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.

J. E. Pond, Jr.

Foxborough, Mass., Aug. 8, 1870.

[For the American Bee Journal.]