1883.] BEE-KEEPING. 169 



only find those yellow wasps, I shall save the peaches." I 

 have heard complaints that bees injured fruit, but I believe it 

 is because people do not observe carefully the habits of bees. 



Mr. Henry L. Jeffrey of Woodbury. I have been spoken 

 to several times about the question whether bees would punc- 

 ture fruit or not. To satisfy myself and many others, I have 

 taken the trouble, not only to watch them, but under the 

 strongest microscope I could obtain. I have examined the 

 mandil)les or jaws, not only of the honey bee, but of a number 

 of different wasps. The jaws of the wasp are so shaped that 

 they form, when shut, a point which will cut the skin of the 

 toughest grape, about, that I know of. The jaws of the honey 

 bee, when they come together, are round at the end, and do 

 not possess the cutting qualities of the jaws' of the hornet or 

 wasp. They are capable, perhaps, of attacking some very thin 

 decayed fruit skin, and rubbing it until they sever it, but 

 as far as piercing and puncturing is concerned, it is im- 

 possible to accuse them, with truth, of doing anything of the 

 kind. These jaws seem to be made in that way more for the 

 purpose of working wax for the manufacture of comb than 

 for the purpose of committing depredations on fruit. They 

 will suck it after it has been punctured. Any person can sat- 

 isfy himself of that by taking a bunch of grapes and breaking 

 them open, and placing them three or four feet from a hive 

 of bees. He will find, if there is not any honey to be gath- 

 ered any where else, that the bees will suck the juice com- 

 pletely from those grapes, or from a peach, or any other fruit 

 that contains considerable sugar. But you may take the 

 most delicate fruit that you can find and give them any 

 amount of it, and unless there are some parts of it that are 

 crushed or in some way bruised, they will hardly notice it. 



I presume one reason why Mr. Augur asked that question 

 was on account of his being interested in fruit culture. I 

 have received from many other parties who were engaged in 

 fruit culture letters inquiring whether it was probable that the 

 bees could affect fruit. I think the roundness of the edge of 

 the mandible of the bee will satisfy any man that it cannot 



