1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



345 



outside winter-case is to be kept on it with 

 leaves packed in top, and then you have what 

 is virtually the Dadant hive. 



You have told me yourself that you made a 

 business of trying experiments for the benefit 

 of the bee keepers. Can you give any good 

 reason for not trying this, as it has been dis- 

 cussed for years, and by very able men, and 

 still you display y.mi ignorance in regard to it 

 every little while? 



Upper Alton, 111., Apr. 8. 



[I have read over with a great deal of inter- 

 est all you have to say. While I can not for 

 the life of me see why a large colony in one 

 brood-nest should secure so much better re- 

 sults than the same colony in two brood-nests, 

 I am not going to be foolish enough to dis- 

 pute your facts and figures. As to your chal- 

 lenge, yes, I will accept it, and I have this 

 day ordered a few hives made to take L. 

 length of top and bottom bars, but an extra 

 depth of end-bar. I hope to get these hives 

 into use this summer; but in making this test 

 I hope some of my friends, and some who 

 perhaps are not my friends, will not score me 

 by assuming that I am going to get on to a 

 new hobby, and ride it for all it is worth. 

 While I believe in large colonies, I do not see 

 how it makes any difference whether they are 

 in one or two brood-chambers; but perhaps it 

 does. If the test with a few hives this sum- 

 mer is favorable, then I will try more next 

 summer. But before I can be convinced I 

 shall want to see about half an apiary in Da- 

 dant hives pitted against another half of apia- 

 ry in the same location, of colonies in eight- 

 frame L. hives; and if Dr. Miller is interested 

 in the same problem, if he cares to make a 

 test with Ihe same number of colonies I will 

 furnish the hives free. 



I omitted to state that possibly, if Mr. Dra- 

 per had made his two tests for the production 

 of comb honey, the difference might have been 

 in favor of the shallower frame. — Ed.] 



LOYALTY TO TRUTH. 

 Is the Review Critic Hypercritical ? 



BY DR. C. C. MH.LER. 



The cridc of Review takes to task the editor 

 of Gleanings for changing his mind. One 

 of the items mentioned in that connection is 

 the matter of the hostility of bees to dark 

 colors. Mr. Root formerly held that one was 

 likely to be stung no more with dark than 

 with light clothing. Then he changed his 

 mind, Mr. Taylor says, because "a few 're- 

 ports ' came in, which, in so far as they went, 

 at least, had no foundation in sound reason, 

 so far as I could discern." Which goes to 

 show that Mr. Taylor's discernment is sadly 

 in need of tinkering. He closes the paragraph 

 by saying, "The cause of truth is advanced 

 by careful, cautious, sober loyalty to it." I 

 confess I don't quite see how the application 

 of that sentence to the case in hand has any 

 "foundation in sound reason." Does Mr. 

 Taylor mean to intimate that Mr. Root has 



been disloyal to what he thinks is the truth ? 

 I do not believe so. It is probably rather a 

 case of "darkening counsel by words without 

 knowledge." 



It is true that " the cause of truth is advanc- 

 ed by loyalty to it," and that very loyalty 

 demands that, when a man finds he is holding 

 on to an error, he shall promptly right about 

 face, instead of stubbornly holding on to an 

 error, as Mr. Taylor is too rnudi inclined to do. 



Another count in the charge is that, when 

 Mr. Root learned that spores of foul brood 

 were not killed by being subjected to a tem- 

 perature of about 212° for more than two 

 hours, he gave up the belief that a few min- 

 utes' boiling was sufficient to destroy the 

 vitality of spores. If he was a reasonable 

 being, with the light he had what else could 

 he do ? Now conies Mr. Taylor with new 

 light on the case, and says that boiling water 

 and boiling honey are very different things as 

 to their heat, making it seem a reasonable 

 thing to believe that it is quite possible that 

 15 minutes' boiling in honey may be more 

 destructive to vitality than two or three hours 

 in water. Mr. Taylor may consider it " hasty 

 and ill considered judgment " on my part to 

 change my mind promptly, and agree that 15 

 minutes' boiling is enough, but that's exactly 

 where I stand at the present moment ; and if 

 I find out that boiling honey is no hotter than 

 boiling water, then I'll change back again. 

 It seems to me that's the only way for one 

 who w ants to be loyal to the truth. 



WAS MR. DADANT FAIR? 



Another item that Mr. Taylor gives is that, 

 after Mr. Dadant overestimated the cost of 

 large hives, and Mr. Root found out the cost 

 to be considerably less, he said, "It shows 

 that you meant to be entirely fair." Mr. Tay- 

 lor says, " Of course, no one suspects Mr. 

 Dadant of ever meaning to be unfair. But it 

 seems strange to me that he should be com- 

 mended for fairness on account of a case in 

 which he made a statement that was manifest- 

 ly not fair." That looks as though Mr. Tay- 

 lor has established for himself a critic's code 

 of language that does not entirely agree with 

 that of common people. He says it seems 

 strange to him that Mr. Dadant should be 

 commended for fairness. I can't say how 

 such things may be considered in the ranks of 

 professional critics, but I do know that among 

 common people such fairness is commended. 

 Here's a man who not only always pays his 

 honest debts, but in every deal he makes he 

 is so anxious not to overreach that he pays a 

 little more than he ought. Instead of saying, 

 "That man is not strictly honest," people 

 always applaud him for his honesty. A man 

 who in controversy is willing to give to an 

 argument of an opponent all the weight it 

 deserves, and sometimes a little more, is com- 

 mended by honest common people for his 

 fairness. 



I'm inclined to believe it's a case of Dr. 

 Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. My old friend Mr. 

 Taylor heartily commends Mr. Dadant for his 

 fairness, and says, " I wish there were more 

 like him," while Mr. Taylor the critic gets 



