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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 29. 



sphere of usefulness the veteran Justus Van Deusen, in the 

 83rd year of his life. 



Wc do not know what heaven is like ; but we have a right 

 to assume that those qualities of heart and mind that we are 

 commanded to cultivate here will, under perfect direction, 

 find wider scope and more ample employment in the hereafter. 



We rejoice that our friend was spared the period of de- 

 crepitude that usually falls to the aged. Attendants at our 

 national conventions, no matter how distant, have usually 

 found him present, displaying the vigor of body and mind of 

 men a score of years his junior. His presence was delightful, 

 and a visit with him was an incentive to the ways that lead 

 upward. As his nephew, Capt. Hetherington, well says, he 

 was a line example of the Christian gentleman. 



From early manhood to 1848 he was engaged in the 

 jewelry business. In the year following, the Van Deusen 

 family built the woolen factory at Sprout Brook, which he 

 ran for many years until he converted it Into a comb-founda- 

 tion factory. He was a fine mechanic, and was satisfled with 

 nothing but the highest grade of material and workmanship. 

 It is but justice to say that every skein of yarn and every foot 

 of foundation turned out from his factory had workt Into it 

 the trademark of his life — the best. From small beginnings, 

 because of the prejudices of bee-keepers against the fiat-bot- 

 tom cell, the trade in this foundation has steadily increast to 

 large proportions ; and the greatest tribute ever paid Mr. 

 Deusen's good judgment is the recent adoption, by the most 

 extensive manufacturers of beekeepers' supplies in the world, 

 of the flat-bottom cell in their highest grade of improved 

 foundation. 



He was the father of the late C. C. Van Deusen, the origi- 

 nator of several valuable inventions in bee-keeping, and whose 

 tragic death, together with his wife, on their way to the 

 World's Fair, so shockt the bee-keeping world. 



P. U. Elwood. 



■ t^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ • 



Open Letter to CB.Baukstou — Errors Corrected 



BY DR. C. C. MILLKK. 



I confess to some feeling of pain and discouragement, 

 Mr. Bankston, upon reading from one whom I have lookt 

 upon as a gentleman and a Christian, the items found on page 

 435 of the "Old Reliable." After saying it is easy to write 

 from imagination, and that actual experience is needed, and 

 that a popular lie is hard to suppress, you hold me up as the 

 first example of a flagrant liar. I wrote, " Whoever saw lay- 

 ing queens fight ? I never did." You quote that, and say 

 this " was easily believed by the inexperienced." The plain 

 inference is that the experienced would not believe it, and 

 that it was not true. Now I want to ask you a plain question, 

 and as a gentleman I'm sure you'll give a plain answer in 

 print: Do you /oiow; that I ever saw laying queens fight? 

 Unless you know that, are you justified In saying anything 

 against my statement that " I never did ?" 



You say, " If men would write their experience instead of 



what they Imagine the errors of our fathers would soon 



be corrected." But just because I did that very thing you 

 hold me up as a liar. One of the traditions of the fathers Is 

 that queens will fight to a finish at the first chance. My ob- 

 servation bad been that this was true with regard to virgin 



queens, but never having seen laying queens fight, I had the 

 temerity to raise the question whether it was ever true. I 

 wanted what you say is so dear to you — "the unvarnlsht 

 truth" — and what better way than to publicly ask whether 

 others had seen anything of the kind, and to tell the plain 

 truth that I never had. Since writing that I have had further 

 experience, and I now know that laying queens will sometimes 

 kill one another, and sometimes not, and shall be glad of light 

 from you or any one else as to which is the rule and which the 

 exception. 



A week or two ago, thinking to find out something more 

 about the matter, I put two laying queens In a cage, and 

 watcht to see what they would do. At first for a minute they 

 paid little attention to each other, but then clincht. After a 

 little they separated, and after that moved about in the cage 

 with occasional conflicts. I then added other queens until 

 there were six In the same cage. Throughout the day I 

 glanced at them occasionally, finding more or less appearance 

 of quarreling, but in the evening the whole six were .still alive 

 with no appearance of being injured in any way. This was 

 on Saturday, and I was not again in the apiary till Monday, 

 when I found only one of the six living. The question is 

 whether one of the six was specially belligerent and killed 

 the others, or whether they were all so much so that no two 

 of ihem would have lived together with no others present. 



You say, " I had not kept bees six months before I found 

 that laying queens would fight to a finish as soon as the oppor- 

 tunity is presented." I think with more experience you will 

 change your opinion, at least you will find there are many 

 exceptions to the rule, if it be the rule. It was formerly held, 

 I think, that two laying queens were never found in one hive. 

 A good many have, however, reported two laying queens lay- 

 ing peacefully in the same hive, and I have had more than 

 one Instance. I think the cases reported have always been 

 mother and daughter, the mother being old and to be super- 

 seded. I had, however, one case last year, in which for weeks 

 two queens were in the same hive, there being no kinship be- 

 tween the two. One was bright golden and the other very 

 dark. I hoped to find both living in the spring, but was dis- 

 appointed. One spring I had a number of colonies so weak 

 that I broke them up, but as I wanted to save" the queens, I 

 caged them and put them into a hive for the bees to feed. 

 Running short of cages I put two in a cage, with little thought 

 that both would live. But after a number of days both were 

 still living, and each of them became the mother of a prosper- 

 our colony. 



Now after the reports of others who had two queens in a 

 hive without fighting, and after positively knowing several 

 cases in which two queens lived peacefully together, I can 

 hardly see that there was anything very wicked in my saying, 

 " Whoever saw laying queens fight? I never did." Remem- 

 ber that it was after this time that 1 tried the six queens in a 

 cage. 



I plead guilty to another charge — ihatof saying that good 

 queens can be reared from two to three days' larviie, but as I 

 am only one of a large number in saying so, the burden sits 

 lightly on me. In fact, I have never before known the state- 

 ment to be disputed, and I think you are a pioneer In disput- 

 ing it. You say you can prove that no kind of a queen can 

 be reared from a larva three days old. As that departs so 

 widely from accepted tradition, and as we ought to have the 

 whole truth, I hope you will not fall to give the proof. 



You say, "Good queens can be reared from two to three 

 days' larvEe. This Is Imagination. Kxperience says that good 

 queens can be reared from two to ten hour old larvaj." I sup- 

 pose that means that good queens cannot bo reared from 

 larvip more than two to ten hours old. Are you sure, my good 

 brother, that you are not drawing on your imagination In 

 this? The highest authorities who have investigated the mat- 



