EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS 111 



these grapes and others like them, in the characteristic mentioned above, 

 I am satisfied the bees never work, unless the grapes are first broken by 

 birds or otherwise, evidently not the work of bees. On the other hand, 

 the Brighton is an example of a grape with a very tender skin which, 

 nevertheless, never cracks here beyond an insignificant amount, owing to 

 the fact, as I claim, that the clusters are, as a rule, not very compact, and, 

 though it is a grape of the highest quality, with a very tender skin, the 

 bees have no more success in gaining access to its juices than they have to 

 those of the tough skinned Ulster. Of the more than thirty varieties I 

 have in bearing the work of the bees has usually been confined almost 

 entirely to the Delaware and the Lady, but, on account of the wetness 

 of the season, the Duchess and the Salem must be added this year, and 

 these are the ones also to which cracking is almost exclusively confined. 

 In point of compactness these kinds stand in the following order: 

 Duchess, Lady, Delaware and Salem. Most of the clusters of the Duchess 

 on strong vines are exceedingly compact, while those on young vines 

 or those lacking in vigor are quite loose. The Lady has most of its 

 fruit in compact clusters which, with its brittle skin, seldom fails to 

 render it almost worthless here on account of its cracking, A fair share 

 of Delawares are quite compact, and from one-third to a half of the 

 Salems are only less so. 



The significant fact here is that the work of the bees was confined to 

 the compact clusters while the loose clusters neither cracked nor were 

 visited by bees. 



In all these varieties except the Delaware the cracks, a half inch or 

 more in length, were plainly visible and evidently the work of natural 

 causes. As to the Delaware, one might say on a hasty examination that 

 they do not crack, for the cracks are never in sight so long as the berries 

 remain in the cluster, but an examination with some little care will show 

 that they do crack transversely near the stem end of the berry. The 

 Diamond grape is affected in a similar manner when it cracks at all. 



The line of thought and investigation of which the above is a rough 

 outline convinced me that bees never injure grapes. Still, the thought 

 that many would not thus be convinced led me to seek some further test. 

 Heretofore all manner of experiments have been made to induce, if possi- 

 ble, bees to break the skin of perfect grapes, such as placing clusters in 

 hives, confining bees with grapes, etc., from which only negative results 

 were obtained. Entomologists have studied the mandibles of the bee 

 and declared that they are so little adapted to the purpose of piercing the 

 skin of a grape that it would be entirely impossible for a bee to use them 

 with effect in that way. On many minds these arguments had little 

 effect. 



In July last the rainfall being so great that more than the usual amount 

 of the cracking of grapes might be expected, so I decided to determine if 

 possible whether grapes from which bees were excluded, but still left 

 hanging upon the vines, suffered in any different degree from those 

 to which the bees had free access. To shut out the bees paper sacks A\ere 

 used. These were folded closely about the stems after being drawn over 

 the clusters and fastened with common pins. A small slit was cut in the 

 bottom of each sack to permit the escape of any water that might gain 

 admittance. Upwards of one thousand sacks were put upon the rliirteen 

 varieties hereinafter mentioned. Many of these became ripe early ^d 



