136 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



THE TAYLOR-MILLER CONTROVERSY. 



Some Exceedingly Fine Points M;ide Still 

 Sharper. 



C. C. Mll^LER. 



DIRECT VERSUS SECOND-HAND KNOW- 

 I^EDGE. 



"^•fl /£\N pat^e 84of the 

 ^^g^ V'Jy Review, Critic 



^^^^^\ Taylor says nij' 



B J loss of faith in him 



Y-^ ^^ W» "may have a ten- 



dency to t h ? ac- 

 quiring of knowl- 

 e d g e directly 

 where that is pos- 

 sil)le, instead of 

 'mostly second- 

 hand,' which was 

 the way he says he acquired his knowl- 

 edge of the length of time a queen lays." 

 Much as I value knowledge acquired di- 

 rectly, I do not despise that obtained sec- 

 ond-hand; and if no one placed any value 

 upon secoiid-hand information the pub- 

 lication of bee journals would immedi- 

 ately cease. I am indebted to many, very 

 many bee-keepers; and not the least 

 among them to the interesting Michigan 

 experimenter, R. L. Taylor, for items of 

 knowledge that I value. 



At the same time I confess the obliga- 

 tion to acquire knowledge "directly where 

 that is possible," but if Mr. Taylor insists 

 that my knowledge should be directly 

 obtained as to the length of time queens 

 laj' in different localities, I must en- 

 ter a mild denmrrer. Even for the sake 

 of knowing how long queens lay, it can 

 hardly be expected of me to spend 

 a year each in all the varying localities. 

 When Mr. Taylor .stated the length of 

 time of queen-laying, and "did take into 

 view all the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal, " does he mean to say that he 

 got his knowledge directly in the differ- 

 ent localities of said readers? 



THE LENGTH OF TIME THAT OUEENS IvAV. 



Mr. Taylor thinks my answer may do 

 for Dadant's latitude, but Lapeer and 

 Marengo should have some consideration. 

 It will hardly be supposed, I think, that 

 I had no direct knowledge of my own 

 locality, or that I did not take that into 

 consideration, but I did not think that 

 alone should be considered. Mr. Taylor's 

 statement as to the matter certainly does 

 not agree with the observations I have 

 made at Marengo, and the statement in 

 Dadant's Langstroth was hardly meant 

 to apply only to Hamilton, Illinois. 

 Text-books are not supposed to apply 

 to single localities or latitudes. If Mr. 

 Taylor is correct in his vie a', it may be 

 in order for the editor of Review to ex- 

 plain how it is that he savs on page 90, 

 " Let a colony begin breeding in mid-win- 

 ter, here in Michigan. " He also tells 

 of three and four combs nearly full of 

 sealed brood in March, without .saying 

 how long before that the queen laid. 

 Grant that the results were disastrous, 

 the fact remains that bj- any fair rule of 

 inferences queens do commence laying 

 as early as the first of January, and it is 

 not so unreasonable to suppose that many 

 queens in Michigan do commence earlier 

 than the time mentioned by Mr. Tavlor 

 without disastrous results. Hut if Mr. 

 Taylor has direct knowledge as to the 

 different regions, I yield my .second-hatid 

 light. 



.\BOUT TH.\T WORD "SIC." 



Mr. Taj'lor insists that I was asking for 

 the definition of " sic." Another person, 

 he says, sought to enlighten me, thinking 

 me not sufficiently well informed, I sup- 

 pose, to know the meaning of the word. 

 But I could hardly think that Mr. Tay- 

 lor thought me so illiterate, for he dis- 

 tinctly gives me credit for skill in the 

 use of language, which presupposes a 

 knowledge of the meaning of words. 

 The very fact that I said that coming 

 after the word "boil" it looked as if he 

 might be objecting to something about 

 that word, seems to be on its face pretty 



