Discrepancy Among Bee-Writers is the underlying text of a discourse from G. M. Doolittle in Gleanings In Bee-Culture. He says a rule in arithmetic and a rule in beekeeping are different things. Two and two make four always and everywhere; what is true about bees in one locality or season may not be true in another locality or season. So two men may both be right from their own standpoints while appearing to bold widely different views. 

The feeding of meal in spring is useless if not mischievous, says A. It is a good thing to give the bees in spring some substitute for pollen, says B. Both are right, although apparently in direct contradiction. In A's locality there is plenty of pollen in spring, either from early flowers, or else left over from the previous year. In B's locality the bees are short of pollen in spring, with no early flowers to yield it. 

One says put on sections early; another says not till swarming. Both right: one wants to discourage and the other to encourage swarming. So with other things. But the wise reader will get the views of all, and use what best fits his own case. Instead of ceasing to read the bee-papers because in the nature of the case there will be real or apparent discrepancies,Mr. Doolittle says: 

"One hundred dollars per year would not hire me to cease from reading on this subject, for it is to this reading that I owe nearly all the knowledge I possess relative to bee-keeping."

American Bee Journal, March 20, 1902
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