AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



747 



Topics of Ijitcresl. 



Englisli Eiilors ani Pniilc Bees, 



THOS. WM. COWAN. 



The American Bee Journal for 

 Oct. 29, page 562, contains an article 

 by Mr. E. L. Pratt, headed "Some Facts 

 About Punic Bees," which contains 

 charges against me and Mr. Carr for 

 which there is absolutely no foundation, 

 and also false statements calculated to 

 mislead. 



The charges there made arc so obvi- 

 ous that I can only suppose the inser- 

 tion of the article was due to some 

 slip on your part, and that as such you 

 will give this letter the same publicity as 

 you have given to the article in ques- 

 tion. 



The article seems also to insinuate 

 that we had some personal and un- 

 worthy motive for concealing facts, 

 which, it is plainly hinted, we must have 

 known. 



This sort of thing could be passed 

 over with the contempt it deserved, if 

 published in some low-class paper, but 

 from the position of editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, you will know that 

 this is a serious reflection to cast 

 upon us. 



Mr. Pratt says : " The Punic stock in 

 Mr. W. B. Carr's apiary in the Spring of 

 1890 was the ' best and strongest' he 

 had (see Record, an English bee-periodi- 

 cal, for June, 1890)." 



That paragraph is calculated not only 

 to mislead, but also to deceive. Firstly, 

 because it states that Mr. W. B. Carr 

 had a Punic stock, and secondly, the 

 Record is referred to in support of this 

 statement. Now, Mr. Pratt has either 

 not seen the Record and is writing from 

 some one's report, or, if he has seen it, 

 he is deliberately trying to make bee- 

 keepers believe that in the Record for 

 June, 1890, there is a statement by Mr. 

 Carr respecting a Punic stock in his 

 possession. 



Will Mr. Pratt be surprised to learn 

 that Mr. W. B. Carr has never had or 

 seen a Punic stock in his life? And, 

 also, that not one word has ever been 

 printed in the Record about the Punic 

 bees, either editorially or by any of its 

 numerous contributors! Now, sir, by 

 this post I send you the Record for April 

 and June, in which you will see what 

 was written by "Hallamshire Bee- 

 Keeper," and that Panics are never 



even once mentioned, and how any one 

 of common sense can connect these arti- 

 cles with Punics, I am certainly at a loss 

 to understalid. 



An article in the April Record is 

 headed "Queen-Rearing and its Connec- 

 tion with Safe Wintering." In this 

 article Mr. Hewitt ("Hallamshire Bee- 

 Keeper " ) puts forward a theory which 

 is: "That if queens are properly bred 

 in full stocks, and that no queen-cell is 

 cut out and hatched in a nucleus or 

 nursery, but strictly reared in a normal 

 and natural condition, the bees of such 

 queens will Winter safely, no matter how 

 packed up, in what hives, or with what 

 food, so long as the hives are kept dry, 

 and the bees have stored the food." 



Two ordinary queens were given to 

 Mr. Carr for testing this theory, one of 

 which queens arrived dead, and the 

 other was introduced into one of his 

 strongest stocks. In the following 

 Spring he was asked by Mr. Hewitt to 

 report, and stated in reply that the stock 

 headed by this queen was "one of the 

 best and strongest in my apiary to-day 

 (April 17)." Please note that he says 

 "one of the best," and not that it was 

 "the best," as Mr. Pratt is trying to 

 imply by the omission of part of the 

 sentence. Although one amongst his 

 best, it was by no means "the best." 



In the June number of the Record 

 alluded to by Mr. Pratt is the article 

 headed "Report on the Hallamshire 

 Queens." Here you will not find one 

 word said about Punics, but Mr. Hewitt 

 says he sends a report of how the queens 

 sent out the previous year had Wintered. 

 He says he sent addressed post-cards, 

 and was "much disappointed at the 

 small number of reports returaied" (see 

 J?eco7'cZ for June, 1890). He then goes 

 on to say that "the editor reports his as 

 one of the best and strongest stocks," 

 and also alludes to the remainder of the 

 replies he had, of which there were six, 

 who, although not all in favor, were not 

 against, and ten were unfavorable. Mr. 

 Carr, the editor above referred to, has 

 never written one word in the Record 

 about Punic bees, and Mr. Pratt's refer- 

 ence to the Record of June, 1890, in 

 connection with Mr. Carr, is evidently 

 intended to make people believe that Mr. 

 Carr had written about them, whereas 

 there is no more truth in this than there 

 is that Mr. Carr ever had a Punic stock ! 



Mr. Pratt next says : "In answer to 

 Mr. Lowmaster, in a late number of the 

 British Bee Journal, they say they know 

 nothing about the Punic bees. Apis 

 niger.'" Now, this conveys a wrong 

 impression, because the question in Mr. 



