56 A Modern Bee-Farm 



had no merit of sufficient value to claim the attention of 

 practical bee-keepers, and hence gained no favour. 



The Tunisian is another of the darker varieties vhich, 

 however, at one time came in for some notoriety, through 

 commendations accorded it by an advertiser in the Bee 

 Journals. The race has been proved inferior to our native 

 variety, and Mr. F. Benton, who first sent out queens of 

 the kind from Tunis, has the following to say about them 

 in a letter to myself: 



" I always called them by the most natural name — Tuni- 

 sian, and never thought best to strain after something a bit 

 fanciful like " Punic." Perhaps the party who got up this 

 name had in mind the ancient " Punic faith " in which this 

 race resembles that of the old Carthaginians — for when 

 you least expect it, i.e., when they have been well, and 

 even royally treated, they will sally out and cover the 

 manipulators with their tiny javelins. They carry in more 

 propolis than any other race, and are poor winterers. I 

 handled several hundred colonies two different seasons in 

 Tunis ; took some to the Orient with me, also had them 

 tested in Palestine, and I tried them in Munich, and came 

 to the conclusion that in no way do they excel Cyprians, 

 and in some points they are behind that race ; would 

 therefore advise to let Tunisian (Funic bees) quite alone." 



After trial with several imported queens of this variety, 

 I unhesitatingly condemn them as being the most 

 degenerate variety of bees ever introduced. Smaller than 

 any I have cultivated, black as ink, excitable, exceedingly 

 disagreeable to handle, and the poorest honey-gatherers 

 I have known. All through the finest bee-weather, while 

 other stocks were storing rapidly, the North Africans, in 

 far larger numbers, stored barely enough to live on ; but 

 here, there, and everywhere, these bees were idling 

 around all the time in the attempt to rob. 



