202 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October, 



come acquainted with tlie queen 

 through the screen-covered opening on 

 edge of cage. My square cell-cups are 

 also perfectly adapted fen- use Avith the 

 Bankston nursery, as described by 

 Bankstou, Lewis and Pharr. At this 

 date, I have tested all these things and 

 found them good. Of course, these are 

 simply moditications of the ideas and 

 improvements of Alley, Swarthmore, 

 Titoff and others. In my next article 

 I will describe the Bankston Baby 

 nucleus, which I am now using, and 

 mating as large a per cent of queens as 

 by any modern system. 



Boise, Idaho.. June 12, 1904. 



TUNISIAN, OR SO-CALLED 

 "PUNIC " BEES. 



By Frank Benton. 



IT will be twenty years the coming 

 winter since I first went from my 

 central location, at that time 

 Mimich, Germany, across the Metliter- 

 ranean to Tunis, in Northeim Africa, 

 and investigated the race of bees 

 native to that part of the world. The 

 following winter I made a second 

 journey to the same region. During 

 my stay I traveled about to some extent 

 in the Province of Tunis and secured 

 for extensive planters there large num- 

 bers of colonies of the native bees, and 

 for some weeks busied myself in trans- 

 ferring these into American frame 

 hives and extracting the beautiful rose- 

 mary honey which is produced in gi-eat 

 abundance there the latter part of the 

 Avinter and during the earl.v spring. 

 Naturally, as I was extensively engage 

 ed at that time in the rearing of queen 

 bees of various races, having queen- 

 breeding apiaries in Cyprus. Syria, and 

 in Carniola, Austria, as well as in the 

 central depot or collecting apiary in 

 Munich, Germany. I became at once 

 greatly interested in the bees of Ttmis, 

 which I soon saw possessed some very 

 peculiar and remarkable traits. I sent 

 some queens to my home apiary in 

 Munich, and took others with me for 

 comparison to the eastern apiaries. 

 The latter were introduced into colo- 

 nies of Cyprian and Syrian bees, and 

 all drone production controlled. I was 

 able, therefore, to avoid any intermix- 

 ture of the Tiinisian blood with the 

 Cyprian and Syrian races in the na- 

 tive land. At the same time I had 

 the black Tunisians to compare with 

 the yellow eastern races. Some of 

 those who received my price-list at the 



time may. perhaps, recall the fact that 

 in those years I offered these queens 

 for sale at the same rates charged for 

 Cyprians and Syrians, and that I stat- 

 ed in this price-list that "Tunisians 

 are the blackest bees I have ever seen, 

 are excellent honey gatherers, and easy 

 to subdue by the use of smoke." 



The interest which Mr. John Hewitt, 

 of England, exhibited in various for- 

 eign races of bees, and in the general 

 Avork which I Avas conducting, led me 

 to forward to him from time to time a 

 choice specimen of any new race which 

 I found, and Avhile he frequently favor- 

 ed me Avith orders for queens of vari- 

 ous races, I did not charge him for 

 specimens of ncAV races sent in the 

 manner just described. It Avas in this 

 Avay that he first procured the Tuni- 

 sian bees, Avhich he now calls Punics. 

 It Avould appear to me that he might 

 Avell have mentioned this fact in his 

 article in the American Bee-Keeper, for 

 September, 1904, Volume XIV. No. 9, 

 pp. 180-83, instead of conveying the 

 idea, as he does, that he was the ori- 

 ginal discoverer and importer of the 

 bees, his simple statement being: 

 "This bee I first imported in 1886." 

 One might pass this by. however, and 

 in fact the Avhole article itself, were 

 there not more A'iolent misrepresenta- 

 tions and inaccuracies contained in it. 



In the first place Mr. HeAvitt states 

 that Mr. D. A. Jones, of Canada, spent 

 large sums of money in trying to im- 

 port Apis dorsata. It is true that he 

 spent some money, but the impression 

 conveyed by INIr. Hewitt is best cor- 

 rected, and tlie omission supplied, by 

 quoting from an article of mine pub- 

 lished in Gleanings in Bee Culture,! 

 June 15, 1892, Vol. XX, No. 12, where, 

 on page 450, occurs the following: 



"I wish to ask the indulgence of my 

 readers to enable me to correct an error 

 connected with the subject, but the 

 original source of which I do not knoAV. 

 It first appeared long ago, and has 

 been repeated fi'equently — even in 

 books on bee-keeping. I refer to 

 the statement that "the first ex 

 pedition after Apis dorsata cosl 

 Mr. D. A. Jones, of Canada, a 

 small fortune." and that in this under 

 taking I "Avas the agent of Mr. .Tones." 

 The facts are. the expedition cost less 

 than .$1,000; I was in partnership with 

 Mr. .Tones in this work, and it cost me 

 just as much as it did him; moreover, 

 as Mr. Jones did not go to India, but 

 was in Canada at the time, I had the 



