110 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



these hives but, during the first season, swarms from ordinary hives were 

 exceedingly few, and during the hist season one of the colonies had a 

 queen of the current year's production, and the other was not strong 

 enough, owing to the scant flow of nectar, to secure any surplus. In con- 

 sideration of these circumstances the coming season is looked to for more 

 satisfactory results. 



BEES AND GRAPES. 



As between fruit growers and bee-keepers there is no more important 

 question than this; do bees injure fruit? There is no question during any 

 time of summer when the flowers secrete little or no nectar, that bees 

 suck the juices of broken fruit, but it is contended on the part of a con- 

 siderable class of horticulturists that the bees actually cut through the 

 outer covering of grapes and some of the small fruits, and thus do great 

 damage to the fruit growing interests. Some are very positive on this 

 point, affirming that they know they do, having actually witnessed the 

 operation. I feel some sympathy for this class, since, at one time, though 

 familiar with all the arguments against that opinion, I was half inclined 

 to believe that in some way sometimes the bees forced open the skin of 

 grapes. For some years I have been greatly interested in the production 

 of fine grapes and when at times I saw the bees crowding their heads 

 down between the berries of tine compact and apparently perfect clusters 

 of Delawares, and afterwards found that many of the berries were sucked 

 dry, and would fall off with a touch, my faith in the inability of the bee 

 to break the skin of the grape suffered a severe wound. I could easily 

 see, in the case of the Lady grape, and some others, which frequently 

 crack open extensively from excessive moisture, since the cracks were 

 evident and the cause certainly known, that the bees had no agency in 

 making the openings; but in the case of the Delawares no such ruptures 

 were evident. Continued investigation convinced me that the skins of dif- 

 ferent varieties of grapes crack in different ways, that is, some crack, so to 

 speak, longitudinally, and some crosswise and that they also crack from a 

 somewhat different combination of causes. These as I judge, are three; 

 moisture from without, moisture from within, and external pressure. 

 Moisture alone, in my experience, seldom causes cracking, or, rather, I 

 should say causes it only to a small extent. Certain tender-skinned 

 varieties, as the Brighton, when the bunches hang in clusters so as to pre- 

 vent the ready evaporation of moisture caused by the frequent rains, suffer 

 some, but, perhaps, rather from decay of the skin; and, apparently, the 

 berries of any variety if they lie on the ground in a wet season or upon any 

 other substance that retains moisture, crack more or less. Other kinds, 

 as the Lady, crack to a limited extent on account of moisture from within, 

 that is, from the superabundant flow of sap which takes place during a 

 time of frequent heavy rains. But very much the larger part of cracking 

 is caused by this unusual flow of sap in conjunction with the pressure of 

 the berries upon each other, that is, in the compact clusters. In some 

 varieties, however, the grapes have a skin of such toughness or elasticity 

 as to successfully resist these joint forces. The Ulster and the Niagara 

 are of this character. I have never known these to crack, and the great- 

 ness of the force which the skin resists is seen in the fact that in these, 

 and other varieties, as they grow here, it is not uncommon to find, before 

 the ripening season begins, berries which have been pulled from the 

 main stem of the cluster by the crowding force of their neighbors. Upon 



