THE hEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



235 



deprive the doctor of that right. Rut 

 hasn't another person a right to object to 

 the use of the word ?" Vou don't propose 

 to deprive nie of the right to use a word 

 as I find it in the (hctionary, but when I 

 use the word "boil" as I find it in the 

 dictionary, and you hoki it up to pubHc 

 gaze, danghng at the ends of your criti- 

 cal fingers with a "sic" tag pinned on, 

 are you doing nothing to deprive me of 

 the right to use it ? "But hasn't another 

 person a right to object to the use of the 

 word?" You admit niy right to use the 

 word; then it must be I am doing right to 

 use it; what right have you to object to 

 my doing right? 



I quoted the dictionary to you, and 

 you would none of that. Then I quoted 

 good authorities, and you object. Will 

 you kindly saj- definitely what you re- 

 quire that I may feel safe from being 

 gibbeted by you ? ]\Iust I find a word in 

 all the dictionaries, or which one will 

 satisfy you ? Please don't say I must buy 

 several dictionaries if j'ou can possibly 

 help it, for this is another season of fail- 

 ure in the honey crop. But I hope you 

 will not fail to give a definite answer as 

 to what standard I must follow. 



Please allow me to enter a mild protest 

 against your statement that "the silence 

 of a dictionary concerning a word in con- 

 temporary use is the weightiest possible 

 condemnation of it." There are con- 

 stant changes taking place in the lan- 

 guage, and all dictionaries are not fully 

 up to date. According to the latest dic- 

 tionaries it is correct to say, colloquially, 

 that a man is well ])osted in bee-keeping, 

 although the older dictionaries are en- 

 tirely silent as to such use of the word 

 "posted." The same applies to the ex- 

 pression, "I am in poor shape for work." 

 .\nd until a word has been given in all 

 the dictionaries must I refrain from using 

 it for fear you'll "sic" me ? 



Vou object to my using the word "in" 

 with the meaning "into." It may not 

 satisfy you for me to quote the dictionary, 

 but for the benefit of others who might 

 be misled by your criticism, I may say 



that one of the definitions of "in" in the 

 dictionary reads, "toA'ard, so as to enter; 

 into; as, come in the house." 



MAREN(i(), 111., July 13, 1.S99. 



[The doctor has repeatedly said that if 

 bees were left to themselves they did not 

 choose larvte that is too old for the rear- 

 ing of good queens. In the manner in 

 which this discussion was being conduct- 

 ed this was equivalent, in my opinion, to 

 saying that they did not rear any poor 

 cjueens when left to themselves. Whether 

 there is any excuse for me or not, that is 

 the view that I took of the case. As I 

 understand the matter now, the doctor 

 admits, and believed all of the time, that 

 if a queen is removed and the bees left to 

 themselves, that some of the queens will 

 be poor; but his view of the matter is that 

 the bees keep on starting cells for several 

 days after the queen has been removed, 

 •and that some of the last-started cells re- 

 sult in poor queens; and the point is that 

 he does not call this using of too old 

 larvte, when there is no younger in the 

 hive, a matter of choice, but one of ne- 

 cessity. If they start any cells then, there 

 is no opportunity for a choice — the old 

 larvte is all they have to use. When they 

 have both old and young larvs in the 

 hive he believes that they never use the 

 old from choice. That is his position; 

 but it is only lately that he has made it 

 clear — to me. 



Let me tell you how I am able to so 

 clearly understand his position. While 

 on my way home from Wisconsin I made 

 the doctor and his family a short visit. 

 He and I drove down to the city, and 

 came back ju.st at dusk. On the way 

 home we began discussing this very sub- 

 ject and kept it up until the doctor had 

 the team partly unhitched from the bug- 

 gy. He reached the point where all of 

 the tugs were unhooked, then he became 

 so interested that he sat right down on 

 the buggy tongue and talked until first 

 one horse would look around, and then 

 draw a long breath, and then the other 

 would repeat the operation. I thoi^ght 



