 

 are forgetting that the sections filled with 

 combs extend from the very top to the 

 very bottom of the super; thus shutting 

 oflf all ventilation or circulation that does 

 not pass either above or below the sec- 

 tions. In other words, the sections them- 

 selves, when full of comb, are more com- 

 plete dividing walls than solid separators 

 that do not usually quite reach to the tops 

 or bottoms of the sections. Perhaps the 

 "room" Mr. Taylor had in his mind was 

 the space between two sections of honey, 

 and not simply the whole super. In that 

 case his illustration is not so bad. My 



