THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



231 



Fop the American Bee Journal, 



"Dollar" (Jiieens Aaraiii. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Mr. Editor : i''ou say, had I 

 copied tlie sentence entire, it would 

 have given the impression that where 

 one might economize more, scores of 

 prudent breeders would far exceed 

 Mr. Salisbury's expenses ; whicli is 

 exactly MS I understood the matter; 

 and I then asked you to go into de- 

 tails, and show in what particulars a 

 prndent breeder could be more ex- 

 travagaut. In reply, you say that 

 you have cited several cases where ex- 

 perienced and extensive breeders have 

 found the cheap-queen traffic unde- 

 sirable, which may be trne ; but it 

 does not answer my question ; or, 

 rather, my simple request has not 

 been comjilied with. 



No, Mr. Editor, you did not use the 

 word " stripes," and I fail to see 

 where I quoted yon as using it. It is 

 true that I enclosed the word in quota- 

 tion marks,, but it was done merely 

 to show that I used it in a peculiar 

 sense, as is often done when a word is 

 used in a new or uncommon manner. 

 My reason for employing the word is, 

 that I understood that queens were 

 usually tested in regard to the 

 "stripes'" of their progeny. But let 

 us suppose, for the sake of argument, 

 that tested queens are tested in re- 

 gard to business qualities, what is 

 there to prevent a dishonest breeder 

 from sending out a non-prolitlc queen 

 as a tested queen, provided that she 

 produces bees with the requisite num- 

 ber of "stripes?" If the ptirchaser 

 grumbles, he can be told that perhaps 

 she w;is injured in shiiiping. or in in- 

 troducing, or that his method of 



used tlie words. I was merely antici- 

 pating what you might say in reply. I 

 will admit, however, that it would 

 have been better had I so worded the 

 sentence that there could have been 

 no mistaking its meaning, but I sup- 

 posed that the context would make it 

 all clear. 



You say: "But when a 'tested' 

 queen is bought or sold, it is sui)posed 

 her progeny will prove among the 

 best for all desirable qualities, as well 

 as possess the ' three bands,' which 

 are only a ' test of purity,' or pure 

 mating," Quite often, when reading 

 your editorials, I have found myself 

 almost envying ycni your command of 

 language, but if ever you put the right 

 word in the right place, it was when 

 you used the wonl " supposed " in the 

 above quotation. 



You say that mv citation of the 

 case of Dr. J. I'. II.Brown establishes 

 no point, except that the Doctor is an 

 honest, conscientious gentleman, etc. 

 When II. P. Savles obtains " dollar" 

 queens from Dr. Brown, and these 

 queens prove so excellent that Mr. 

 Sayles is willing to rear queens from 

 them, does not this establish a point, 

 fully as much as your mere assertion 

 that, " we do not believe, among them 

 all, there is one who is reckless enough 

 to expect to buy asingle queen for $1, 

 or 100 queens for §6.5, which would be 

 fit to rear even untested queens 

 from i"' You say that " Dr. B. states 

 in his circular that all his queens are 

 reared from imported stock. They 

 are not reared from ' dollar ' queens." 

 Where is the breeder of any preten- 

 sions or reliability, that does not rear 

 Ins queens from imported mothers, or 

 from well-tested home-bred mothers V 

 Where is the breeder tliat rears liis 

 queens from "dollar'' queens, with- 

 out first thoroughly testing them V 

 iVfter a " dollar " queen has been 



management may be defective, or 



that the yield of " honey mav not be ' tested, and found to bean excellent 

 large enough, etc. The'prolificness of I queen, is she not fit to breed from V 

 a queen is such an indefinite quality. In other words, does it make any 

 To get right down to the bottom of i difference who tests a queen, i. e., the 

 this matter, it ail depends upon the breeder, or the purchaser V 



breeder (this you substantially admit, 

 in your remarks about Dr. Brown) ; if 

 the breeder is honest and conscien- 

 ,tious, he will rear queens in a proper 

 manner, and will send out only good 

 queens; while a dishonest breeder will 

 cheat his customers, if he can ; and it 

 makes little difference whether said 

 customers buy "dollar" or"tested" 

 queens. I have recently written to 

 several of the leading queen-breeders, 

 asking them if their " dollar" or un- 

 tested q\ieens were reared in a differ- 

 ent manner from their tested queens, 

 and if they considered their tested 

 queens superior to their untested 

 queens, except that they knew how 

 the tested queens were mated. They 

 all agreed in saying that their queens 

 were all reared in exactly the same 

 manner, and that they did not con- 

 sider their tested queens superior, ex- 

 cept that they were known to be purely 

 mated ; or, in other words, they tested 



Again I agree with you, Mr. Editor, 

 when you say : " The bee-keepers of 

 America want the ' best bee,' and to 

 this end all bees shoidd be tested be- 

 fore leaving the hands of the breeder ;" 

 but I do not agree with you in think- 

 ing that all, or even a majority, of the 

 so-called " tested " queens are tested 

 for their " best business qualities." 



REPLY TO MR. S.\LISBURY. 



Mr. Salisbury, you say that "the 

 advocates of untested queens rely but 

 little upon their own arguments," 

 Did I not give my own experience as 

 an argument V 



No, Mr. .S., I am not a sloven, and 

 neither am 1 stingy, and I do like to 

 see a neat advertisement, just the 

 same as 1 like to see a neatly dressed 

 individual; but I do not like to see a 

 person showily dressed, neither do I 

 see any great beauty in a spread eagle 

 advertisement. In my opinion, a 

 their queens in regard to " stripes," j plain, neat, straightforward advertise- 

 and nothing more. If necessarv, I nient is fully as artistic as one of the 

 can give the names of these breeders. \ spread eagle style. If you prefer dis- 

 In using the words " hybrid queens," j played advertisements to having the 

 in the third paragraph, I did not in- balance upon the right side of the ledg- 

 tend to convey the idea that you had j er, and you can afford such indnlgen- 



cies, I do not know that it is anybody's 

 business but your own. You say 

 that I know, as well as any of us 

 (from reports made on glucose), tliat 

 it is inferior and unhealthy food, com- 

 pared with good granulated or coffee 

 A sugar, or honey. Mr. S., you know, 

 as well as any of us. " from reports 

 made," that tliere are different grades 

 of grape sugar, that some grades are 

 impure, while others are practically 

 pure. It was the best quality that I 

 used. I used it only one season, and 

 probably shall never use it again; 

 simply because I have doubts as to 

 whether it is any cheaper, in the end, 

 than the best granulated cane sugar. ■ 

 You say that it (grape sugar) was 

 hard on the constitutions of the em- 

 bryo queens. How do you know that 

 it was y Did you ever rear queens by 

 feeding grai)e sugar, or do you merely 

 " guess "' how it would operate V The 

 queens reared when I was feeding 

 graiie sugar were as fine looking, as 

 |)rolilic, aiid as long-lived as any that 

 I have ever owned. But, for argu- 

 ment's sake, let us suppose that I had 

 fed coffee A sugar, and, still further, 

 let us suppose that I had found it 

 necessary to feed the same ninnber of 

 pounds as I did of grape sugar, this 

 would have increased my expenses 

 only S24, and there would yet have re- 

 mained a large profit. 



You seem to intimate that, in order 

 to make a good showing, I purposely 

 estimated my surplus honey and in- 

 crease of colonies at a high figure. 

 Did I not explicitly state that the 

 figures given were a bona /ick account '? 

 By the way, you have not yet told 

 U.S whetlier'the balance sht;et that you 

 gave is real or imaginary. My honey 

 was sold at home for hi cents per lb., 

 and my bees were also sold at home, 

 at S7 per colony; but, asallqneen- 

 In-eeders might not be so fortuiuite, 

 let us again suppose, for the sake of 

 argument, that the honey was sold 

 for 10 cents a pound, and the bees at 

 $.5 a colonv ; this would reduce the 

 profits S38. "To this add the S:Zt that 

 we supposed my expenses woidd have 

 been increased had I fed coffee A 

 sugar, and we have a total of $62, and 

 yet the profits are S140 SO. Surely, 

 Mr. S., yon do not suppose that I would 

 resort to deception in order to sus- 

 tain an argument? I care not one 

 iota which (Uie of us " gets the best 

 end of the argument" if we only ar- 

 rive at the truth. When I mentioned 

 that I used grape sugar, I felt quite 

 certain that, if you did reply, the 

 burden of your reply would be "grape 

 sugar," "glucose," "cheap food,'' 

 etc. How easily I could have avoided 

 mentioning what it was that I used 

 for feed, but these arguments do the 

 most good when they bring out facts. 



You say that I acknowledge that I 

 allowed nothing for time spent in rear- 

 ing queens. Did I not say : " But if 

 I should de<luct SlOO for liiy labor, do 

 you not see that there would yet be a 

 good i)rolify" Farther on I said: " If 

 I deduct SK'iO for my labor, my profits 

 would averiige abo'nt SIO per colony, 

 each year." That there yet remained 

 a good profit, after deducting api-oper 

 aiuonnt for labor, you sinqdy ignore. 

 You also " slip '' over that part of my 



