152 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



should feel very sorry to have the repu- 

 utatioii which you have acquired injured 

 by your disseminating a race of bees 

 which I feel confident will have very un- 

 desirable traits. In the British Bee 

 Journal, ]\\xit 23, 1892, is an account of 

 the way they were introduced into Eng- 

 land, etc., which seems to me utterly to 

 discredit the Hallamshire beekeeper. 



Now friend Alley, you must by this 

 time, know enough of these bees, to 

 judge whether they deserve the char- 

 acter given to them in the British Bee 

 Journal, and if they do, I think you 

 will no longer send them out from your 

 apiary. I write as your sincere friend. 

 — L. L. Langstroth. 



[Many thanks, fiieud L., for your kind 

 advice. I must say, however, that you 

 are wrongly informed concerninii; ihe vin- 

 dictivcness of the Punic bees. Yes, friend 

 L., I have liad these bees lon<r enough to 

 judge whether they deserve tlie character 

 given tlieni in tlie British Bi'e Journal. 

 I pronounce every word of tlie statements 

 in the B. B. J., unqualified lies and false 

 in every particular. Friend L. may tind 

 a crumb of comfort in the letter below.] 



FUNICS. KOOTS AND COWAN. 



Dear Mr. Alley : — 



I notice an article in Gleanings for 

 Aug. I, page 584, the heading of 

 which reads : "Punic Bees — their his- 

 tory and origin. Not a new race but 

 the old Tunisian bees that have been 

 tested and discarded." These state- 

 ments I will deal with in rotation. 



They have evidently been reading Mr. 

 Cowan's articles whose reputation in 

 this country (England), for '-accuracy" 

 is of no value whatever. 



No person in Europe or America, 

 other than myself — and Cowan says so 

 too — has ever received a live queen or 

 bee from Tunis. I challenge anyone 

 to show where such bees have ever 

 ^''been tested and discarded.'' 



Read what Benton says. But no 

 one other than myself, ever got a live 

 queen from him ; so much for his "ad- 

 vertisements." Benton had to rest them 



first in Cyprus before sending thein on 

 to me ; as to anyone testing them, it is 

 out of the question, which folks will see 

 very soon. 



Root says there has been a "contro- 

 versy" in B. B.J. between Cowan and 

 me. There has been no controversy, in 

 that Journal at all. Cowan has had all 

 the say himself. There has been a 

 controversy in \\-\q Journal of Horticul- 

 ture., but the Root's do not hint at it, or 

 reprint any of the articles. 



^rhe Root's say Cowan insisted that 

 Funics, were "only Tunisian bees." 

 This is wrong. What Cowan said was, 

 "he knew the bees of Tunis, but the so- 

 called Punic bees did not exist in that 

 country ; he had seen the bees at the 

 Royal Dancaster show, where he tried to 

 make people think they were common 

 English black bees and did not come 

 from Tunis, or even North Africa." 



Cowan says : "these queens did not 

 cost me more than $2 each", then shows 

 a loss of two-thirds, making the cost on 

 live ones $6 each, which statement is 

 on a par with the rest of his state- 

 ments. 



Root's say : "I refuse to reply to their 

 statements, and that I never intended 

 to pay for the advertisement in Glean- 

 ings. No doubt it will surprise peo- 

 ple to learn that I did not order or con- 

 sent to the advertisement he inserted. 

 I did send an advertisement, but instead 

 of its being published they altered it, — 

 leaving out the guarantees, etc., — and 

 concocted and inserted practically a 

 different one, which on no account 

 would I accept, and which I repudiate 

 altogether, even to paying for it, and to 

 act consistently in the matter, in no case 

 has anyone been answered who has re- 

 plied to it, unless money has been sent. 

 As to replying to Root 1 have their 

 letters, type written, to say, they do not 

 believe a word I say. On the face of 

 this, I should be a " donkey," to write 

 them. 



I shall abide by all I wrote in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal, which, please 

 refer to." 

 Sheffield, Eng. John Hewitt. 



