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VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., ATJQUST 8, 1883. 



No. 32. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



EDITOB and PKOPHIETOn, 



The Hive and Frame Controversy. 



The Bee Journal for July 25, con- 

 tained an article by Dr. E. B. Soutli- 

 w'ick, setting forth the advantages of 

 square frame hives, and one from Mr. 

 G.W. Deraaree, giving tlie arguments 

 in favor of rectangular frames. 



It was not the intention of the edi- 

 tor of the Bee Jouunal to take any 

 part in the aryument, and had he not 

 been singled out for a personal thrust 

 by Dr. Southwick, no word of comment 

 would have been made. 



Our remarks on page 365 were Sooth- 

 ing and courteous, but even kind 

 words seem to have irritated him. 



After giving positive proof of the 

 correctness of Mr. Root's assertion 

 that " more shallow- frame [Langs- 

 troth] liives were in use than all others 

 put together," we remarked as follows: 



We do not endcse the opinions of 

 Mr. Root, Dr. Southwick, "or any 

 other nmn," unless they commend 

 themselves to our judgment ! Butwe 

 hope never to indulge in uncharitable 

 words or feelings against any one for 

 a frank statement or opinion, and, 

 hence, we shall exercise this generosity 

 towards Dr. Southwick, when he 

 states that " not 14 of thsse that use 

 movable frames, use what is to-day 

 considered the Laugstroth frame, and 

 that number is silently growing less !" 

 The Doctor's statement is so far from 

 the facts, as settled by the only statis- 

 tics available, that we have here an 

 excellent opportunity to let -'charity 

 cover a multitude "of errors ! 



The above was intended to pacify, 

 but it evidently had the opposite ef- 

 fect ; at least we should think so, by 

 the following from Dr. Southwick : 



Mr. Editor :— On page 369, of the 

 Bee Journal, I notice an error that 

 puts me in a rather odd position, in 

 the last column near the bottom. It 



reads thus : " Containing white clover 

 comb, made to order by my bees, last 

 fall." Who ever heard of white clover 

 in the fall ? The word clover should 

 be drone, to make sense. 



I see in your editorial that you 

 allow one more article from each on 

 the subject ; thanks for your gener- 

 osity, but that was not in my proposal, 

 as 1 consider these long discussions 

 which appear in the Bee Journal, 

 the greatest bore the readers have to 

 endure. I, therefore, made my propo- 

 sition so as to avoid anything like a 

 discussion. Mr. Demaree can take 

 the advantage of your generosity if 

 he chooses, but I respectfully decline. 



I did not expect that you would at- 

 tempt to prejudice the reader against 

 me and my article, before they had a 

 chance to read it, by trying to show 

 that what I said I believed (not 

 stated as you have it) was not the 

 fact, and indicate to them tliat I did 

 not believe what I wrote ; that it was 

 for fun, etc. I did hope to get two 

 articles before the readers of the Bke 

 JouRNAL.setting forth the qualities of 

 the two frames without any editorial 

 influence accompanying them, but 

 your criticism on Doolittle's article^ 

 and now on mine, convince me tliat I 

 cannot. Mr. Demaree is fully com- 

 petent for his side of the question, 

 and the Langstroth frame men cer- 

 tainly will not suffer from my incom- 

 petency, and if the two articles could 

 iiave gone out untrameled, an im- 

 partial decision might have been 

 arrived at by some. 



As I have done with the frame 

 question, you will, no doubt, allow 

 me a little space to reply to your edi- 

 torial, and let me first state that I 

 mean every word thafcl say, and just 

 what I say. 



If I understand you correctly, you 

 endorse Mr. Root's statement, by 

 speaking of its correctness being 

 settled, etc., and, as your proof, you 

 bring forward statistics, and state 

 they were gotten from reports of the 

 readers of the Bee Journal. In or- 

 der to get at the reliability of statis- 

 tics, we must go lo the source from 

 which they were obtained ; you say, 

 from the readers of the Bee Journal; 

 now, as the Bee Journal has ad- 

 vocated, and always recommended 

 the use of the Langstroth frame, is 

 it not reasonable to conclude that a 

 much larger number in proportion 

 would be of that faith than where 

 some other, or none at all, were rec- 

 ommended V Again, what portion of 

 the bee-keepers read the Bee Jour- 



nal 'i* If one in twenty took it, I 

 think the number of your subscrib- 

 ers would be increased ; but we will 

 say one in ten read it, and now what 

 portion of its readers made a report ? 

 I think it you count your subscribers, 

 and then your reports, you will find 

 that the reports would have to be in- 

 creased four or five times before it 

 would equal the other, but we will 

 admit that one-half report, and which 

 one-half is thaty I think it much 

 more likely that the one-half that has 

 advised with you, and obey you in 

 using the Langstroth frame, would 

 be the tirst to report ; while such as 

 myself and many others would con- 

 sider the utter impossibility of getting 

 anytliing reliable from it, would pay 

 no attention to it. Now, as we "admit 

 one-tenth of the bee-keepers read the 

 Bee Journal, and one-half of them 

 reported (I think I have been very 

 generous in so doing), we have one- 

 twentieth that reported, and as nearly 

 one-half of them use the box hive, 

 we have a little more than one- 

 fortieth of the bee-keepers to use for 

 statistics, and those are tiiey that you 

 have brought up and educated in the 

 theory that the Langstroth frame is 

 the " ne plus ultra " of all frames, and 

 as you hnd a majority of these use 

 the Langstroth frame, you declare 

 that there is a majority in the whole 

 United States. As well might Brig- 

 ham Young have declared that there 

 were more Mormons than all other 

 religions put together, just because 

 there were in Utah ! 



I think I discover a twinkle of fun 

 behind those glasses, and an expres- 

 sion on your face that says : "Ain't 

 I soft-soaping the Doctor good, with 

 my statistics !" Oh my; what statis- 

 tics 1 



In the last column you say you will 

 "exercise generosity." Now, Mr. 

 Editor, just hold on ; keep your gen- 

 erosity until you can quote my article 

 as it is. If you made that quotsition, 

 thinking what you did, it is down- 

 right meanness, after what I had • 

 written a few lines before. I hope 

 the readers will take the article and 

 not the quotation. You say that 

 " my statement is so far from facts." 

 Now, if I have made a statement that 

 is not a fact, I am a liar, and I do not 

 want it covered up with chairity— tliat 

 fertilizer of hypocrisy and rascality ! 

 That licenser of villainy, and all kinds 

 of meanness ! That which covers up 

 a man's sins that he may commit 

 more I No, do not cover up my 

 errors with charity. You hint that 



