i8o 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and Stenog. dabbles largely in the same 

 wares. Then on page 212 and 213 there 

 are three solid columns of grammar pure 

 and simple; and it abounds elsewhere. 

 So great is the effect of an evil examjjle. 

 PKRSISTING IN ERROR. 

 The editor of Gleanings ( p. 348 ) joins 

 Dr. Miller in thinking I am too much 

 inclined to hold on to errors against 

 light. What are my errors, bretheren ? 

 I want you, the doctor and the editor, to 

 be my judges. I hold that hand-holes 

 are better than cleats clear across the 

 hive. .A.m I holding to an error in that, 

 or not ? I believe that a queenless col- 

 ony, having eggs and larvte of all ages, 

 left to itself, will produce queen cells 

 from which, if permitted, a considerable 

 proportion of poor queens would emerge. 

 I am stubbornly holding on to this. Is 

 it an error? I believe that spores of foul 

 brood boiled fifteen minutes in honey will 

 lose their vitality. Ami holding on to 

 this with undue persistence? If you will 

 kindly let me know your opinion on these 

 points, when you arrive at an agreement, 

 1 shall try to conform to the judgement 

 of the court; and, perhaps, by that time, 

 I shall desire other matters, that press 

 heavily upon me, adjudicated. 



THE FOUL BROOD OUESTION. 

 There is an article in Gleanings, 356, 

 by Mr. Cowan, on the destruction of foul- 

 brood germs by boiling, making it doubt- 

 ful whether boiling for tenor 15 minutes 

 at a temperature of 212° is in every case 

 effective. But Mr. Cowan treats the 

 matter from the point of view of 212 only, 

 and I do not know that any one who has 

 considered the matter has ever questioned 

 anything that he says in the article to 

 which I refer. The editor, however, 

 says "These statements coming as they 

 do from I believe our best authority on 

 the subject in hand ought to settle the 

 matter that it is not safe to feed diseased 

 honey back to bees that has been bailed 

 only 15 minutes." The editor surely 

 cannot mean that. He must see that 

 Mr. Cowan does not touch the essential 



matter at a single point. 212^ mean noth- 

 ng when one is dealing with a matter 

 that involves the boiling point of honey. 

 In investing things scientific, a differ- 

 ence of 20° is a momentous consideration. 

 It is surely not wise to be in such dread- 

 ful haste to settle this question, for it is 

 one that will not stay settled until it is 

 settled ri}rht. The more certainly is this 

 .so because the means of a complete solu- 

 tion are in sight. When scientific men 

 tell us, as they soon will, the full effect 

 of boiling honey on the germs, the whole 

 matter can then be calmly laid to rest. 



SHOULD .\N EDITOR EDIT? 

 Hereinbefore I have lamented that so 

 much attention is given to grammatical 

 questions in Gleanings, but that is all a 

 pure delight compared with such non- 

 sense as this: "Another connnon error is 

 that the pupils of the eyes of cats, owls, 

 etc., expand as dark approaches to allow 

 more of the rays of light to enter the eye. 

 On the contrary the pupils are naturally 

 expanded to admit the rays of dark so 

 necessary to vision, and contracted to ex- 

 clude the rays of light," a whole page of 

 which may be found in Gleanings, 354, 

 355. I have been wondering how it 

 could all elude the editor. 



IXjrDICIOU.S USE OF SMOKE. 

 C. Davenport (Gleanings, 351 ) takes 

 up the cudgel against "hot-blast smok- 

 ers." He thinks smoke from them is 

 injurious to the bees. In one place he 

 puts it in this way "I firnil}- believe that 

 the injudicious use of a hot-blast smoker 

 causes the premature death of many 

 thousands of bees in the .season when 

 smokers are most used." But why use 

 it injudiciously ? I keep hybrids exclu- 

 sively, and it is extremely seldom that 

 more than a hint of smoke is necessary. 

 The injudicious use of any sort of smoker 

 may do damage, and should not be al- 

 lowed. Hardly ever should smoke be 

 sent directly against the bees, except in 

 driving them, and then too much force 

 delays rather than hastens them. 



L,.\PEER, Mich., May 23, 1899. 



