596 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 23, 



come and see for yourselves. My evenings I usually have to 

 myself, so you will be apt to hear from me often. 



Orange Co., Calif. 



Correcting Errors- Reply to Dr. Miller. 



BY C. B. BANKSTON. 



Doctor, I do not regret anything I said in " Bce-Keeping 

 Errors Corrected," for I believe that I shall be able to furnish 

 the proof. But there is one thing that I am exceedingly sorry 

 for, and that is, that you have put such a construction upon 

 what I said, as to make me call you a " flagrant liar." I 

 would indeed be a very ungrateful kind of afellow to brand one 

 as a liar, from whose pen I have received so much pleasure 

 and practical knowledge. 



The expression, "Who ever saw laying queens fight ? I 

 never did," coming from one whose learning was so varied, 

 and whose experience was so extensive, would naturally leave 

 the impression upon the minds of the readers of those " Stray 

 Straws," that they did not, else you would have found it out. 

 I know that it had this effect upon the minds of those who 

 read it in this vicinity. 



I do not claim to have a broader means of observation 

 than you possess, but as you were in the business about 27 

 years before I began, and during all those years you did not 

 find out that laying queens would fight; and owing to the 

 fact that I did, in a considerable less time, led me to believe 

 that my experience was real and yours imaginary ; or may be 

 I should say, that I observed more closely than yourself. 



July 17 I caged two queens, and the Central Texas Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, or as many as could get close enough to 

 see, saw them fight till one of them was stung and killed out- 

 right. When queens are old, they seem to lose that jealous 

 feeling toward each other, which they entertain when young 

 and vigorous, and will not fight, but in 95 cases in 100 they 

 will fight it out. 



As to what I said in regard to lies becoming popular, and 

 when once stampt on the minds of the people are hard to cor- 

 rect, I still say that, and. Doctor, you know that it is a truth. 

 But I did not intend to apply it to what you said about the 

 queens fighting. At the same time, your statement made a 

 false impression. I did not intend to lay so much stress upon 

 what you said, as what others said, which I know that no 

 human eye had ever seen. 



I have not much faith in the traditions of our fathers, for 

 these used to teach us that old women could bewitch a person, 

 and calamities would visit us as a result of their black arts. 

 The statute book of old Massachusetts used to contain a law 

 which caused the death of many old souls who were unable to 

 harm any one. Modern truths, and not traditions, are what 

 we should all earnestly strive for. 



You may select a man, or a set of men, in Cameron, Tex., 

 and I will cage a half-dozen laying queens — two in each cage — 

 and they will Hght, and one-half of them will have the other 

 half killed outright In less than half an hour. There were a 

 few bee-keepers at the convention July 16 and 17, who did 

 not believe that laying queens would fight. The two that I 

 caged clincht, and I suppose the Hght lasted about 10 min- 

 utes. I have seen a dozen cases, more or less, when two 

 queens were in the same hive together, but In not one instance 

 were they strong, vigorous queens. 



When I wrote that article, I did not know that you ever 

 said that a queen could be reared from a la.rva three days old. 

 I mean a well-dovelopt queen. I tried some larvae two days 

 old, and the queens I reared lookt to be about half worker 

 and hair queen. Those cells I started from three-days'-old 

 larvic never hatcht at all. In about 15 days after they were 

 sealed, I cut Into them, and some of them had what I would 

 call a very sorry bee. Some of them seem to have wallowed 



in the jelly and died, not being able, or not having sense 

 enough, to liberate themselves from the cell. 



I want to say. Doctor, that I have not the least objection 

 to you making a confession of your Ignorance in regard to 

 queens. You do not say that you know a queen can be reared 

 from a larva three days' old, but refer to others, and base 

 your faith on their reputation. I speaK from my own experi- 

 ence, and since I have found so many mistakes made by the 

 noble old veterans whom I love, and whose memory I shall 

 ever cherish, I claim the right to investigate for myself. 



Now, you must remember, to rear a queen from a larva 

 three days' old, you must roll a grub out of a worker-cell 

 which nearly fills it full, and would otherwise have been 

 sealed on the following day, and have the bees make a queen 

 out of it. I will tell you how to get the bees to accept one of 

 these big grubs : Take a queen-cell which contains enough 

 royal jelly for It to swim in. Remove the larva it contains, 

 and introduce the larva which is three days' old. You must 

 be sure that the larva> have been fed 72 hours. I never 

 doubted that a queen could be reared from a larva two days' 

 old, but I say that good ones cannot be. If it can be done, 

 why don't somebody say that he has done it ? Why refer to 

 some dead hero or benefactor, whose reputation for telling 

 the truth was never disputed? I appeal to you for a living 

 witness. I do not believe that Doolittle will say that he ever 

 did. I do not believe that any experienced queen-breeder will 

 say that he ever did. He may say that It can be done, but I 

 will prove that good ones cannot be so reared, if any at all. I 

 am conducting an experiment, and have for my witness a man 

 whose truthfullness will be voucht for by every honest citizen 

 of Milan Co., Tex. This man is Judge E. Y. Terral, who 

 served the people of this county six years as county judge, 

 and retired from ofJSce by his own accord; and whatever the 

 result is, the Judge will submit in writing to be publisht in 

 the American Bee Journal, and let the hammer fall where it 

 may. 



Perhaps I ought not to have said lie, because that sounds 

 a little vulgar among refined people. You see, I am so used 

 to calling things by their names that I just let the lie slip un- 

 noticed. 



I believe in individuality. I believe I am personally re- 

 sponsible for whatever impression I may make upon the minds 

 of the people, whether it be good or bad. Therefore, I should 

 be careful to teach things which agree with my experience (if 

 I should teach at all), for I verily believe that if I should 

 teach a falsehood, tho it be second-handed, I would volun- 

 tarily assume the responsibilities of its originator. 



Doctor, you do not claim to have renred queens from larvm 

 three days' old, but you do claim, or intimate, that you are 

 writing from experience; and you do not claim to know per- 

 sonally that any one else ever did rear a queen from a larva 

 three days' old. You simply quote others' statements, and 

 give them as authority, and in the very same Issue of the Bee 

 Journal you advise the use of three-days'-old larva. If it can- 

 not be done, and good ones at that, have I not a right to 

 speak ? If not now, when will the time be ripe for some one 

 to enter his protest against the Inculcation of these mistakes 

 upon the minds of the people ? Try the experiment yourself, 

 then if you still say that it can be done, I will shut up. 



Doctor, I hope you will be patient with me. You must 

 remember that I am trying to write my experience — that 

 which I am an eye-witness to. The time the bees feed the 

 larviD can be prolonged. The time for tho queen to hatch 

 after it is sealed can be prolonged; tho hatching of the egg, 

 and so on ; but all of this must be brought about by unnatual 

 conditions. I mention these things in order to give the boys a 

 chance to excuse themselves for what they have written. 



I wish, in conclusion, to repeat, that if we would write 

 our experience instead of writing somebody else's, or what we 



