348 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



germs. What scientist will take the matter 

 up and investigate it fully ? 

 Lapeer, Mich., March 20. 



[As will be seen by the date of Dr. Miller's 

 article, this matter should have appeared some 

 time ago ; but one of the manuscripts was 

 lost ; and while we were waiting for it to turn 

 up we lost considerable time before we lo- 

 cated it. I make this explanation as several 

 things have since occurred that might mod- 

 ify the statements of both parties in the con- 

 troversy. 



It appears that your humble servant, or his 

 statements, are the bone of contention. At 

 first I thought I would have nothing to say ; 

 but perhaps some explanation from myself 

 ought to be made. From the fact that Mr. 

 Taylor refers to himself as the "bold bad 

 man," and a "blood-thirsty monster," one 

 would infer that he thought Dr. Miller, my- 



by Dr. W. O. Howard, and by the practical 

 tests of a bee-keeper who, it seems to me, con- 

 ducted his experiment with extreme care. I 

 do not say that these experiments were con- 

 clusive, but they were sufficient at that time 

 to justify me in taking the safe side. Since 

 that time we have the corroborative evidence 

 from Scientist Brice, of England, Prof. C. F. 

 Hodge, of Massachusetts, and an article from 

 Thos. Wm. Cowan, whom I regard as the most 

 expert scientist we have in our ranks. In ad- 

 dition to what he says elsewhere, in a private 

 note he says this : 



Dear Mr. Ernest Root: — I got Glean ngs for March 

 15th last evening, and have gone through the co.res- 

 pondence about foul brood, and I think you are per- 

 fectly justified in recommending prolonged boiling of 

 honey so as to render it safe to give back to the bees. 

 It is astonishing how difficult it is to make even intel- 

 ligent people understand what a great difference there 

 is between the bacilli and the spores. 



Thos Wm. Cowan. 



Pinehurst, Pacific Grove, Cal., April 18. 



FIG. 1. — A SHKDDED APIARY IN CUBA; A. W. OSBURN IN THE FOREGROUND. 



self, or our readers held him in such bad es- 

 teem. If so, he is decidedly mistaken. So 

 far from being a " bold bad man " or a " mon- 

 ster," I never considered him any thing but a 

 friend with a hypercritical turn of mind. If, 

 on the other hand, the reference to "bad 

 man " and "monster" is used as a sort of 

 pleasantry then it is the first time I have 

 known my friend to so far forget his severe 

 dignity as to joke in print. 



As to whether I have changed front too 

 hastily in the matter of the length of time re- 

 quired to kill foul-brood germs and spores, and 

 the alleged antipathy of bees for black, recent 

 facts have gone a long way to sustain the wis- 

 dom of my course. In deciding in the first 

 place, page 49 of Gleanings, that fifteen 

 minutes' boiling was insufficient, I was back- 

 ed by the European scientist Mr. Genonceaux, 

 by Bacteriologist J. J. Mackenzie, of Canada, 



And even Mr. Taylor himself, in his fourth 

 and last paragraph, says he is satisfied that, 

 "in the hands of many, three hours' boiling 

 would not be entirely safe. ' ' 



I am at a loss to reconcile this quotation 

 with all that he has said before this, tending 

 to take the opposite view ; and if Mr. Taylor 

 is convinced, as in the quoted sentence above, 

 I can see no reason why I was hasty in chang- 

 ing front. If I have any influence with the 

 readers of Gleanings, and if there are care- 

 less bee-keepers among our readers, it was my 

 honest duty to right about face. 



As to the matter whether bees dislike black 

 or not, that is not a question of much impor- 

 tance ; but the preponderance of evidence 

 seemed to support quite strongly the view that 

 bees do dislike black. I would far rather have 

 it said of me that I was too much inclined to 

 change front when convinced of error than 



