_Winterport, Me._, Aug. 4, 1870.
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[For the American Bee Journal.]
Queen-Breeding.
MR. EDITOR:--Criticisms based on substantial facts, courteously worded,
made in a spirit of kindness and a desire to benefit the world, are
opportune and of great value. But when made merely for the purpose of
“showing off,” or of filling up space in an article, thereby damaging
the reputation of any person without just cause, based on no facts, and
unsupported by even a shadow of proof, they tend to mislead, and are an
injury to the author, the person criticised, and the public generally.
On page 38 of the August No. of the Journal in an article written by Mr.
E. L. Briggs, is a direct attack on one of your correspondents, who for
years has been engaged in the queen-breeding business, and who, by
devoting his whole time thereto, is enabled to supply his customers at
very low prices. And the only cause given for this attack is that he
supplies the bee fraternity at $2.50 for a warranted queen, and has four
hundred orders at that price.
Now if Mr. Alley can afford to rear queens and sell them at $2.50, and
his customers do not find fault, whose business is it? And is it just
the thing for any one to assume that his queens are not pure, without
showing the proof thereof? I think not.
As to Mr. Alley and his reputation as a man and a dealer in queens, I
will say, in order that the many readers of your Journal who do not know
him, may get at the facts, that I have for a long time been personally
acquainted with him, and have always found him just and honorable in his
dealings. I also know that he takes great pains to obtain the best stock
to breed from, by purchasing imported queens, and continually procuring
from reputable dealers, such queens as are of known purity, in order to
avoid too close breeding. These facts, in connection with the fact that
he is in a locality where all the bees, for miles around his apiary,
have been Italianized by him, show whether the assumed idea in Mr.
Briggs’ article has a shadow of foundation. Now, shall any one of the
queen-raising brotherhood assume that a man is a sharper who sells
queens for $2.50, without proving that the purchasers thereof have been
swindled? For one, I answer no! And if I can buy pure queens of Mr.
Alley for $2.50, I shall not send to Mr. Briggs, and pay him from $8 to
$10, even for his four or more banded mothers.
I have written this article in justice to Mr. Alley, and could if
necessary bring any amount of proof to substantiate it; but thinking
this enough, I remain always for the right.