422 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



was lost, for one needs only a slight acquaintance with bees to 

 know that they are utterly harmless when away from their hives. 



A Is'ew York bee-keeper was sued because his bees ate the peaches 

 on a neighbor's trees. The suing peach-grower had the pleasure of 

 paying all the costs, for a bee was never known to bite through the 

 skin of a sound peach. It may be remarked here in passing, that 

 in both cases mentioned the sued bee-keeper had the benefit of help 

 from the jS'ational Bee-Keepers' Association, of which any bee-keeper 

 may be a member by paying $1.00. Its object is to look out for the 

 interests of bee-keepers, chief among which is the prosecution of 

 thoise who attempt to defraud the public by selling for honey some 

 fraudulent preparation. 



Frequently a grape-grower charges the bees with damaging his 

 crop, and he seems to have a pretty clear case. There are the clusters 

 of grapes covered with bees, and while he keeps his eyes fixed upon 

 them each berry grows smaller and smaller until nothing is left but 

 the skin. But each grape was first pierced by a wasp or bird, and 

 intelligent fruit-growers say they prefer to have the pierced berries 

 emptied by the bees, for they will raj^idly sour and decay to the 

 damage of the crop. At a time when no honey is being gathered, 

 and when bees are fierce to get something from any source, take a 

 cluster of grapes and prick half the berries with a pin and lay the 

 cluster in front of a hive. The bees will promptly proceed to clean 

 out the berries that w^ere pierced, but not a sound berry will ever 

 be in the least injured. 



Cider mills and sorghum mills are troubled by bees, but the chief 

 damage is to the bee-keeper, as thousand of bees are destroyed, and 

 those that get safely home take with them that which may prove the 

 ruin of the colony the following winter. If the law was appealed 

 to, in consideration of the greater loss to the bee-keeper and the 

 character of the bees as public benefactors in fertilizing the flowers, 

 it is possible that the owner of the cider mill might be compelled to 

 screen in his cider mill against the entrance of the bees. 



There is one sort of damage done by bees which, although seldom 

 occurring, it may be as well to know about so as to guard against 

 it. When bees take their first cleansing flight in the spring, as on the 

 day when they are brought out of the cellar, they will, when empty- 

 ing themselves, spot everything wdthin several rods from their hives. 

 The good woman of the house should avoid having a washing on 

 the line on that first day or she may have her temper so soured 

 thnt it will take much honey to sweeten it. 



Bees are not strict observers of the eighth commandment. In 

 fact, when pasturage is lacking, they have no compunctions as to 

 apj)ropriating the stores of another colony, whether it be a foot 

 01- a mile away. Wlicn a colony is robbed, the owner of the 



